Hi, I will be transferring to UCLA next year and am debating on whether to room in a double or triple. Do you have any experience/suggestions? Would it be awkward to have two roommates? Does someone get left out or ganged up on? Or is it worse to only have one roommate? (Let’s assume that finances aren’t an issue…)
Some background: I live close enough that I can go home whenever I want (even though I am not really planning to).
Thanks!
If finances don’t matter, go for the double. One more person is one more possible person to have conflict with.
Thanks, @intparent 
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Double. 100% go for the double. We’re talking about 2 or 3 people in a single room, right? Not a 2 or 3 person apartment with 2 or 3 separate bedrooms? Even if it’s the latter, probably still go with only 1 roommate but if we’re talking one single room, I’m choosing the double 100 times out of 100.
The left out/ganged up on issue definitely happens. I doubt it’s the norm, but it’s definitely often enough to be a worthwhile concern (in contrast to say: worrying your roommate might be a serial killer) - far less of an issue if we’re talking 3 bedrooms though.
The only real upside to a triple would be meeting 1 extra person/possible friend, but you should meet lots of people anyway. It would be much better to only have to worry about getting along with 1 person, dealing with schedules, guests, having some alone time etc.
I think you should go with the double as well. It is much better learning how to live with one other roommate at a time rather than with two other people entirely. You can always choose to live with more people later on. Plus ratio wise doubles usually have more space per person
Three in any scenario is never good lol. D was tripled her first semester and had a difficult time, enough so that she asked for a room change and went to a single. One of the major issues was that the other two had arrived a few weeks earlier and already had their clique established. She has now met a few other girls and she and another will double up her sophomore year even though she could single again. Double is the answer to your question.
A lot of people think that in triples, one person is going to be the odd one out but if you go in with that mindset and expect to isolate one roommate then that’s probably going to happen. I was in a triple at UCLA and it worked out really well, we turned out to be really great friends and whenever we had a problem with each other we addressed it with maturity, we didn’t hold grudges or anything. If anything, three roommates made it more fun. We were all different and it was a nice collaboration. It’s really not that bad.
I would say ONE roommate is optimal, but if for financial or other reasons having either two or three roommates are your only options, I’d go with three. I knew of a lot more issues (especially with girls) in triple rooms than in quads. Once there’s three people in a room, I don’t think adding a fourth makes too much of a difference in terms of privacy, noise, etc.
I think most freshmen at UCLA get assigned to triple since double filled up fast. As a transfer student you might not have this problem. I think double is better than triple.
I have always liked having lots of people around me to sort of balance the energy, and I had a triple room my freshman year of college. It worked well for us because we had three very different personalities and energy levels, and we were kind of like an equilateral triangle of weirdness-no one person being dominant.
However, none of us had a queen bee temperament, either. I think if you get a queen bee looking to run a group, that’s going to be trouble. If you’re in a double, the queen will ignore you if you don’t fall in step-in a triple, she may try and turn your roommate against you, or you may end up ganging up against her with your roommate.
If you’re the type of person that likes the busyness and activity of a few roommates coming and going all the time I’d say go for the triple.