<p>Dwight,</p>
<p>You did not fill out a survey like the one JMMom described?</p>
<p>sbjdorlo - I should mention that my D visited H for the first time after she found out she was accepted. She ended up going twice last April and visited her final four choices - H, Pton, Middlebury and Williams (twice) that same month. Her teachers were beginning to wonder if she actually went to high school anymore! They were extremely supportive, however. She had visited quite a few schools in the previous year, and we were just not able to get to H or a couple others and decided to wait to see if she got in. It worked out ok but it was a pressure-filled April filled with much decision making on her part. Fortunately, it all worked out, as she is extremely happy.</p>
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<p>I did. My point was that we haven’t been able to find similarities that we all commonly indicated in our surveys.</p>
<p>When I asked my son if his new girlfriend played an instrument he said, “Mama, I’m the only one here who doesn’t play an instrument.” ;)</p>
<p>Higher ed researchers have studied the benefit of roommate matching in a number of research projects and concluded that the best attempts at institutional matching result in no better matches than random assignments. On those matching surveys, some applicants respond in the way that they wish they were rather than the way that they really are, and some just outright fib. Then in a number of cases, a parent completes the survey and is clueless about what’s being asked. </p>
<p>At the college where I work, in the last year that we tried to match roommates, we asked incoming students if they smoked and we tried to pair smokers. 3% said they smoked on the survey. Once they got to campus, we counted the smokers and had 20%. We then went to random assignments and have had about the same success in positive matches as we had when we were matching. For those schools that still match, their primary interest is in a placebo effect.</p>
<p>That seems hard for me to believe. I am speaking as a parent with one kid who had a brilliant Harvard match (the entire suite) and one night owl who was randomly assigned to room with a member of the crew team (up at five, practice at six). A very basic questionnaire could have prevented that from happening. (Remarkably, he was also assigned a roommate he went to high school with. If they’d waned to live together, believe me, they would have requested it.)</p>
<p>I can understand the smoking thing. New school, fresh start, I’m quitting.</p>