Madison is big. Real big. With such a large university comes a multitude of students from all walks of life, all with their own unique quirks and personalities. There are those people who have a great sense of humor and those that are chronic assholes. Some are musical, athletic, dorky, quiet or religiously outgoing. In any case, there's a clusterfuck of humanity walking the streets of Madison, and if you feel like you're a little fish in a pond full of 40,000 other various-sized fish, you're not alone. It's normal to see completely new faces every day you walk down the street to class, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed at the sheer volume of people here. Plus, if you're like me—an incredibly studly fish who has its fins involved in a lot of different and random interests and activities—it can be tough to find a ""school"" of other like-minded fish.
The best way to get out there and meet some people with your shared interests is to join one of Madison's many student-run clubs. There are hundreds, and just looking through all of them might take quite some time.
Luckily, I've had some time to do some research about the more interesting clubs here in Madison and have created a little cheat sheet that will make the hunt for a community a little easier. Hopefully it will save you the time and trouble of walking up and introducing yourself to several thousand people across campus (many of whom could most likely be total douches) and soliciting your personality to strangers like an abstinent prostitute.
This state of the art chart will help you to ""find a niche"" and flourish among like-minded peers. These are pretty specific groups, but anyone with half a brain knows there's probably a chess or ski team here. These are the clubs that are going to expand your mind and introduce you to strange new things and strange new people because, after all, the strange people are often the most interesting.
BTW: I'm not making this shit up! These are all actual clubs at Madison. Look it up on the website! Also, this is all in good fun, so please no angry e-mails :).
More UW clubs and organizations can be found at www.cfli.wisc.edu if this chart really doesn't get your engines running.
