<p>so I'm heading off to college this fall and my best friend and I decided that we were going to be roommates. Well, lately I've been having doubts. After hearing countless horror stories about rooming with your best friend, I've decided that I no longer want her as my roommate. I mean, I love her to death, and she's very easy going, but I feel like she will hold me back from meeting new people. My mother even said that she didn't know if it was a good idea (considering that she's also unreliable). Today I met someone on facebook who wants me to be her roommate. I know that she went to my old middle school but she seems like a really cool person. What I'm asking is, do you think I should just stay with my best friend or room with the person i just met? I don't know how to break it to her, especially since she wants to go with me to orientation,because she doesn't have a ride) Please know rude responses. Thanks..</p>
<p>If you’ve already committed to her that you’d be her roommate, I think it would be kind of rude to back out, especially this close to the fall semester. However, if you haven’t made any sort of commitment, I would sit down with her and give your opinion. I’ve heard stories on both spectrums: rooming with your best friend and ending up hating each other, rooming with a complete stranger and ending up being their best friend (vice versa as well). If you truly think it would ruin your friendship with her, then don’t do it. But don’t do it simply because you read a few horror stories on the internet. I roomed with a stranger and <em>hated</em> it.</p>
<p>I think that you should talk to your best friend about it. just start out by saying, “I’ve lately been hearing a lot of horror stories about rooming with your bff, and they’re starting to scare me. I really don’t want to lose you as a friend,” and go from there. do not mention the other girl at all. if you eventually decide to not room, then you can room with the other girl (don’t let your bff know that you talked to the girl beforehand though- it could hurt her feelings). if you decide to room together (which is really her decision at this point- you already made a commitment, and if she still wants to room, it’s your obligation to keep it), then follow through</p>
<p>Having been an RA and a resident director, I think horror stories about rooming with friends are overrated and played up.</p>
<p>1) If you are a sufficiently outgoing person, your best friend will not hold you back from meeting anyone. Just leave your room from time to time and do things without her. It’s only when you spend all of your time with this person and don’t explore/reach out to others that you put yourself in jeopardy of not meeting anyone new.</p>
<p>2) Best friends as roommates only really suffer if they spend too much time together or they have completely incompatible living styles. Freshman are, of course, notoriously bad at determining who will make a good roommate - because they’ve never lived with anyone else before. So they pick someone they like rather than someone who has similar living habits as them, or is at least respectful of the way they live. Or they hang out with their BFF morning noon and night, and then get really tired of them.</p>
<p>If you and your best friend have similar ideas about how to keep your room up and you are not the kind of person to stick to your room all the time, then you should be fine. Most sophomores and up room with friends and fare just fine.</p>
<p>I don’t think you have any greater or smaller chance of meshing well with a random person you just met than you do with your best friend. It all has to do with your personalities, not the simple fact that she is your friend.</p>