A lot of people do college game wrong.
Most people think that they are going to find a mate through off campus parties at someone's residence or in the courtyard of some larger apartment complex. The truth is that the big college kegger type parties are not that effective in producing long term relationships (outside of Greek Life-i.e. fraternities and sororities). They also aren't that effective at finding one night stands/short term casual sex though they are probably better for short term than for meaningful relationships.
If you want to do college game well, the first suggestion would be to build a social circle of actual, meaningful relationships. That can be difficult to do. Most of this board isn't doing social circle game. We're either app swipers or in-person approachers. If I had to do college all over again, freshman year dorm would have been the best place to get both male/female friends. The females in the dorm could lead me to other females that they knew over the 4 years of college. That would have been a great strategic relationship.
The best thing you can do for finding a meaningful relationship is going to extracurricular campus clubs. Find extracurricular clubs that are related to your interests and also have female participants in the campus club. The hope is that the females in that campus club are attractive.
The second best thing you can do is hit on women in your classes. This is much different than later in life hitting on women in your workplace. At the end of the semester when that class ends, there's no guarantee you'll see that woman again, especially at a large state university. So, even if things went bad between the two of you, the downside risk to you is nil. Realize this and be emboldened to start conversations with women in your classes.
After that, you can do random approaches on campus. These are examples of random campus approaching, done more by a prankster than an actual pickup artist. Random outdoor approaching like the examples below are some of the most viable approach forms now.
Lastly, the campus gym is always an option for approaching.
As for the approaches themselves, the magic to them is not coming off awkward or creepy. If you spend time in the gym (not for approaching) to look fit and your opening line is a basic, not creepy observation about her, you'll at least get a decent conversation with her.
@Dazzlenuts -- You were a manual laborer. As a manual laborer, you are more likely to be physically fit. There are women into the whole manual laborer thing. You being a manual laborer who might be able to fix things can be a turn on for a woman.