I was pretty shy when I started college and have always disliked social events. I skipped a few years in highschool so I was young when I started. Combined with working 30+ hours a week to pay for college and my social life was pretty dead.

My junior/senior year I decided to sit next to the most beautiful woman in class on day one. I would then smile, say hello, and leave them alone. Then smile, say goodbye at the end of class and leave.

A few weeks of this and most of them started talking to me a bit before or after class. By mid-terms I was friendly with a few beautiful women and had a couple dates. The last quarter of my senior year, I sat down next to my now wife.

I did get called out by my wife on knowing so many beautiful women when we were dating. She was a bit annoyed but I did sit down next to her after all.

Generally, yes, but if you're a pleasant person to be around you can easily get things going from lectures as well. You just need to strike up a conversation like a normal person and be friendly. The problem most of these people have is they treat women like something to be won, when instead they're just people.

Agreed, I made lifelong friends in my college anime club.

I met the love of my life at a literal exam.

I think the trick to it is that you shouldn't force any situations like this to have any sort of outcome, just keep yourself open to new people. Like set up situations where you can meet new people, and have your attitude be "I'd like to get to know you, so we can either be friends, more than friends or never meet again if that's how it shakes out", and just keeping it low stakes. And then just try to get into those situations as much as you can.

Don't they? The culture might be different in different schools or different generations, but I've made quite a few friends just by chatting with people in the lecture halls before class.