Room mates

<p>I know I'll have to live with a room mate(s), but is it really as bad as I've heard? And if it is REALLY bad, how can I deal with it? And does anyone know how many people per room it is for Longwood, JMU and/ or GMU?</p>

<p>depends on you, and who your room mate(s), are...</p>

<p>Most schools have you fill out preference forms so they can match up roommates with similar lifestyles (bedtime, smoking/non-smoking, etc.)</p>

<p>I, on the other hand, met someone on Facebook going to my school and we decided to be roommates since we have similar personalities. I like it much better than if I had a single.</p>

<p>Living with a roommate is scarier in theory than in practice. Once you get to school, you'll realize that everyone's in the same boat, the dorm administration is used to dealing with tough situations, and there are a lot of benefits to the situation.</p>

<p>A lot will depend on your school--how hard the residence staff tries to place compatible students together, what support resources are in place for roommates who don't get along, and so forth--but above all, just relax and trust that the situation will work out just fine. Odds are good that you're a decent person and that your roommate will be, too :p </p>

<p>My freshman roommate experience was fantastic, as were those of a number of my friends. Most had fine experiences, in that they got along well enough with their roommates, but weren't necessarily best friends. Only a small, small minority had truly negative experiences, and they were generally able to improve or escape the situation by meeting with the RA, swapping rooms with a friend, or requesting room changes. </p>

<p>For the record, and this is purely anecdotal, I knew a few sets of roommates who came from the same HS (but weren't necessarily great friends) or met at orientation and decided to room together rather than with "total strangers." None of these situations worked out very well in the end. So if, like the above poster, you happen to run across someone with whom you truly feel compatible, then great. But meanwhile, don't worry about facebooking all of your future classmates or clinging to the nearest non-freak at an admitted students event...odds really are good that you'll be okay.</p>

<p>Don't be scared by any "my roommate is terrible..." stories that you read here, disturbing though they may sometimes seem. For every one, there's at least one "my roommate is awesome" story, and probably ten "my roommate is just fine" stories, but who needs advice on how to deal with those?</p>

<p>i definetly agree that it is NOT the best idea to find someone on facebook or room with someone who seems compatible. i found my first semester roommate through one of those extensive surveys on facebook and then we had a couple of IM convos after that. everything seemed great but when we finally met i had a gut feeling that i might have made a mistake.</p>

<p>turned out we had totally different sleeping habits, and both of us deviated a little from what we orginally said as we changed. she began going to sleep at 11/12.. and i began falling asleep at 2/3. she said she was neat (im a fairly messy person) but i turned out being the neater roommate. everything was organized and normal on my side of the room but she just left her stuff EVERYWHERE.</p>

<p>and then she turned out to be clingy and she really cant handle drinking very much, done after one drink. we did everything together in the first coupel of weeks and that was a mistake because i was automatically linked with her when i was discovering that we really didnt have that much in common as i thought we were different kind of people.</p>

<p>it came to the point where she almost became a recluse in our room. i would leave for class and she would be on her laptop with earphones on and i would come back and shed be in the same place after hours. never went out at nights and didnt wanan come when i offered. shes left our school after this semester, decided she should move back home and go to a local state school to be with her family who is having some kind of problems.</p>

<p>next semester im getting a random roommate.. who knows what situation theyre coming from. im gonna look at it as a fresh start, maybe soomething great will come of it and ill have a better experience with them</p>

<p>i know a bunch of people who did the facebook thing, and it didn't work out so well for them. i think the best move is just to randomly be assigned.</p>

<p>with that said, i think my roommates are awesome. we're a random assigned triple. we're all pretty good friends, and everyone keeps their stuff to themselves. im messy, but i made damn well sure my roommates knew that. and being in a triple isn't so bad either... we have lots of space (the room is meant to be a triple) and we're never lonely. so don't be afraid of triples, either. i thought i was dead with two roommates from all the horror stories i had heard, but most of it is false.</p>

<p>chances are if you're a nice person, the random roommate thing will be just fine. i only have 1 friend who didn't like her roomming situation, but that's just because her roommates and she lied on their housing forms. ALWAYS tell the truth on those. no one will judge you, and you could end up in a bad situation.</p>

<p>alright, END RANT!</p>