No Stupid Questions

It will only get harder to find friends after university. If you can afford to, take classes on more than 2 days a week and join some clubs and activities while you are there. The university funds them and they are a hell of a lot better than you will get afterwards at any job. There will more likely than not be a D&D club at a university in 2023.

How far is the commute? If it's really that bad, find some school club that is happening on the days you are there. Join something that is obviously designed for another major. IEEE or a poetry club or cuisine club. Your university will have someone in charge that can give you a directory of these. Dean of students, perhaps?

Spend more time at university, make a social network, and do what your friends are doing. Universities have whole departments around student life. Creating activities for students. Leverage that.

Make friends with the 30+s at your board game shops. Having a social network is healthy, your not marrying them

Your in NYC, there is a literal uncountable number of things to do there. Don't try to make perfect friends. Make any friends. Don't worry about age, focus on shared interest.

Language courses. Check if your uni offers language classes for students and pick an obscure one (that is not English and possibly not Japanese unless you fancy Japanese culture). In my experience it's a setting which forces conversations and sometimes surprisingly deep ones (how many of your classmates know what's your favourite color? Well the ones from the language class do after an exercise of color words).

Similarly maybe the uni or someone else in the town runs language cafe's. Informal places where people who learn a language will show up to talk with natives.

Look around if the uni has student clubs around an interest. My university had a ton of such "student circles" some of them were for people more than normally interested in the faculty's discipline, some were about something completely different. They should allow people in based on interest, not affiliation and an active one is a great experience.

I've found that hobbies and interests are really good. Are there meetup groups in your city for different activities? Are you into comedy? There are probably some improv classes. Are you into watching sports? Etc etc etc.

I will say trying to make friends with people on public transport seems reaaasaally offputting. Most other people are going to or from work and just want some time to themselves.

What are your hobbies, go find where people do then together and join in.

If you don't have many hobbies, try something new that may pique your interest.

Unfortunately most people your age are going to be at parties, university, and sports. You're limiting your chance of success by removing those options, do it's going to be hard. You'll have to put in the work.

Most schools used to have bulletin boards. Putmamloking for friends /hobby /gaming friends post up.

University will still be your best bet. Plan an extra day there for studying then find a study group for one of your subjects. That way you have an easy in to talk to some people. Then simply ask someone to hang out after the study group is done. Existing groups might even invite you.

Depending on where you live, just walking around at night can also work. When I was a young adult we would just hang out outside somewhere. And I still see groups of people hanging out at similar or even the same spots, so the practice didn't die out.

Common spots are near parks, clubs, or public places in cities. Outside of cities anything with parking spots, so gas stations, mountain tops, train stations. Especially if you are into cars or motorcycles it will be easy to get talking.

Obviously if it's not safe in your area use your best judgement.

Even if you aren't sporty, you can still pick one up. Doesn't matter how old or unfit you are. If you think it's fun, just join. The amateur scene is usually super welcoming to newcomers because lack of players/members is usually their biggest concern. Especially for more obscure sports. You can even pick something that doesn't require physical fitness. I haven't tried it myself but something like disc golfing doesn't seem like you need to be fit for.

But I too was very out of shape and just picked up surfing in my mid 30s. I fall a lot but no one cares that I am bad. So not being sporty/fit is a bad excuse to not take up a sport.

Do you have a job? Maybe you can be friends with people at work. If not, get a job. Teenagers/early twenties often work retail or restaurant jobs and you don't typically need any previous experience.

If you want to stay within your academic field, look into internships.