<p>One thing to REALLY keep in mind is asking about the sleep schedule, I can’t count how many hours of sleep I’ve lost. He wakes up at around 1 in the afternoon the earliest and about 6 pm the latest then decides to make multiple (and I mean MULTIPLE) international calls from 1-5 am.</p>
<p>We’ve fought over this before and he’s started again. At first I thought maybe it was a cultural difference but now all I can think about is shoving that phone down his throat. </p>
<p>And then there are those death threats and curse words he mutters under his breath from time to time, except really loudly. In fact I think I’m gonna write an email to my RA right now.</p>
<p>i’ve had a so-so experience with picking my own roommate. My first roommate asked me to room with her after we met each other online. We weren’t best friends, but I think we worked fairly well as roommates. we respected each other and were friendly towards each other. However, she decided to leave school after a while. Faced with the prospect of having a random person as my new roommate, I had a friend move in with me. Things were fine at first…but basically, now we’re not really friends, and there are a few things she does that really bother me. </p>
<p>Basically, what I think is that theres not much difference between choosing a roommate and having a random one assigned to you. Even if you move in with your best friend, problems could arise that could sacrifice your friendship, hate each other, etc. </p>
<p>If i could do it over again, i’d go for a random roommate…even though it could turn out bad, its at least an opportunity to meet someone new (which i think is important for the first few weeks of school).</p>
<p>My S and D had different ways of “selecting” a roommate with very different results.
D met a girl at an honors weekend thing and she thought they hit it off. So they asked to room together. It was a terrible mistake. This student, while terribly bright, was insensitive to how to share a space (a very tiny space–this room is now a single!). She was constantly on the phone with her boyfriend from out of state (very explicit, loud conversations), or when he visited, he stayed in the room. And a general lack of consideration–turning the TV on all the time, etc. There were also multiple occasions where there was inappropriate behavior, in FRONT of my daughter. D felt like she really couldn’t spend much time in her own dorm room. They ended up barely speaking to each other. Sophomore year, D moved into an apartment with 2 other girls and remembers the 1st year as a very tough experience. In retrospect, she should have changed rooms at the semester, but didn’t.</p>
<p>S, on the other hand, is a shy guy who was pretty nervous about being assigned a random roommate. His school set up an online system with questionnaire that was fairly detailed, then “matched” you to several people. At that point, it was facebook/email conversations with the “matches”, and he found someone he thought he could get along with. His roommate turned out to be a great guy and it was an excellent experience for him. Even though this person transferred for family reasons, they are still good friends today.</p>
<p>So, I guess this illustrates that an online choice can work just as well as an in-person meeting can backfire.</p>
<p>It seems to me there’s a lot of luck involved.</p>
<p>“And then there are those death threats and curse words he mutters under his breath from time to time, except really loudly.” </p>
<p>I nominate this person for induction into the Worst Roommate Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>Question: It seems to me that an important factor in the roommate selection process would be the intended major. Wouldn’t it make sense that you bond with your roommate if you attend the same classes, study together, etc.? Doesn’t the intended major reveal a great deal about the person? You may have two neat, early risers but one could be an artist and the other a particle physicist. These people are obviously different and would most likely develop a divide due to differences rather than a bond due to similarities.</p>
<p>I personally don’t think major is very important. Yes, having similar majors could create a bond…but it might also mean that the students just don’t get a break from one another, and that could lead to a lot of tension. If one of the roommates has a competitive personality, that could be problematic. If they’re in the same class and one finds it easy and the other struggles, it could create an awkward situation. There are ways that major could help, and ways it could hurt. As with anything else, it just boils down to the individuals involved.</p>
<p>Two important points…</p>
<p>(1) At risk of sounding like a broken record, the key is respect. There are certain majors that could be difficult roommate combos due to different time/schedule demands, but I don’t think any combo is insurmountable. I knew music/neuro, dance/bio combos who got along wonderfully, and an eng/eng combo that drove each other nuts. No academic similarity is going to compensate for intolerance or ill will.</p>
<p>(2) The object isn’t to “bond” with your roommate. The object is to live together peacefully and comfortably. If you become buddies in the process, cool.</p>
<p>ETA: And bear in mind how many kids come in “undeclared.” I would’ve lived in a room with 20 kids to have matched all of my potential majors :p</p>
<p>random roommates are the way to go. all of my undergrad roommates (i had two over the course of 4 yrs.) were random. it gave me a chance to meet someone new. and i got along with them really well too.</p>
<p>my favorite part about randoms is that they are people who i would never have encountered otherwise.</p>
<p>I would trust this method of meeting someone more if I:
a) Had actually met/talked to the person a few times in addition to getting to know them on facebook
b) Knew we had similar interests/sleeping preferences/etc.
