<p>I met a girl on Facebook who I'll probably end up rooming with next year. We look pretty compatable on paper, and she seems very laid back and fun. We have similar interests, etc... I'm just worried about the committment. I feel like if it doesn't work out, it'll be totally my fault. I don't trust leaving the housing arrangements up to the reslife department at the school though, so I think I'll give it a shot.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you've found your roommates through Facebook (or URoomSurf or whatever)... how has it worked for you? Good? Bad? In between?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I found my roommate on Facebook and she’s my best friend here. I really lucked out with someone similar enough to me that we have a ton ton ton in common, but different enough to where I can learn from her/don’t feel like I’m living with myself. The surveys that you find on Facebook groups are going to be much more detailed than what you find from your school; every time a prospective student has asked me my opinion on this, I always said to find someone yourself. Yes, adjusting to dorm life is going to be weird at first, but you should know yourself well enough by now to know what you are and are not comfortable being around.</p>
<p>try and find out what exactly is on the roommate survey…some schools have an extensive survey and other schools ask 5 vague questions and match you alphabetically. however i’ve heard successes and nightmares from both types of roommate surveys and i’ve heard good and bad things about the facebook roommates as well.</p>
<p>My roommate and I picked each other on facebook and I got arguably the worst fking roommate imaginable… I don’t know anyone else who would have been able to deal with everything though, so maybe it was good that I got her. I put up with everything annoying in the history of the world until finally this semester she developed this awful chronic cough that made it literally impossible for me to sleep in the room, so I called housing and they gave me a single. Ah, a single!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 I can’t go on long enough how great it is to have a single.</p>
<p>And I would elaborate about the roommate situation but I have a 10 page paper due at 10am.</p>
<p>I found my roommate through an online matching site (provided by the school). We looked like twins on the site, but in real life, we were totally different. It sounded as though we were both social, pretty nerdy, enjoyed the same movies, and would be taking similar classes and clubs. I did the majority of that while she spent about 20 hours a day playing online games. In retrospect, I really miss her, but we didn’t get along perfectly together. </p>
<p>My next two roommates (yeah, my freshman year sucks in terms of living agreements) were random and AWFUL. I don’t understand how people get good random roommates. The first one was my polar opposite: blonde stereotype, sorority, extremely religious. Only saw her once before she left for an extremely stupid reason. The next one was the exact same: sorority, EXTREMELY “religious,” brought a new guy over every night to have sex three feet away from me. She left for the same stupid reason as the one before.</p>
<p>I know what you feel about this being a responsibility…and that if it goes wrong, you will be under the impression that this is either her or your fault. That is usually never the case. Remember, she may not be exactly who you think she is on paper, but so what? So what if it doesn’t work out? You don’t have to be friends–you just have to be able to TOLERATE each other! 
