Western Washington University Top Questions

The groups I hear about the most at Western is the LGBT group and sports. I am involved in Western women's club lacrosse team and I love it. There are a lot of parties around campus on the weekends, but not as many of them involve drinking as you would think in a college town. Many times people have get togethers that involve going to the bowling alley and just having a good time. There is no greek system at Western.

I think the most popular organizations on campus here are the Associated Students (AS) Organizations. This is because they create tons of different events for students to attend and everyone on campus hears about them. Students in dorms do leave their doors open and athletic events are not as popular here as on other campuses. We do have guest speakers and a theater. I met my closest friends through networking, the dorms, and through my job at one of the dining halls on campus. People typically party on the weekends and frats/sororities do not exist at Western. There are tons of things to do on a Saturday night that doesn't involve drinking: simply hanging with friends, watching movies, going to Mallards to get ice cream, walking around, etc.

I think that many of the groups/clubs are pretty popular around campus. They have different groups for pretty much every major at Western so you can connect with other students in your major and help you become more prepared for job opportunities once you leave college. There are also plenty of groups that are just for fun, too - I happen to know there's one that's just about Harry Potter, they even threw their own Yule Ball last week! One of the most social things you can do at Western, in my opinion, is to live in a dorm. Seriously. Freshman year made my college experience complete! I'm currently a senior living in a house with 5 people - all of whom lived in my hall freshman year in Kappa (a hall-style dorm on the Ridge). Western students typically stereotype the dorms in this way: dorms on south campus (or the Ridge) are considered the "social" dorms, and dorms on north campus are considered the "studious" dorms. I'm not exactly sure how it worked out that way - maybe because there are more dorms on the Ridge and that they're so close together. But I had an amazing experience living on the Ridge. If I could give one piece of advice, I would say go for a hall-style dorm. Suits are fun, and it's nice to have your own private bathrooms, but I met so many more people in the halls than my friends living in suits did. They interacted with the same 8 people, while I got to meet people living above and below me, as well as the large number of people living on my floor. Plus, we share a bathroom with 3 stalls and 2 showers per approximately 8-10 people, while suits share one stall and one shower per 8 people. Athletic events aren't that popular at Western. That's one thing I'm sad about - I loved going to the football games in high school. I would say basketball is probably the most popular sporting event that people attend here. Intramurals are pretty fun to participate in, though. I've played intramural soccer here every year, and it's always a lot of fun. You even win a cool shirt if your team gets in first place :) Everyone knows about the shirt, and it's actually called "The Shirt!" If you're into parties, there are many house parties around on weekends. Generally, freshman/sophomores and some juniors attend house parties. We don't have a greek system here, so we have house parties instead. They're definitely pretty low-key compared to frat parties, but I like it better that way. Mostly hanging around talking to other people, and occasionally dancing. But nothing crazy. However, once you turn 21, you pretty much stop going to house parties altogether haha. That's because downtown Bellingham is amazing! There are so many things to do once you're 21, it's hard to choose! There are plenty of bars and clubs that are tons of fun. Personally, though, my favorite thing to do is go to concerts. There are lots of 21+ venues that play a lot of local bands, and some famous bands, that are a lot of fun to go to!

Western has about 200+ Associated Student clubs. You can check them out at: www.as.wwu.edu We've got a Harry Potter Club (Yule Ball included), a Board Game club, environmental clubs, a Robotics Club, Ethnic Clubs...you name it, we got it! You can even start up your own club with relative ease too! Ethnic Clubs from the Ethnic Student Center tend to hold annual dinners, exposing students to many different cultures at the dinner table. They're quite enjoyable. Performances are usually held at these cultural/heritage dinners too.

Ya this school lacks on it's group activities, I have been to a few club meetings and most of them are quite empty.our athletic events are kind of empty too, like i said we lack school spirit. if you have indoor halls then the halls interact and leave their doors open, especially in mathes. My closest friends, i knew before college, but it really is easy to meet people here, and my boyfriend goes here but we started dating before we both came here. there are no frats or sororities here, which is both good and bad, good: less cliques and drama,bad: less parties and social events such as date dashes. On the weekends if you dont wanna party, the campus has dances, CCF (christian campus fellowship), movies, go to the mall, go home, go on a drive to seattle (like 2 hours away).