Finding Your People

This blog post is an excerpt from IVO's We Gaucho Back: UCSB Freshman Student Guide

One of the biggest concerns when coming into a new school in general has to be finding your people, which is considerably understandable. You go your entire life with a group or groups of people, only to head off to university and find yourselves amidst a sea of new faces and experiences waiting to be plucked out amongst the masses… this doesn’t have to be as stressful as we make it out to be.

There are plenty of opportunities amongst various groups and organizations to find your footing in this new chapter of your lives. As we mentioned earlier, clubs are a fairly streamlined way to find new friends fast.

Conversely, you might be looking for something outside of the school. In IV itself there are plenty of different organizations to join, one of which being greek life. While greek life is technically run through the school, you’re more likely to see it in its entirety while in IV. The greek process at UCSB is relatively simple, they host a range of traditional greek fraternities and sororities as well as education, major, and multicultural fraternities.

Recruitment primarily takes place in the fall for both Fraternities and Sororities whereas, in the spring, there is typically a recruitment for Fraternities. As far as recruitment itself actually goes, you can expect to go from most, if not all of the houses, where you get to engage in conversation with several members of the house. This is easily one of the quicker ways to make friends and find yourself exploring IV more.

As per the education, major, and multicultural fraternities, which often offer co-ed membership, the best way to get involved with these is through school and class. Members from these organizations often give presentations or table around campus at the beginning of the fall quarter. Additionally, you might find an advertisement for these fraternities on the kiosks we mentioned earlier. 

Greek life only consists of 11% of the school population, so rest assured, it is not necessary to join these organizations if you want to make friends. If greek life is not the direction you find yourself wanting to head in, we also recommend several volunteer opportunities in the IV region. Various political campaigns and volunteer operations make homes in Isla Vista due to the influence of the younger generation. These groups provide relatively good opportunities for making friends under the idea of community outreach or shared interests. These opportunities are also terrific resume boosters. 

If this seems like too much of an effort, fear not. There are constantly student-run concerts, taco stand pop-ups, parties, and other events that are sure to yield opportunities to find friends.