I used an online roommate matching service for my university, and ended up with a very, very respectful, kind, but too social (for me, anyways! ;P) roommate, but imo, it worked out great. :D</p>
<p>Still, I love my space, so I’m getting an apartment next semester, so I can have some free time and some ME time, lol. ;P</p>
<p>I too used a Facebook group to find a roommate, and we seemed perfect on paper. However, when we started to room together, it became painfully obvious that we weren’t. The problem for me was that she obviously had a very skewed perception of herself. I am by no means the perfect roommate, but she was downright awful (rude, hypocritical, etc). It’s very annoying. I actually became seriously clinically depressed mid-year because of her, and the only reason I’m marginally better now is because I forced myself to ONLY be in the room for sleeping. It’s not fun.</p>
<p>Oh, and it’s also not fun to walk up to your door every single time praying she’s not there.</p>
<p>However, my experience is, I assume, an exception. Generally speaking I suggest finding your own roommate, however keep in mind that people can be* whoever they want* on the internet. So, while your chances are better at matching, it’s honestly as chancey as randoming it, in my personal opinion.</p>
<p>I left my roommate situation up to my college survey and it worked our phenomenally. We weren’t best friends, we only ate a meal together once the whole year, but we never fought or had any disagreements about anything. My current roommate (of 3 years) I chose personally a few months into school. We knew immediately that we would be great roommates. We are both ridiculously messy and so we only have an agreement always have a path to the door, lol. We are very close and haven’t ever had a fight either, though when her boyfriend/now fiance started living in our room that took some getting used to. My first roommate was messy too now that I think about it. Be honest on the survey and you’ll be fine… And make a roommate contract and stick to it.</p>
<p>I think the self-selection process tends to give people unrealistic expectations for roommates. The overwhelming odds are that you won’t be best friends with your roommate, and hopefully you’ll get along well enough to live with one another for nine months. My friend’s older sister ending up being really close with her freshman roommate, which was nice, but it was also difficult if she ever wanted to go without her, as it’s very difficult to avoid someone living a few feet away.</p>
<p>My daughter found her freshman year room mate through her college’s accepted student facebook page. They struck up an ongoing conversation and seemed to have a lot in common. While they may have had some superficial common interests, in real life they were very different people. It wasn’t a horrible roommate situation, they just really had no relationships and don’t even talk any more. As roommates, I think they were fairly considerate of each other and didn’t have problems, but I don’t think they really liked each other either.</p>
<p>I have had random roommates every year, and while your mileage may vary, I think it’s the way to go. In fact, the only roommate I had issues with was my friend roommate. Our inability to live with each other destroyed our friendship, and to this day, he still has a hard time faking nonchalance when I am within a ten-foot radius of him.</p>
<p>The thing about random roommates is that because you’re likely to not know them at all, you’re more likely to respect personal space. Your roommate doesn’t have to be your best friend. It just has to be someone who you can live with. All of my random roommates have been very “livable.” We joke with each other, eat together every now and then, and say “hi” when we pass by on campus. I respect their personal space, and they respect mine. In the case of my friend roommate, we each had personality defects that when combined together acted like alkali metals in water.</p>
<p>I have known friends who have successfully roomed together, though. The key is asking yourself honestly, can I live with my friend? If you have the slightest doubt, say no and go for a random roommate.</p>
<p>Cool! I was pinned! :p</p>
<p>I kind of have it in my head that, since there is such a large trend of people requesting their roommates at my future school, if I don’t request I’ll be stuck with someone that no one wanted (read, weirdo). At least there is someone who I think I have things in common with. I think we’d be able to share a room without tearing each others’ hair out, even if we aren’t best friends.</p>
<p>Part of going to college is growing up and learning to deal with people. Its not easy. The key is to practice mutual respect, which means no sextiling, no coming in blasted drunk late (or at any hour really) and when someone has an exam the next morning, take your paper writing and studying or ipod listening or facebook stalking to another place. The biggest fights are not about politics, but about not respecting people’s space, privacy and feelings. If you have a bathroom in your dorm room (i.e. not a large common bathroom down the hall) then do your part to keep it clean. </p>
<p>Don’t be an OCD control freak. Don’t be a 9pm lights out freak. Don’t steal your roomies underwear or food (at least without asking.)</p>
<p>Don’t laugh. This stuff happens all the time.</p>
<p>Future roomie told me she was a night owl… and just had to sign off Facebook because it was getting late and she was exhausted. It’s 10 minutes to 10. Should I be as terrified as I am?</p>
<p>Should I get a room to myself or a roommate in college?</p>
<p>I want my own privacy and the convenience of a singleton but I don’t want to be perceived as antisocial. I also dislike rooming with people. I am more organized and hygenic than the many people I have gone to summer camps with and I really want a single room to myself. </p>
<p>But I also want to socialize with other people; I have heard of many good stories of people that have become great friends with their roommates, like those on this thread. I’m a bit shy and I might need some help socializing but I don’t want to sacrifice privacy and convenience.</p>
<p>You could try university apartments if your school has that. At most schools, university apartments are set up like this:
2 or more people in a “suite” each with individual rooms (and possibly individual bathrooms) with a shared living area and kitchen area.
