College is a great time in your life to make new friends. Some people find their best friends or even future spouses while in college. However, knowing where to go to meet people can be difficult for some people. Here are some ways to meet new people on a college campus.

“Join an organization” – College offers tons of different types of social groups. You can join a sport, a fraternity or sorority or an academic club, to name a few. This is a great way to meet people with similar interests where you can be yourself.

“Live in a dorm” – Many people would like to live in their own apartment or house, but dorm life offers a chance to meet a lot of different people. Often times you can become good friends with people who live on your floor or even become best friends with someone who was randomly selected to be your roommate. Dorms are a natural environment for socializing and you never know who you will end up hanging out with.

“Exchange contact information with classmates” – College can be overwhelming for new students and classrooms are a great place to break the ice. You never know when you may need someone to study with or exchange notes with if you miss a class. A simple email or two could be a great opportunity to start a lifelong friendship.

Making friends in college can be hard, but there are plenty of people who are open to it. Even if you are not a social butterfly, using the tips above can be a good start to meeting new people. Dorms, classrooms, clubs and organization are all great places to strike up a conversation with someone and see where it leads. Your future best friend could be closer to you than you think.

Who, what, when, where, why. In school we’re taught that these are the most important questions to ask, because they’ll give us the most amount of information, and cover all the basics we need to know.

So sure, we’ll know the murder was committed by Mrs. Peacock in the study with the candlestick and we could probably do enough digging to figure out why she wanted Mr. Boddy dead. But how many of us could ever hope to feel the emotional turmoil she felt as she made the decision to swing the candlestick at at his head?

You don’t want to ask questions. What you want is to hear a story, and you need to coax it out. You can do this by being observant, carefully framing your question, and waiting patiently for an answer.

Take the time to look around. Search for anything that is unusual, seemingly out of place, or unique. There’s a purse covered in condoms, sitting on a pile of papers in a professor’s office. Do you see anything else that might be related to the unusual object? There’s a poster on the wall with statistics on AIDS.

Frame the question in your mind using information from what you’ve observed.

“What can you tell me about your condom purse? Is it related to AIDS prevention?” you might ask, taking clues from the poster. Your professor will begin to tell you about her health class, and the extra credit assignment that involved a creative way to display condoms in an attempt to spread awareness.

When she pauses, wait. Just because someone has stopped talking doesn’t mean they have nothing left to say. After 15 seconds, she’ll quietly tell you more in depth information you wouldn’t have heard if you had rushed in with another question.

When you ask the right questions you’ll get more than just answers; you’ll get a story that you’ll be able to emotionally connect with.