<p>Hi I am a international freshman of U of Minnesota. I choose to live in a double room and I am a little worried about the roommate. Can anyone tell me what American students usually do in the dorms?? will there be lots of parties and be very noisy?? thank you</p>
<p>It depends on the student - most students eat, sleep, study, and socialize in their residence halls. It also depends on the culture of the school. My undergrad campus was a dry campus, so we didn’t do much partying in the residence halls; I think most large schools do have a party culture in some res halls, especially if alcohol is allowed. I live in an undergrad residence hall now because I work here, and the students do party occasionally (on Thursdays, mostly, since there are no classes on Fridays here). They get loud then. But I also live in one of the quieter residence halls; students who select into this hall (which is a popular one) do so because they want to be away from the big party culture of some of the other upperclass halls. There are halls here where the partying is pretty strong.</p>
<p>We’re not really going to be able to allay your fears about the roommate in that sense, because we can’t tell you what he or she will likely do. Everyone’s different. They may be a hardcore studier or a hardcore partier. Most people are a little of both. But I’ve worked in res life for 3 years, and although I’ve seen a lot of roommate conflicts, most roommate pairs work out just fine. Some even become close friends. Even across cultural differences - I’ve seen a lot of bicultural roommate pairs work out just fine, too.</p>
<p>At my school, the freshman dorms are generally loud, especially on the guys’ floors. The upperclassman dorms are almost dead quiet, though. It just depends on the school. If the noise gets to be too much, go to the RA when it’s happening. The RA can write them up for noise violations.</p>
<p>With the roommate thing, unless your roommate has really extreme habits or opinions, you should be fine. You may not be best buddies, but as long as you can coexist peacefully and respectfully, everything should be okay.</p>
<p>In my experience, yes they are.</p>
<p>It depends on the dorm. At my school there are some dorms that aren’t very loud at all and some that are extremely loud.</p>
<p>Yep, depends on the dorm. Look for specific information on your school to find out which dorms are loud and which are quiet. Most will have quiet hours at least on weekdays though.</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman at a public university. She is quiet, shy and studious. She was afraid she would end up in a noisy dorm or with a roommate who likes to party. She was able to find a dorm that had a reputation for being quiet. Last spring, she also sought out a roommate on Facebook who she thought she would be compatible with. Everything has worked out fine this year. Her dorm is quiet and she and her roommate get along. So I would recommend that you try to do some research before school starts. Are you allowed to request a specific dorm or a quiet floor? Are you allowed to request a roommate?</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t necessarily put a lot of stock in the importance of finding a roommate on Facebook. People change, and someone who says they will be quiet/don’t want to party at first may change their views later on. Go ahead and try to find someone on Facebook if you want, but it’s kind of the same as picking a random roommate (even if it doesn’t feel that way).</p>
<p>It depends. My suitemates and I are very quiet and have similar personalities (we even let the school do random roommate assignments, so we didn’t know about each other before we got the email saying who our roommate/suitemates would be), but the people living directly above us are extremely noisy. Even my floor became relatively quiet after a couple of weeks.</p>
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<p>Totally agree with this. I know so many people who ended up having serious roommate issues with people they chose on facebook. </p>
<p>One of my friends had a roommate who was really concerned about getting a roommate who didn’t drink, smoke, party, want to join a sorority, etc. And my friend doesn’t, so the girl asked my friend to be roommates. Well, my friend still doesn’t party and she definitely didn’t join a sorority. Her roommate? She ended up going out partying a lot, sometimes not coming back until the next day, joined a sorority, and drinks. Not necessarily a bad thing, but she definitely changed her opinion and what she wanted in the summer, was not what she wanted by the end of the school year.</p>
<p>I was on a floor with transfer students - mostly guys actually - and it was noisy.
The main problem as the door’s complete lack of sound proofing. If people were talking/singing/shouting in the corridor, it sounded like they were standing next to me.</p>