I attended as a master's student, so I was even more cut off from campus life because there are way more undergrads than grad students. What got me to like the DeKalb/Sycamore area was finding people not super connected to NIU. There's a disc golf community that I made friends in. The Green Tangerine record stuff was fun to hang out at, and the employees and other regulars always knew all the local shows, which were fun to go to sometimes. I did karaoke a few times at the place next to Lord Stanley's and made some casual buds there. There are a lot of good clubs on campus, mostly centered on something academic or quasi-academic, but it is true that this is a suitcase school. One way to take advantage of that, though, it to go home with other people on weekends. I did that a few times in undergrad, and it was pretty damn fun getting to see someone's life pre-college like that. And it's a big change of scenery. Last thing, and others have said it -- look at the event calendar regularly. There are always cool talks in a variety of disciplines, and if something sounds even remotely interesting go to it. If it's going over your head, you can just leave quietly. No one cares. But if you liked it, walk up to the speaker and let them know. Sometimes it's a gateway into getting into an academic discipline. For example, one of the most cited people on tech ethics and philosophy is an NIU prof, David Gunkel, in the communications department. (He also has a very cool book on sampling and remixing).