With no in-person lectures, activities or tailgating, the freshmen experience looks very different for IU’s class of 2024. 

Despite the challenges, freshmen are still finding ways to make the most out of their first year on campus. IU freshman Ellie Score said it’s hard to be upset about the differences because they don’t know any different.

“We can lift each other up along the way,” Score said. “Everyone’s missing out on things all across the world right now and I think one of the things IU’s done a really good job about is focusing on compassion.”

The biggest struggle for freshmen during their first semester in Bloomington has been making friends. Students can only hangout in each other’s dorm rooms with masks on and the door open and private gatherings are limited to 15 people in Bloomington.  

“I would say it’s definitely really hard to meet people, just in general, because you don’t have the dining halls open and everything is just weird,” IU freshman Victoria Miller said. 

So just like everything else in 2020, the search for friends has moved online, too. 

Before they arrived on campus in the fall, IU freshmen Kathleen Simunek and Elle Bryan created an Instagram page for the IU-Bloomington class of 2024 in April. Since Red Carpet Days and other events were canceled, Simunek and Bryan thought it would be a good way to connect incoming freshmen.

“It’s really hard to just kind of meet people randomly,” Simunek said.

That’s why they started by posting student biographies that included majors, hometowns and interests so people could find others with similarities. 

Soon after the account was started, IU saw their work and wanted to get involved. Since then, Simunek and Bryan have been working closely with the university. 

On top of promoting IU events, the page has also helped it’s more than 3,000 followers connect with each other in group chats. Simunek said there’s a group chat for just about everything — dorm buildings, majors, religions, sports and more. 

Through these biography posts and group chats, IU freshmen have been able to make friends online.

“We’ve had a lot of people reach out and DM us and say they met their best friend or roommate,” Simunek said. “One of my best friends actually met her now-boyfriend through the page.”

And once people meet each other on the page, Score said they can find safe ways to meet up in person while still following the coronavirus regulations. 

Score said she’s adopted a smaller group of friends and finds different activities they can do outside wearing masks at a safe distance.

Though their freshmen experience isn’t exactly what they pictured, students have found ways to make the most of their experience. And tools such as the IU-Bloomington Class of 2024 Instagram page have been a useful tool for freshmen to find their home and people in Bloomington. 

“I think it’s kind of sad that we don’t get to do all of the standard events, but IU’s providing a lot of opportunities for us anyway,” Simunek said.