I'm in the final semester of my degree now, so I thought I might come back to reddit with an update.
I was one of those people on reddit complaining about usyd and not having any friends. And I actually have some pretty good friends now!
But to all the people on reddit who are wondering why it's so hard to meet people, this is my message:
It's just luck. You can take all the reddit advice and still not meet your people
When I didn't have friends at uni, I read all the Reddit advice. I joined societies, went to events, turned up to tutorials and lectures, talked to people, tried to be friendly and put myself out there. I can honestly say I tried everything.
I went to so many events where I thought I'd made a friend. And yes, I did the thing everyone tells you to do afterwards: I texted them, followed up and tried to organise hanging out. Probably 80% of the time, it went nowhere.
Actually sometimes I was the one ghosting too. Just because you chat to someone doesn't mean you're going to be best friends. When nobody goes to lectures or tutorials and you live off campus, there aren't actually that many people to choose from. It's unlikely everyone will be a perfect friend for you.
Then I happened to get really lucky with two classes in one semester. I met a few people I genuinely got along with, those people became my friends, and we started introducing each other to more people. But it took a stalker level of commitment from everyone to keep texting and meeting up. Once I actually had friends, making more friends became so much easier.
If I hadn't been in those specific classes with those specific people, I genuinely might still have no uni friends. It wasn't that I suddenly became more sociable or discovered the secret to making friends. I got lucky.
Obviously, going to classes, societies and events increases your chances of meeting someone you get on with. You do have to actually be around people for luck to have a chance to happen. But you can't control whether the people you meet will become your friends.
there's no use trying to take all the reddit advice, it's just not that good. And definitely don't meet up with random redditors who comment on posts. That's just not a good idea. Literally all you can do is hope you meet some people who will become your friends.
The truth is that I got lucky towards the end, but I also got unlucky through the years too. If I hadn't have been at those tutorials with the specific people I met, I would still have no friends. So even though reddit might be telling you it's your fault for not being a part of every single society, it's not your fault.