Approaching the housing deadline without a roommate secured? Check out The Dean’s advice: https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/im-freaking-out-because-i-cant-find-a-roommate/
Its a nine month arrangement. Any person will be absolutely fine. The more students fuss and fume
and obsess about a short nine month experience, the less likely they are to be able to just focus
and study,which is what they are there to do. Don’t even TRY to find a roommate, its going to backfire.
Go with random, live with it, and change if you have to. In fact PLAN to not be friends with your freshman roommate.
Find friends through clubs and mutual interest, NOT by sharing a freshman room with two beds, and two desks,
arguably not really that fun, but you can do it !
If it makes things easier , don’t talk to your roommate at all. Its a total don’t care, the whole roommate obsession
is parent driven for the most part anyway.
Its a stupid obsession. Count the weeks and get a single in sophomore year ,if possible!
And learn to just live with whoever and whatever comes your way. Develops flexibility to just go with the flow.
Freshman year will be fine, with any roommate. Really! No reason to even talk to that person much if ever.
The idea that we have to talk to our freshman roommates is false. Study in the library and IGNORE, IGNORE
IGNORE your freshman roommate.
My kid had 40 of his classmates go with him to school at Berkeley, yet chose to go random. Although he and his roommate didn’t become BFFs, they have zero issues with each other. And he’s going to do the same for next year again. Actually the main reason why he chose to go back into a dorm rather than the usual off campus housing for next year was because he didn’t want to deal with all the negotiations of being with a picked roommate.
I too have a Berkeley kid who, after living with an acquaintance (+ 1 random) and then college friends (+ 1 random), the happiest she’s been has been this year: joining up with complete strangers. In trying to make it work with people she knew, she just couldn’t get a consensus on who to live with and where to live. Also, pressure from her parents (guilty) to find SOMETHING as time was running out in the semester (and she wasn’t around in the summer to deal with it). So, she went out and applied as a random 4th. Apparently, D was the only person the other 3 roommates interviewed that they all agreed on, and she has dropped several times this year how much she loves her apartment (meaning, those living in it). They will finish out their last year together next year and we are THRILLED to not have to move her again.