how many people do random vs pre picked roomates at public universities
If it’s random and doesn’t work out, no one is to blame. My son was “courted” on his college’s incoming freshman page by a kid who sent a Friend Request, texted him round the clock, very pushy, pushed to be roommates. I insisted they meet first. They seemed to hit it off. The kid turned out to be weird, picked fights with others in the dorm, gave my son the silent treatment even though he was accommodating and left the room to give him privacy whenever he asked. He left school and the other kids on their wing were so happy they celebrated. I started a thread about how lonely my son is in college, and this didn’t help. I vote Go Random.
Daughter hasn’t gone to college yet, but attended two different music/band camps every summer since sixth grade on two different college campuses. Since she is always from out of town/state for these camps she had no choice but to do roommate roulette and only got one lousy roommate out of 12 or so different camps. One roommate was so great that they planned to room together for again last summer. I think random might turn out easier to cope with when it doesn’t work out too.
11/12 is great odds! Fewer than 12 roommates total from my son’s various camp experiences, but he also had good luck with Random assignments, even when 5 kids crammed into an unairconditioned suite for 4. Still Facebook Friends. Yet, at college all the contact prior to start of school (plus they got together twice last summer) didn’t predict bad outcome. Go Random!
It can go either way… both of my kids roomed blind, and to be honest… neither worked out so well. D1’s roommate ended up withdrawing from school due to academic difficulties (compounded by a lot of drinking and not attending many classes…). D2’s roommate just took over the whole room (pretty literally) because she got to move in ahead of D1 due to a summer program – she lofted her bed in front of the only window in the room, and covered the one wall with a covering where you could put up posters with her stuff (entirely covered with her stuff). But neither of them knew anyone else at their college when they went. I think rooming with someone from home has its own issues – tends to limit your new social contacts and growth, IMHO. And finding someone on the FB page is just pretty superficial – as shown in the example above.