Do students still make their friends for life living in halls at university?

[Harping]

Just thinking about this and wondering if it’s changed now. I know studies recently have shown a high percentage of students consider themselves lonely. And with so much learning done online. I wondered how different the experience is. I started university 25 years ago.

I agree about the going home at weekends thing, it was very rare in my day (I was in my home county and could have done so easily) but it didn't happen much. DS says his halls are fairly deserted every weekend. Perhaps because its easier to make plans to see family and home friends at short notice now, in my day it was letters or landline phone calls to organise anything.

I finished uni 8 years ago. I didn’t make friends for life in halls…I just met dumb girls I had to tolerate. I made friends when doing an MSc. People were taking it seriously at that point, and a majority of the cohort were foreign and didn’t spend their student life getting wasted.

I haven't stayed in touch with any of my university friends. We all moved in to different parts of the country and, as pre social media, staying in touch was much more difficult.

Dh is still good friends with one of his flat mates - he didn't do halls and had a flat. They met in the first year. Infact, dh and I were together then and friend and his gf were together - we've stayed together and are good friends as a group, see each other 3 or 4 times a year despite living opposite end of the country. Dd is friendly with their children, etc.

We are in touch with some school friends, mainly on social media after first re-meeting one another via Friends Reunited many years back, and now in FB, etc. But we only regularly meet up with one of the friends - dh knew him from primary school, I meet him (and dh) at sixth form. We go out with him and his wife fairly regularly as live locally.

Most of my closest friends were met after I had dd, mainly through school when they first started and just before.

One of my most closest friends I met in here! That was back in the day when MN was small and we had meet ups. Met a few friends that way, some I've stayed in touch with still years on.

And, one - Became very good friends and our two families are close friends and have been for almost 20 years now, all friends with one another as a group and individually, including the children who are now young adults.

Other friends dh and I have made have been through work.

Dh]d has just finished university and is still friends with those she went to school with and some she's been at university with - social media makes a big difference. Covid had a big impact on friendships initially though.

I think they also make friends in different ways now - dd has just gone abroad to work for the summer. When applying she knew no one else going. Social media meant though that she got to know others online, and then met some a couple of times before. Leading to feeling happy to travel with a small group, live together for the summer, work together - and just become friends.

So I don't think that halls living is particularly necessary, especially these days.

Well I think the fact you hated it is your explanation for that.

I have a pretty big group of uni friends 30 years on. We’re scattered all over the place but in various forms we meet up a few times a year. It’s not everyone’s experience but it’s certainly not unusual.

I graduated in 2007 and my five closest friends are women I lived with at uni, we do live all over the country now though so don't see each other in person as often as I'd like, contact most days via WhatsApp group though.
Have other more casual friends/acquaintances from that time.
I only still have a proper relationship (not just FB) with two people I know from school, DH and my best male friend and tbh our grandparents were best friends and my dad and his mum grew up together so the fact we went to school together isn't really relevant.

DH is still friends with 4 uni friends. We all meet up a couple of times a year, and if we are in the area, we will always try to see them however briefly. One was his Best Man.
I am friends with one uni friend but she lives in Ireland so I don't see her often but we are in regular contact.
I have a group of post uni friends, and we have been a big part of each others lives for 30 years now.

I think it depends on who you come across. My best group of friends (6 of us) are those I lived in halls with during first year. We lived together at various points during the other three years of uni (some moved abroad, came back etc) but as a group of 6 at least 4 of us always lived together. We met at uni nearly nearly 15 years ago. We meet up approximately every 1-2 months as a group, go away together and have online group chats. It helps our birthdays are spread nicely throughout the year so never more than a few months without seeing each other. I would say definitely friends for life. However the flats around us in first year don’t have the same closeness or have moved away.

I'm still good friends, but not day to day contact friends with two of my friends from halls. DH and I met at uni and we are still very close with some of our uni friends. We started in 1996.