<p>DS last year made no effort to find compatible roommates and as a consequence he is having his share of roommates problems. I would advise incoming freshmen to take a little time to select a roommate. </p>
<p>DS is worried about next year. If any of you have a similar experience and are looking for an above average clean roommate ( I am talking about college students above average…) and someone that is not into the party/fraternity scene, please PM me.</p>
<p>What’s the process for selecting a roommate?</p>
<p>There really is no specific criteria, a student either knows kids he/she wants to room with (maybe from HS or hometown), or they selectively choose someone from Facebook groups (like The University of Alabama 2013 group) that they have gotten to know, or they use the roommate search function (which many don’t like), or you just select a room and let it fill randomly. It is really okay to either have friends/acquaintances as roommates or just go with the flow. Sometimes it works best with people you know, sometimes it works better with the luck of the draw.</p>
<p>My older son went with “luck of the draw” and he ended up with one roomie who liked to stay up late playing Guitar Hero because he had late morning classes. The noise would keep my son awake.</p>
<p>I really wish that (at least) the Honors halls would have “Quiet Hours” on school nights. No roomie wants to be the “bad guy” and tell another to “be quiet”. </p>
<p>All of my kids’ roomies have been messy…but I have boys. My boys aren’t the neatest, either. While some boys are “neat”, I think most are messy.</p>
<p>He doesn’t know anyone, so that’s not an option.</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman and her roommate informed her 3 weeks before school started that her boyfriend would be visiting and staying in the room every weekend. I told her to call and ask for a reassignment. The school complied and her new roommate has worked out really well.</p>
<p>Luck of the draw can be great, but can also be tough. I recommend a combination of the Facebook 2016 and roommate finder. This has been discussed before but roommate finder works IF you are absolutely honest.</p>
<p>Once a match is made spend some time FB chatting and talking over the phone. You can tell a lot about someone just talking. </p>
<p>D found her roommate on roommate finder they scored something like 98% match. Then they FB messaged each other for a bit, then talked, then skyped. It is November and they have had zero problems. Other two roommates (RCS) have worked well also. One was invited to join them over Capstone Honors weekend, and the other one was just a friend of this same girl.</p>
<p>Good luck to you amcm. Hopefully your son has some friends that he can room with next year. Your son will be a soph right? Anyone in his dorm or in classes that he might get a long with?</p>
<p>Even if your child doesn’t know anyone right now, with some Facebook effort, he might “meet” some kids who might be good roomies. </p>
<p>As for partying, etc…frosh tend to be rather active their first semester…first time away from home, etc…then things calm down a bit.</p>
<p>Yes, riprorin, as buzymom3 says, there is another thread (or two?) about choosing roommates that you should read through. A combination of methods allows you to all kind of triangulate on the best matches. Your student needs to spend time on this and understand that despite today’s lightning fast techno world, good roommates are not (usually) found in an instant. (When room selection opened this past Spring, it was heartbreaking for me to read on FB the many many kids who were desperate to find roommates at the very last minute via a casual FB post, and had not done their homework about finding people well ahead of time.)</p>
<p>Good luck, amcm. Keep us posted on how it all works out, which I’m sure it will.</p>
<p>So far my S has been contacted by a few kids on the roomate finder site, but he wasn’t enthused. Today he told me that a seemingly compatible kid (honors, played FB in HS, OOS) contacted him, and now they have been chatting on FB a bit. This made my S feel better about the process, thinks this kid’s FB page ‘looks more like his’ (whatever that means :)) I am glad he is starting to look early, and that there are options other than luck of the draw, which isn’t true at many schools…</p>
<p>Upstate13,
Our sons and the other potential roommate have been talking on facebook recently. Son says they all seem to have alot in common. The other Is heading down to UA this weekend too.</p>
<p>Is the current roommate finder open to returning students yet, does anyone know? Or just incoming Freshman? (If open, I better remind S to update his profile from last year.)</p>
<p>Good question. I would assume students with roommate issues or those with guaranteed housing who are losing roommates, (as well as transfers) might need access to this service regardless of year. Does the University provide an easier way for those already on campus to connect with a compatible roommate? Or is it just assumed that kids on the lookout for different roommates find them through class/clubs etc…?</p>