<p>Hey everybody, Im having trouble with my housing app as i dont know whether to get a roommate or not. What are the pros and cons of each choice and why did you guys choose what you ended up choosing?</p>
<p>Also, my parents want me to have a single because they want me to keep a minifridge and microwave, but i dont know. Advice? Please and thanks everyone!!</p>
<p>You can have a mini fridge and microwave with or without a roommate. The difference is that your family might only have to drag one to Philadelphia instead of two if you have a roommate. </p>
<p>For what it is worth, my DS had a single and loved it. He was in a section of the Quad where there were a few others with singles and they connected with each other and filled the roommate role. At the beginning of the year when people would go to meals and events with roommates because that was their built in friend, they would make sure to coordinate with each other. He did say that at the very beginning it was a little harder, but very quickly became much better and a lot of the people with doubles wished that they went that route. </p>
<p>It is much better for studying and sleeping if you have a singe. You only have your own schedule to worry about. Kids at Penn are very busy and study a lot. You study when you can and sleep when you can, and not having someone else in the room doing something else while you are trying to do either one of those things is an advantage. </p>
<p>If you are not at all outgoing, or comfortable making plans you might do better with a roommate provided you get along and want to do things together. But it doesn’t always work out that way. </p>
<p>If you are particular about how you like things, need complete quite to sleep or study a single will be your friend.</p>
<p>I, like the vast majority of freshmen, had a roommate in my closet of a freshman dorm. I had some concerns, especially about fitting two 18-year-olds in an 80 sqft. room, but it really wasn’t a problem at all. It was great to be able to split things like mini-fridge and microwave. As far as being able to study, I never found it problematic. Occasionally I did work in my room, but mostly I went to either Huntsman, Van Pelt, Houston, Platt or Fisher, and it was the same for my roommate… we were hardly ever actually in our room except to sleep!</p>
<p>Having a roommate is good since it requires you to consider more than yourself on occasion… buuuut I am glad I moved off campus and had my own room after freshman year!</p>
<p>Oh, and one more thing… you’re going to get an offer for a micowave/mini-fridge combination available for rental. DO NOT GET THAT! It costs something like $200 to rent for the year… it costs less to purchase a microwave and a mini-fridge!</p>
<p>Bump please…</p>
<p>I’m having the same problem. I don’t know if I want a room mate or not. I could see it becoming a problem if the other person has a different sleep schedules and someone is trying to sleep and the other person is trying to study. For me, I don’t mind waking up early and having an 8 am class, but my room mate might not appreciate that… On the other hand, I’ve heard people from my high school, who are going to other schools, say that, “Oh he has a single, he’s probably un-social.” I don’t want to be seen as unsocial, I just like having my own space. Any other opinions would be appreciated.
This has been me think out loud, I apologize.</p>