c) If the school I was going to didn’t have their own extensive questionaire.</p>
<p>I get the sense that at schools that have extensive questionaires, roommates are generally pretty well matched. (I could be wrong about this, but I would think it would be safer than a chance facebook “friend”)</p>
<p>to everyone who’s been asking about rooming with a good friend-</p>
<p>i’m still waiting on acceptances, so i’m not exactly an expert on the subject, nor am i speaking from experience. it seems to me though, that living with a friend presents the risk of things going way too wrong…and in my opinion wouldn’t it be more beneficial to avoid that risk and meet someone new? even though it does scare me, i love the idea of meeting new people in college and really starting a new chapter of my life. </p>
<p>on that subject, has anyone here had the experience of going to a school (out of state, for example) where one of the only people you know is a good friend? have you found that youre obligated to spend time with this person, or that both of you want to venture out? thanks guys!</p>
<p>i let the college pick my roommate for me and it worked out great! i actually consider her one of my best friends, i think its so cool that we were put together randomly but still got along so well</p>
<p>I decided to room with my high school friend and it’s a disaster. It started out smoothly, but as time progressed, I found many things I didn’t know about him by living together. Things just didn’t click well and we got into a big argument about a week ago. I am planning to get a single next year. I need my privacy.</p>
<p>my roommate and i did
we get along okay, but we’re not really good friends, and even sometimes now in the third month of school it’s a little bit awkward… i like her, but we just don’t mesh as well as we thought we would
personally, although two of my friends met on fb and are now roomies and best friends, i would let the college do it. then at least if they aren’t perfect you can’t blame yourself for bad judgment :)</p>
<p>Picking a random roommate tends to work out because both people start off with a clean slate and generally want to be perceived well by each other. This is different from an already-established relationship where that initial desire is perhaps not AS strong.</p>
<p>Regardless, I was randomly assigned my freshman year, and it actually turned out that I had a lot in common with my roommate. It turned out to be a pretty good pairing, I think. We had differences when it came to room maintenance (he was a bit messier than I was), but all in all, he was easy to live with considering that the room we had was insanely small.</p>
<p>Now, this year (my senior year), I am rooming with a friend of mine (chosen). So far things seem to be going pretty well. We’re generally open when it comes to communicating, and if we have a concern we tend to voice it. We both take out the trash/do dishes/etc and so I think it works out rather well. We, too, have a lot in common and so that always facilitates things.</p>
<p>Another friend of mine had a randomly-assigned roommate who was his total opposite. He’d bring back girls and have them sleep in the common room without letting my friend know ahead of time, or would smoke marijuana/tobacco/hookah endlessly. He’d also leave crap all over the place, including spare change. The first night he moved in, he tried to sleep with a girl in my circle of friends (who wasn’t single) after she had a little to drink. All in all, he was a roommate from Hell and absolutely nobody liked him. Total ******bag and jackass. But, about two weeks later, he got kicked out of school for cheating. So, it was entertaining while it lasted – thank goodness it didn’t go on for any longer.</p>