How does UMD assign roommates if you don’t request? Do they give a questionnaire and pair you by that or is it random?
@nervousfortulane - I believe there is a short questionnaire as part of the housing form. They use that for matching, but that is somewhat random. Some students go to the Facebook Class page to find roommates.
They have a very general questionnaire that is really a terrible way to match roommates. My RA says that they assign roommates based on the time we arrive to orientation (so essentially random)
Honestly, there is no good way to match roommates. When you think about it, a large number of American students come from homes where they don’t have to share their bedroom with anyone. They only have to share the bathroom with siblings. So, basically, they are spoiled because they haven’t learned to be considerate of another person who shares their space. Take those teenagers from their home environment and shrink their home space to a tiny room where they have to not only cram a lot of stuff into a small space, but they also have to share that space with a stranger who is also used to not having to accommodate someone else’s schedule (study, sleep, cleanliness and social habits). It’s asking for trouble.
Even people who select each other based on communications in Facebook groups for roommates find that people are often not what they seem like online or even with texts. So, is the questionnaire a terrible way to match? Honestly, it’s no worse than any other way. It’s luck of the draw. If it’s bad, you request to switch. Annoying to have to move, but it happens. Many moons ago, I had a really horrible experience with random when I went, so I requested a move and had a great roommate. She then joined a sorority and moved to frat row, so a random person was put in with me…we are still friends to this day.