I have a problem here. I will study in Canada BC soon, starting in the fall. I can’t afford living in an apartment because my parents also have to pay so much (unreasonable expensive) international tuition. So I thought about living on campus. I don’t care how small my room is or if I have to share kitchen and bathroom with a stranger but I DO need one room only for me. I am leaving everything behind, friends, family and home will be thousands of kilometers away on the other side of the ocean. I need some “alone-time” to recharge, otherwise I can get easily overwhelmed. To be honest, I don’t want someone (a stranger) around me ALL THE TIME. The only ones I am ok with sleeping in the same room as me are my family and close friends. I feel like I couldn’t deal with that. Now I read that freshmen often don’t get to choose if they want a single room or not.
On the other hand, I really want to live on campus (but in a single room…) because I’m kind of introverted and it would be easier to make friends and get adjusted to everything and everyone. But if I accept my housing application I am very likely to get a roommate. There is a chance to get a single room but this chance is low.
How is it to have a roommate for someone who doesn’t like to socialize all the time? I select my friends and the people I want to have in my life carefully and need privacy. Could I get used to having a roommate? Are they annoying? Any experiences?
Go with the sure thing of a single. I’m not that introverted, but in short, you play a dangerous game with roommates. Even the best ones can be in the room a lot of the time and you get no privacy alone or with other people if you ever want to quietly hang out with small groups of friends. If they’re messy, or they have a sleeping schedule that doesn’t work with yours, you have to deal with that too. There’s so many things that could end badly. Some much worse than what I listed.
There are some amazing roommates, but that’s another risk you take when going the on campus route. As an introvert with a few close friends, I quickly realized I can’t live with roommates anymore in my life after that year.
If you like a lot of privacy time, a roommate can potentially drive you nuts. My first roommate wasn’t so bad since she always was hanging out with/sleeping over with her boyfriend, but my roommate during Junior year was ALWAYS in the room, and it was a little less tolerable. Both people were decently clean, friendly, pleasant individuals, but I’m the kind of person who just needs complete time alone and opted for my own room in an apartment as soon as I was able.
You’re definitely going to be happier with a single, so I’d try to get one if I were you. At most places, getting a single as a freshman is difficult but not impossible and we don’t know what BC’s policy is, so it can’t hurt to try. But if you do have to have a roommate, you might be able to work something out with them. Some roommates are hardly in the room to begin with (aka me, I was only in the room at night time really and there were a handful of nights I slept in other places). My roommate had the room to herself for pretty much the whole day. If I wanted the room to myself for a bit, I’d just ask her to leave for a few hours so I could chill. Good luck, but be aware that the odds of things not working in your favor is very high.
You might not like it but you might not have a choice. You’re going to be becoming an adult, and as an adult, there’s a lot of things that we can’t have our way. Being able to adapt and “live with it” comes with the territory. This might sound harsh, but that’s the real world. Good luck!