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I spent 6 years at SFU and am now in my 3rd at UBC. The biggest problem I see is that people form micro-societies everywhere. Mostly people seem to stick to the

I spent 6 years at SFU and am now in my 3rd at UBC. The biggest problem I see is that people form micro-societies everywhere. Mostly people seem to stick to their own ethnicity too. I figure it's a cultural thing. No one wants to be somewhere they don't fit in and don't belong. I had a really hard time at SFU with making friends and having a life. UBC is a big enough school that I've had a much easier time but I'm still largely a floater. I'm a métis, i fit everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

CoreDumpling 16y ago
I think I share a similar sentiment. I was born in mainland China but moved to the US at an early age, and I'm a fluent Chinese speaker. But I found that I fit well with neither the Chinese student associations (mostly recent immigrants) nor the Chinese-American student associations (mostly ABCs, American-born Chinese). Ultimately I rejected the groups that were based on ethnicity and instead participated in ones centered around an activity. Whether it was programming, board games, or quiz bowl, there was always a healthy multicultural mix of people. A shared heritage provides some basic level of camaraderie, which tends to be very consistent and reliable, but common interests certainly are better at holding one's attention.
cma 16y ago
It doesn't have to be a strong cultural thing; even tiny individual preferences will tend to get amplified: http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Segregation http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Segregation (Schelling also covers a slightly different neighborhood model, closer version to an aggregate group like a school, in his Micromotives and Macrobehaviors)