The reason why for many people college felt like a strong community is probably because they found or stumbled upon one of many such communities within their co

The reason why for many people college felt like a strong community is probably because they found or stumbled upon one of many such communities within their colleges. Things like: - sports/activity/etc. club with regular events - student organization - dorm life - very specific subculture The basic formula is time + regular 'unstructured' interaction with a a relatively small group of people. College usually provides the first, but the second might take some work. In high school, you get both by default, so there's a decent change you at least made some friends, either from the large group you interact with, or from the tiny group of other outcasts that you're part of. I think many ills of our society would significantly lessen if we create environments and lifestyles where 'time + leisure within small tribe' can exist again. Cities can offer the latter pretty well, but time always seems to be a bit of a problem.