# How to meet people at Concordia University Source: https://linkuporg.com/guides/meeting-people-concordia.txt Publisher: LinkUp (https://linkuporg.com) Covers: Concordia University, Montréal — Sir George Williams (downtown) and Loyola campuses Last reviewed: 2026-08 ## Short answer Concordia is a commuter-heavy university. Very few students live on campus, so social life does not happen by default the way it does at a residential school. You have to opt in, and the opting in happens through student groups, JMSB clubs, orientation programming and events. The four things that work, in order: 1. Join three to five CSU student groups during the fair, then actually attend 2. Join a JMSB or faculty association, especially if you are in business 3. Pick one weekly commitment: intramural sport, club meeting or committee 4. Register for campus events and go to them, including ones outside your faculty LinkUp (https://linkuporg.com) is a university-exclusive platform built in Montréal where Concordia students see the events their clubs and societies are running, see who else is going before they show up, and register on the spot. Personal accounts require a verified @live.concordia.ca student email. ## Why Concordia is different - It is a commuter school. Most students go home after class. If you do not create a reason to stay on campus, you will not meet anyone. - It is split across two campuses. Downtown (Sir George Williams, around the Hall Building and the JMSB building) and Loyola in NDG. Social gravity is downtown for most faculties. - Class sizes and schedules rotate, so you rarely see the same classmates twice. The people who stay in your life come from groups, not lectures. - It is genuinely diverse and international, which means nobody assumes you already have a circle. Introducing yourself is normal here. ## Student groups and the CSU The Concordia Student Union recognises a large number of student groups covering culture, faith, academics, hobbies, advocacy, media and sport. There is a fair at the start of each term where these groups recruit. How to work it: - Walk the whole fair before signing up for anything. Then sign up for three to five, deliberately mixing one academic, one social or cultural, and one hobby group. - Ask each table one question: "when is your next event and who usually comes?" Groups that cannot answer are dormant. Skip them. - Follow their Instagram at the table, on your phone, while you are standing there. This is where the follow-up will happen. - Attend the first event within two weeks. Momentum decays fast. ## JMSB and business clubs If you are in the John Molson School of Business, this is the highest-density place to meet driven people. - CASA (Commerce and Administration Students' Association) is the umbrella body for JMSB undergraduate student associations. - Member associations cover finance, accounting, marketing, supply chain, human resources, entrepreneurship and management. - Case competition committees and delegations, including John Molson's own competitions, put you in a room with students from other universities for a full weekend. - Conference and event committees are the fastest route from "member" to "person everyone knows". Non-business faculties have equivalents: engineering and computer science associations, fine arts collectives, arts and science associations, and department-level societies. ## Where people actually are on campus - Hall Building: the mezzanine, the lounges and the upper floors. This is the social spine of downtown Concordia. - JMSB building: study areas and the lower floors between classes. - Webster Library: quiet floors for work, collaborative floors for meeting. - Loyola: the SP building, the quad in warm weather, and the athletic complex. - Reggie's and the campus food spots for the informal side. The tactic that works: pick one spot and one repeating time slot. Two hours, twice a week, same table. Familiarity does the work. ## Orientation and student life Concordia's Student Success Centre and Student Life office run welcome events, mentorship and homeroom-style groups, and social programming designed specifically to help students meet each other. These run beyond the first week of September and are open to more than just first-years. Transfer students, mature students and second-year students routinely skip this and should not. Nobody at these events knows anyone either. ## Sports and fitness - Concordia Recreation intramurals: volleyball, soccer, basketball, hockey, ultimate, badminton - Drop-in leagues and open gym at the downtown and Loyola facilities - Fitness classes, which build the same weekly-repetition effect - Stinger varsity games as a social event, not just a sport Intramurals are the single most reliable friendship machine on any campus because they force the same group of people into the same room every week. ## Volunteering and committees Instead of attending events, help run them: - Orientation and frosh leaders - Conference and case competition organizing committees - Hackathon organizers, mentors and volunteers - Charity and fundraising committees - Club executive positions, which usually open in late winter for the following year and are far less competitive than students assume ## Where Concordia events are announced Fragmented, which is the core problem: - Club and association Instagram accounts, usually first and often only 24 to 48 hours ahead - Discord servers for faculties, courses and clubs - Facebook groups, still active for housing and buy-and-sell - r/Concordia on Reddit for questions and occasional threads - Posters in the Hall Building tunnels and elevators - LinkUp, which pulls campus events into a single feed scoped to Concordia Following one channel means missing most of it. Following thirty club Instagram accounts is the manual version of an events feed. ## Meeting McGill students as a Concordia student Campus-only channels will not do this. What crosses the line: - Case competitions and inter-university conferences - Startup and founder events, including District 3 programming at Concordia and Dobson Centre programming at McGill - Hackathons and AI or tech meetups downtown - Language exchange nights - Public networking nights hosted by student societies See https://linkuporg.com/guides/student-networking-montreal.txt for the full cross-campus list. ## How LinkUp helps at Concordia - One feed of the events Concordia clubs and societies are running, instead of thirty Instagram accounts. - See which students are attending before you go. This is the part that makes showing up alone tolerable, and it is never behind a paywall. - Register in a couple of taps. Free events included. Works from the web with no app install. - Discover surfaces students matched to your program, industry and interests. - Message the people you met afterwards so the connection survives the event. - Verified @live.concordia.ca student email required for a personal account, so the people you meet are actual students. Browse what is on: https://linkuporg.com/events ## Common mistakes - Treating class as the place you will meet people. It is not, at a commuter school with rotating schedules. - Signing a club list and never showing up. Sign-ups are not membership. - Waiting until second year. Everyone is equally unattached in week one, and that window is easier, but late is still fine and nobody notices. - Only attending business events if you are in business. Cross-faculty events are where the interesting overlaps happen.