<p>I ran into the father of a current freshman and he said his son is in a four room honors suite with one other freshman and two upperclassmen. I had not thought about this as all the universities that our family attended have the freshmen in their own dorms. My son will be in Honors Housing but had planned on just going pot luck for roomies. He wants to be in a freshman suite (and I agree living with other freshmen is a good experience) and has an early housing pick. So I am guessing he now needs to find other roommates. He did not go to Capstone weekend, lives in the DC suburbs and knows no other guys going in next year. I know everyone talks about room mate finder and Facebook- but I think both of those are fairly time intensive. He has a heavy academic load and doesn’t want to spend the time going through FB and room mate finder. Any other thoughts on how to be sure he is in an all freshman suite?</p>
<p>Tjmom,
Just speaking to my son about best way to fnd roommates. He said the 2017 Facebook page is the way dozens of students are connecting and finding roommates. Have your son post his interests and desire for roommates. He can check the responses when he has free time. The only way to find others is o put himself out there and it only takes 5 min to post.</p>
<p>If he wants to do potluck, then when it’s time to select, find a suite that only has one empty bed in it where the other 3 are taken by frosh.</p>
<p>Mom2- How do you know that the other three are freshman? Not knowing the system, I figured you would just see that rooms were open or not- but you can see info on who else is in the room?</p>
<p>tjmom: It is not so bad living with an upperclassman or two for a variety of reasons. Your son would have someone who may be able to offer advice on classes or professors, where to find something on campus or in T-Town or, if your son does not have a car, his roommate could have one. My son lived with freshmen his first year, but he often hung out with the upperclassmen. He used to study with one young lady who was a year ahead of him. Today, being a senior, many of his friends are a year or two behind him.</p>
<p>Mom- nothing against upperclassmen, I guess we are just more accustomed to the “freshman experience”. My husband and I are still close friends with people from our freshman hall and it just seems to us that going through it all together was an important part of the college experience.</p>
<p>Do the Facebook connection. My D put her info on there to find a roommate and within minutes had several girls respond. She looked at all of them and connected with one girl from another state. They correspond now regularly and plan on meeting at Preview next month. It really is not that time intrusive and pretty quick. It’s a quick way to also see on FB what the potential roomie(s) are like to see if it is a “click” or not.</p>
<p>He did go on the FB page today and post, but seem to be very few males in Honors Housing on FB. The males he did notice often mention “like to have a good time” which he said he thinks is code for lots of drinking so he is ruling them out. Is he right about what that means? I haven’t looked at it so there might be only one who says that.</p>
<p>I don’t think you will find many quiet males on that Facebook page. Have you thought of reaching to one or two parents from CC to see if you son would be a match with their sons?</p>
<p>^^^Many kids don’t post that “they like to have a good time” and it turns out that they are into partying, so if someone is posting that “they like to have a good time”, I would assume partying and perhaps drinking are involved.</p>
<p>I would definitely describe myself as studious, quiet, clean, and not into drinking if I were looking for like minded roommates. It is better to be as clear as possible upfront. Of course use the attributes that pertain to the student posting. For instance, not everyone is “clean or neat” so be accurate. It can make a huge difference later on and avoid misunderstandings.</p>
<p>TJMom- My DS hasn’t posted on facebook yet. Mostly because he hasn’t decided for sure which college he is going to. The sign up isn’t until April. So I bet there are a lot of guys that are going to wait until closer to the sign up date. </p>
<p>Yes, I would think if someone put “likes to have a good time” it would be code for likes to party/drink.</p>
<p>tjmom: Contact your UA regional rep and see if he or she can put your son in touch with some incoming freshmen guys seeking roommates.</p>
<p>Tjmom, my freshman son is still looking. He’ll be an engineering student, a social kid with a good head on his shoulders. We definately want him in honors housing. Perhaps the boys should talk, see if they have anything in common.</p>
<p>^^ Has met txdoula’s son. He is a polite, respectful boy and would make an excellent choice in a roommate. And his mom is fairly normal and not a beady-eyed crazy. ;)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that some students will overestimate their partying habits just as some will underestimate them. Students generally want to appear “cool” to others and now that they will be away from their parents, partying becomes more of a possibility whether they end up partying or not. </p>
<p>I lived in an all-freshman suite my first year and with 1-3 freshmen every year since. I’ll say that by the 4th time around, freshman antics get old really quick. Still, there is something to be said about having an experienced student in the suite to provide guidance and insight into life at UA.</p>
<p>I will say that I have never filled out a roommate agreement in the 3.5 years I’ve been at UA and don’t plan to during this my last semester. My roommates and I make it clear in the beginning that everyone in the suite will always feel safe and welcome in our home and that the key to being a good roommate is to be reasonably clean, personable, and respectful of others’ property. It has worked out very well.</p>
<p>Class2012…thank you for the kind words about the boy and the “glowing” recommendation you gave me! 
It was nice meeting y’all too, we really appreciated the warm welcome at the big game.</p>
<p>No real advice but welcome to another DC metro family! Very excited to see so many from the area on here.
My daughter-a current freshman- connected with another girl on facebook, they went in together in an honor’s suite with 2 upperclassman. I actually think it worked well that way as the upperclassmen had transportation and were good examples of balancing studying with fun.</p>
<p>It was great to get back on here (after a FULL day at the inauguration and parade, which was a blast!) and see so much helpful advice. Txdoula- son’s first semester finals are this week- will have him try to get in touch over the weekend. just not sure how to get them in touch. he isn’t on here. Maybe we should PM?</p>
<p>tjmom-just sent you a PM</p>
<p>Just a word of advice - I know current seniors are busy with school work and other activities right now, but I strongly encourage them to take some time finding or getting to know your future roommates. A little time now, will save a lot of frustration, stress, and misery next year. I know many students are fine just getting random roommates and end up getting along great, but others end up having major roommate issues. I chose the random route in an honors suite, and I had horrible roommate problems that led to police reports and me almost transferring schools. Needless to say it took a toll on my academics and college experience. I just don’t want anyone to have to go through what I did!!</p>