Amount of people in on suite can go from 2 to 5.
I think this kind of arrangement is the perfect mix of privacy and social for you.</p>
<p>Roommate freshman year: Met in middle school and have been best friends since. People say not to choose people you know (or that you’re best friends with) because either a. you two will find out that you’re not as good together as you thought you were or b. because you should branch out in college. Neither of these were a concern with my freshman year roommate. We have pretty much the same aspirations and schedules and got along great all year (no more fighting than most roommates) and he was a bit more social than I am and I met some other people in the dorm through him and I was able to go to some parties of people that he knew. It’s Not that I didn’t make any friends on my own my freshman year…it’s just that I’m a bit quiet and won’t really go out on weekends unless invited. Usually I just like to sit around with one or two people and watch TV, play some pickup basketball, go hiking, et cetera.</p>
<p>This year: My freshman year roommate eventually wanted to move into an apartment for health issues. I ended up having a random roommate this year. My current roommate and I are pretty much opposites, as far as interests go. We get along, but we don’t really have anything in common so it’s hard to talk and stuff…oh well…</p>
<p>Next year: I was able to choose my roommate for next year and I chose someone that seems to be somewhat between my freshman roommate and my current roommate. I’ve known my future roommate since middle school and we’ve always been good friends, but he’s quiet like me and we don’t have nearly the common interest overlap that my freshman roommate and I have. However, my future roommate and I do have some common interests and so it should be less like pulling teeth to interact with him and we should have some good times together.</p>
<p>Senior year: Hopefully, I will be living with my freshman year roommate again! :D</p>
<p>For a long time I was contemplating choosing a roommate off of facebook but I ultimately decided to room blind. My roommate found me on one of those facebook groups where you post your room number and we started facebook messaging back and forth. We were quite different but we did have some interests in common. Once I met her though, we got along shockingly well. We became best friends easily - we were both loud, outgoing, disorganized but not dirty, we had similar academic interests (languages, international relations/current events, traveling), we were random, liked meeting new people, always busy, willing to share nearly everything, and able to keep to our own space/respectful each others boundaries. We have random roommate outings, a big group of friends, and hang out a lot but always have lots to do (clubs, classes, work etc that we don’t share) so we don’t get bored of each other. We easily decided to room together again sophomore year. Sadly we won’t be roommates next year because she is getting a house while I’m going to be part of res life staff, but the following year we will hopefully be housemates again! I couldn’t have been luckier, we’ve never argued and had any roommate issues - and we’ve easily adapted to each others’ quirks (I’m more messy than she is-but she doesn’t mind if it’s contained to my side of the room, she likes obnoxious country music-I have grown to ignore and even like some of it… etc)</p>
<p>I think too many people go to college with the expectation that their roommate will become their best friend for life – and yes sometimes they will be. But, chances are they won’t be. I would advise anyone to go ‘room blind’ and have the school choose someone for you. Part of the process of going away to college is learning to live with others - and that includes accepting their differences and learning that, maybe even if we’re not totally alike, we can still have a great friendship.</p>
<p>I think too many kids find it easiest to form their whole social life/circle first with their roommate, then w/their floor, then w/their dorm…I’m not saying don’t treasure/foster those relationships but also look outside that place to your classes, your activites etc to form friendships. Sure, it’s easier when you can sit with a group at 2 am in the morning and bond but you can also head over to a new friend’s dorm or their dining hall etc.</p>
<p>Let’s face it - the FB quizzes are no more accurate than what the school is asking - probably even less so since it’s such a public forum. Don’t let those expectations weight too heavily - just (honestly!) fill out the form the school sends you, give them your top choices of dorms and let the rest flow naturally.</p>