A love letter to Concordia’s student life
A fulfilling social scene won’t be found in the suburbs
This is a love letter to those who whine about Concordia University’s "lack of a social life," and it is not the restrained kind.
When it comes to friends and your social scene, your university experience is exactly as good as the effort you put into it.
At this point in your adult life, no one is going to hold your hand and lead you to a perfect social life. Bare minimum effort is required.
Yes, it is true that our student life is commuter-heavy by nature. We are stitched into the city, not fenced from it with a pretty tree-lined campus (hi McGill!). However, this is not simply a Concordia problem.
In our modern age of disconnection, it is all too easy to ride the metro or take the bus to campus with headphones in and your phone in your face. It is even easier to leave class without having said more than two words to anyone besides an awkward icebreaker.
If you are a new student, orientation events are a good first step. They introduce you to a wide range of people, or at the very least, will help you recognize a familiar face on your first day of classes.
But your community really depends on everything you do after that: the clubs and groups you get involved in. If you choose not to show up for anything, it is very easy to become entirely detached from the institution and social life on campus.
There are simple solutions to feeling left out of a social life at university.
Study on campus with classmates and watch how quickly they become friends. Then, friends of friends expand your circle; be open to new people and work your social muscles.
Checking official university platforms and subscribing to campus newsletters are the easiest ways to stay in the loop about ongoing gatherings, where free food often serves as an effortless icebreaker and bonding opportunity.
A lot of that discovery happens online now, too. Social media makes it a lot easier to find accounts for clubs, interest groups and campus organizations. It is beyond easy to find Instagram accounts to follow.
As you start making friends, do not expect them to stay confined to campus.
In many ways, Montreal itself acts as the real campus for Concordia students. Local festivals and events, a plethora of bars and a massive bilingual student population mean that our social life relies heavily on exploring beyond the official university boundaries rather than staying confined to the sad walls of the LB or Hall building.
Put in the effort to actually ask people to hang out. There is a large sentiment among Concordia students that friendships are expected to develop in 15 minutes of brief class interaction, but you need to take those conversations outside of the classroom. There are so many bars to choose from around campus for a post-class drink with new friends, more parks than I can count where you and your new classmates can debrief that weird thing the prof said, or explore a new thrift store and shop for a back-to-school fit.
While it may fall short of a traditional "party school" vibe compared to other Canadian universities, Montreal's surrounding nightlife (shoutout to Reggies) and vibrant social scene more than make up for it.
So, if you are still whining about Concordia not having a social life, the only thing you have to blame is yourself.
This article originally appeared in Volume 47, Issue 1, published September 8, 2026.
_600_375_90_s_c1.jpg)
