<p>My freshmen son's roomate is very generous and he told him that he will bring a lot of stuff like TV, lamp, mirrow. So my son told him that we will buy a fridge (under $100), but he still bought the fridge under $200). So the question is what is the best way to compensate him? Pay 1/2 price of his fridge? It's almost like buying new one, pay him 1/2 of rental about $70?
Thanks</p>
<p>Ask him. We bought pretty much all of that stuff for my D in freshman year and didn’t want a contribution from roommate because we were planning for my D to have the specific items she wanted and to keep them going forward.</p>
<p>No, don’t pay for half unless he asks, because he will take it on move out.</p>
<p>Your son can show his appreciation by cleaning it out weekly, tossing old food and giving it a wipe down with spray cleaner.</p>
<p>You can provide a tower fan,area rug, or rent a microwave for the room.</p>
<p>The guys can work it out.</p>
<p>What was recommended to us, and seemed like the best plan, was not to split the expenses for items, but for each roommate to buy some of the items. Then, at the end of the year, it would be clear who got to keep each item. (Ultimately, in my S’s case, the roommate dropped out of school after one semester, and S ended up with the microwave that the roommate left behind, in addition to the items that we had purchased.)</p>
<p>I would suggest that instead of splitting the cost of items the roommate has already purchased, your S should inquire if he can provide something else. Like Batllo says above, perhaps a fan, rug, or microwave. Or, if nothing else, some food is probably always appreciated.</p>
<p>When you visit, you can buy some “extras” for the room…a bucket of Tide pods to share, a couple cases of bottled water or cans of Coke, a couple of gift cards for pizza, McD’s, itunes, whatever…</p>
<p>Do the boys want a printer or a rug? My son’s carpet was so old and threadbare…covering most of it with a rug made the room feel a lot less “dirty.”</p>
<p>Do they have a printer for the room? or some of those comfy folding butterfly chairs from BB&B ?</p>
<p>Don’t reimburse the roomie. He’s simply bringing his own stuff that he’ll likely take back home with him. Your S tried to contribute his share but the roomie decided to not allow him to. There’s a good chance that what it really was, was excited parents in a rush to equip their S to the max with everything he could possibly use without stopping to think about or consider the roomie and how that roomie has stuff too. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Fridge - most likely there can only be one in the room and they’ll need to share it. Since the roomie decided to furnish it without the real involvement or consideration of your S then your S should feel fine using half of it without having to pay anything. I doubt the roomie will mind.</p></li>
<li><p>TV - this is something the roomies need to agree on since a TV is generally invasive and can cause a lot of friction - i.e. the roomie watching some loud obnoxious show while your S wants to study in quiet or sleep or each person wanting to watch something different or your S’s room becoming the TV watching place for lots of other people in the dorm who don’t have TVs. They’ll need to see what they can do to resolve the TV issue. IMO it’s better that no one bring a TV at the beginning due to the problems and distractions it can cause. Instead they can go to the common TV room (if there is one) to watch the big game along with others - or go to someone else’s room as opposed to everyone coming to your S’s room when your S doesn’t really want them to. </p></li>
<li><p>Lamp - usually each student has a desk lamp and there’s no need and often no room for any other kind of lamp.</p></li>
<li><p>Mirror - usually there’s already a mirror in the room so no one needs to bring one. Besides, they’re not girls so they don’t really need a mirror other than the bathroom mirror. (shields up!)</p></li>
<li><p>Recliners, sofas, etc. - there’s usually no room for real furniture so watch out for the roomie bringing big stuff that won’t fit.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Watch out - this roomie may end up bringing too much stuff for his part of the room. Make sure he doesn’t end up impinging on your S’s part of the room.</p>
<p>Again - this is probably due to the roomie’s parents more than the roomie himself so go lightly on the roomie but your S should be ready to stand up for himself if there’s any impingement on his space or issues with the TV as mentioned above.</p>
<p>Buy a microwave to share.</p>
<p>
But don’t do that without checking with the roomie because it sounds like there’s a good chance he might already have one of those too. Otherwise, it’s a good idea assuming the dorm permits separate fridge/microwaves (some only allow combo units due to power).</p>
