This article is featured in the 2025 Freshman Special Issue.
Whether it’s picking classes, moving into a dorm for the first time ever or saying goodbye to family and friends back home, the transition to college is undeniably hard. You’re in a new setting that is full of new people and experiences, and it’s up to you to navigate it.
One of the biggest challenges for freshmen is making friends. However, there are a multitude of ways for incoming freshmen to build connections, from First Year Trips to dorm halls. Dartmouth students have found close connections in innumerable ways, and you should feel eager to take advantage of all of it.
Most basically, freshmen should take advantage of the myriad events during Orientation Week. Dean of undergraduate student affairs Anne Hudak said that orientation events focus on the broad array of students and their backgrounds.
“Each of our students comes to us from their own unique perspective, and I think that’s something we need to pay attention to and foster,” she said. “We don’t want students to lose that piece of them, because it’s who they are and what they’re coming to Dartmouth with.”
Trips, a Dartmouth tradition since 1935, is another College-facilitated opportunity to connect with members of all classes. Associate Director of First-Year Trips Allie Nishi ’25 said that Trips’ core purpose is “providing incoming students with a sense of community and belonging in space.”
“Trips does a great job of creating a space where it’s okay to be yourself,” Nishi said.
An important component of Trips is the broad spectrum of people and activities. Incoming Trips leader Honora Andrews ’28 emphasized that Trips gives incoming students “good representation” of the types of activities or groups they might want to be involved in on campus.
“Trips gives you an idea of that diversity, and once you’re back on campus it’s your mission, privilege and goal to find what niche you want to fill and what activities you want to be involved in,” she said. “It’s a good step out of your comfort zone and a good introduction to the world of meeting new people.”
Recalling her trips experience, Trips director Lindsey Geer ’25 said that she really appreciated trips because of how it allowed her to gain “layers of connections.”
“Getting here and having everyone be so ridiculously dressed, welcoming and positive was just such a great experience,” she said.
Trips also gives first year students the opportunity to connect with upperclassmen amidst a slew of orientation events that are only attended by incoming students, as well as deepening relationships within the freshman class. Tierra Kazenoff ’28 said that she formed lasting friendships with her Trip Leaders and trippees that she looks on fondly.
“My trip leaders were really good about continuing to hang out after trips, which continued to keep us close throughout the year,” she said. “These friendships are special because we share memories from the very beginning of college that feel super nostalgic.”
Outside of Trips and orientation events, there are still many other ways for friendships to come to life on campus.
When I first got to Dartmouth, the only person I knew was my roommate. I’d never been the greatest at making friends. I consider myself to be a pretty shy person before I get to know people, which always makes it harder for me to meet new people because I tend to be very quiet at first. Thus, when I got to college, I wanted to be really intentional about making friends.
I failed terribly. I didn’t become close friends with anyone on my trip or make any instant best friends during orientation. I remember calling home and freaking out because I was terrified I would have no friends. In hindsight, I definitely could have been more of an extrovert.
However, my Dartmouth friendship journey started in room 408 of Judge Hall. I had been warned by upperclassmen and the other ’28s I’d spoken to that the River cluster was one of the worst places to live — funnily enough, it was one of the best things that could have happened to me.
Judge 408 brought me my first friend — my roommate. We got along great, and I can safely say that she is one of my closest Dartmouth friends. We’re even going to be rooming together for our sophomore year with one of our close friends and former Judge floormates.
One of our first nights in 4th floor Judge, we hosted a dorm hot cocoa — or, DOCO, as we came to call it — night for the girls on our floor. We’d drawn cartoon invitations by hand and slid them under our floormate’s doors the day before, hoping to get to know the people we’d be living besides for the next year a little better. When the time for DOCO came, we had 10 girls sitting in the main room of our three room double.
My close friend and former Judge floormate Verda Aydin ’28 said that DOCO in Judge hall fostered some of her most memorable friendships.
“We started to bond over DOCO and would go on to always end our nights together in room 408 to talk about everything,” she said. “I feel my Judge floormates are my closest friends at Dartmouth now, and I’m truly happy about it.”
Making friends at college can be nerve-wracking. After all, it is a step into uncharted territory. But, you will find that friendships can bloom in the smallest and most unexpected of places — whether it’s a mug of DOCO in your dorm, on a First Year Trip or during an orientation activity — each experience is part of your Dartmouth story.
In the words of Crystal Wang ’28, “Don’t close yourself off!”
