<p>I'm going to be a college freshman in the fall of this year. I don't have any siblings so I'm not exactly familiar with how it feels like to share a room with someone. Any tips/stories/experiences/etc.?</p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>Speaking as an only child, living with a roommate pretty much rocks. It really depends on them though, as well as your neighbors. One bad one can almost ruin the experience. For example, even though my roommates awesome, my neighbor sucks. She plays African tribal music until 2 am-ish through the week, and gospel on Sundays. She opens her balcony door to let the music flow into the streets. She has loud parties at random times (like a Tuesday evening), where there’s more loud music, loud sex, and people running up and down the hall screeching. Reporting her doesn’t work.<br>
So if you get a cool roommate and decent neighbors, life will be awesome. Even with a bad neighbor, it’s still pretty great. Everyones experience is different though.</p>
<p>I seriously can not wait. I’m just worried about the bad neighbor thing… are there rules on stuff like that though?</p>
<p>Get your sleep while you still can</p>
<p>There are definitely horror stories out there, but I definitely wouldn’t go into college expecting that to happen to you.</p>
<p>As far as I’ve seen, the majority of people, even if they aren’t best friends, get along with their roommates just fine. It can be a little awkward at times, but you get pretty used to having someone around all of the time, changing your clothes in front of them, etc.</p>
<p>The important thing is that you need to set firm boundaries from the very beginning, which is why a lot of schools make freshman students do roommate contracts. Things like, “I’m not okay with you having alcohol in the room,” or “It’s okay if you have your bf/gf over as long as there’s no hanky panky while I’m in the room” or “Help yourself to my food except my SlimFast because that stuff’s expensive” are the types of statements that you want to establish from the beginning. The best tip I can offer is to offer some give and take. Like you might say “I have an 8 am class so I really need lights out by midnight, but it’s okay if you have your desk light on,” or “Let me know if you’re having your bf/gf over so I can give you two some alone time.” Ultimately, most people you will encounter will be reasonable, and as long as you establish expectations early on you shouldn’t have any major problems.</p>
<p>As for bad neighbors, this should be something that RAs can address, as long as they’re violating policy. Generally, the rule is that if you can hear a sound two doors down or more, they are being too loud, and you have a right to make a complaint. Often the easiest thing to do is just knock and ask them to keep it down (other than sex though because that would be super awkward), and usually people will be nice enough to keep it down after that. If not and it’s quiet hours, that’s something you should be able to ask the RA about and that’s his or her responsibility to take care of because it’s a noise violation.</p>
<p>wow thank you! that was so much great info :)</p>
<p>Your roommate will either be a lifetime friend, a terrible human being who destroys all your stuff when drunk, or someone you see twice a month.</p>