<p>One small warning, and this may not actually happen with boys, I don’t have any and wouldn’t know, but D had a roommate who insisted on bringing her TV and her Fridge and her this and her that. We would have been more than happy to pay half or bring our own, or whatnot. The room was small. There could really only be one of each.</p>
<p>The roomate then proceeded to treat the fridge as HER fridge and TV as HER TV, would hide the remote, throw out D’s food to make room for her own.</p>
<p>H. came back with her second quarter with a TV and her own fridge. (Never believed it would be put in the room.) Just brought it in and started to move stuff around. Roommate went to get the RA. After that, it was “thier” fridge and “their” TV. </p>
<p>Carry on.</p>
<p>At my son’s orientation, they gave the kids clickers and started asking questions. How many of you have your own room? How many of you have your own bathroom? Then they posted the results on the screen for all to see. It was a great illustration on how many have not been sharing space. </p>
<p>My son’s roommate is the fifth of five in his family. And the school provides the micro fridge combo.</p>
<p>I agree with other posters: no need to pay. With any luck, your son’s roommate will not be like poetgrl’s daughter’s roommate.</p>
<p>You have to also check dorm/housing policy to see what appliances are ALLOWED in housing so that you don’t overwhelm their circuits.</p>
<p>Also, try to have your kiddo think of other things that he needs that might not be there. Our S contributed the tower fan and a printer/fax/scanner. His room mate insisted on buying TV, which he took at the end of the year. It worked fine for them. Unfortunate when one kiddo considers the one appliance in the room HIS or HERS & makes it awkward. Good to have dialog about sharing–what is and is not shared, how to pay for cartridges, etc.</p>
<p>The kid who bought the fridge likely plans to keep the fridge. I think it will be fine. My son has no roommate yet but is hoping for one who brings a big screen TV from home. :)</p>
<p>When I was a junior/senior, I brought most of the “stuff” for our on-campus apartment because everyone else lived out of state and would have had to deal with flying with all the “stuff”. I, however, grew up in a time where everyone shared bedrooms :D. It really wasn’t an issue if the roommate is mature about it. </p>
<p>Our older kids Facebooked with freshman roommates to figure out who was going to bring what. DS was bringing the fridge, his roommate was bringing the tv–no microwaves allowed in the rooms. The roommate ended up bringing a fridge too so they had 2 in their room. Not sure why they did but whatever.</p>
<p>Many good responses. You have NO obligations to the roommate who chooses to bring stuff and share it. The roomie does have the obligation to not impinge on your child’s space with all of their goodies. </p>
<p>Son’s first dorm roommate said he would share his printer, that didn’t happen and son used the school’s printers (also had free pages from a comp sci course). I had roommates eons ago who brought her refrigerators or stereos which took up space (at a time it was rare) and they never offered to let me use. I did resent the elephant in the room taking up space on my side. I also declined the matching purple print bedspread one of those roommates brought from OOS- I preferred the blue one provided.</p>
<p>Do NOT try to compensate the roommate. Do not let your son feel like he owes his roommate anything. Do not let the roommate take over the relationship because he provided stuff. Be sure your son feels he is his equal and controls the room equally.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t offer to split the cost, but I would expect the roommate to share those items. It could very well be the parents. I am that parent…LOL! D’s roommate lives an hour from school and as of two weeks ago hadn’t started her college shopping. My D is away all summer with limited internet. So she and I have been coordinating everything on-line and by texting. I am running around buying everything. Since D’s roommate hadn’t started shopping (or even thinking about it), we weren’t getting any answers to the questions of who brings what. Since we have two days between D coming home and leaving for school (6 hours away). I just told D, I am buying it all. Tell her roommate what we got, she can use everything. If roommate shows up with some duplicates and wants to use her stuff instead, fine, I pack stuff up, throw it in the van and return it when I get home. Much easier than running around for it in the college town when I would rather be doing other things.</p>
<p>D really will share. While she has her own room at home, she has spent the past 10 summers at sleep away camp. She totally gets living with a roommate and sharing things. I just needed to know that she has everything she will need since I can’t just run it over to her.</p>