<p>So I have a pretty close friend from high school who will most likely be attending the same college with me next year. At first, I was excited about rooming with him because it would make the transition to my first year in college & living on my own much easier, and because you never know what kind of idiot you might end up with if you are assigned a random roomate. However, I also am beginning to feel like it might be better to just be assigned a random roommate instead of sticking to my high school friends and cliques. I feel like I should be branching out and having a fresh start instead of just making college a continuation of high school. Does anyone have any experience with this kinda stuff or good advice?</p>
<p>Go random. I did, and it worked out well. Rooming with a friend can ruin a friendship, you don’t have to be friends with your roommate.</p>
<p>random stranger. Though I’ve kept in touch with all my old high school friends and have even visited them several times throughout the year since our colleges are pretty close, I feel like if you take one of your high school friends and place them in your new college environment that’s completely different than your high school one it might ruin your friendship and you might realize your differences and grow apart.</p>
<p>Complete stranger, definitely. You may be good friends, but that doesn’t mean you’ll live well together. I know a lot of roommate pairs who aren’t good friends, but live together very well.</p>
<p>For the sake of other students at your school, go random!</p>
<p>I’m an out of state student at my school, and me and other out of state kids agree that nothing’s more annoying than instate kids refusing to branch out of their high school cliques. They’re in their comfort zones and they won’t be friendly and let others in. It makes it really tough for out of state kids to make friends. </p>
<p>You, and everyone else, will be better off if you branch out a little. No one said you have to completely abandon your friend/s from high school.</p>
<p>You don’t have to be best buds with your roommate. I’m not with mine (we still get along) and life is still good.</p>
<p>This reminds me of an episode of Happy Days where Richie ends up moving back home after finding that he just couldn’t live with Potse and Ralph. </p>
<p>Seriously, you can try it - just make sure you both know it might not work out, and that just because you guys can’t live together doesn’t mean you can’t be good friends lol. </p>
<p>Remember that! Also, I doubt there’s such a thing as a bad friend but good roommate. If you room with someone random you had better hope they become a good friend! lol.</p>
<p>I’d room with a friend. I room with a random and have never held a conversation with him. It just boring. I didn’t have the option to room with a friend as all of my friends went to different schools. But if I could, I would have enjoyed living with a friend more. The “ruin your friendship” thing on really applies if you have people issues in the first place.</p>
<p>Picking a random person is a risk.</p>
<p>I’ve had 6 random roommates (3 my first two years and then three in the same apartment with me and my friend right now) and they have all been HORRIBLE. Like beyond little annoyances like blasting music and having friends over at 4 am. I can deal with that. But I’ve had more than one roommate where I had to get the police involved and stuff like that. It’s ridic. Next year I am definitely living with just my bff. </p>
<p>And the same friend I am living with now lived with a girl we knew from high school freshman year and it worked out fine. A lot of people from my high school go to school here and freshman year most of them lived together and are still living together. Not everyone fails at living with their friends. </p>
<p>So it just depends on you. At least if you room with a friend you know beforehand they aren’t addicted to cocaine or something crazy like that “because you never know what kind of idiot you might end up with if you are assigned a random roommate.”</p>
<p>An alternative to random and high school friend is trying to find your roommate on facebook. It’s becoming much more popular and worked out great for me! I love my roomie who I met via FB and we requested each other and are now best friends!
If that doesn’t work, just go random. I tihnk living with high school friends kinda limits you in branching out.</p>
<p>In college you meet people from all over your state and beyond, learn about things you never heard about in your HS/community, etc. Many people make changes in outlook or activities as they grow in college. You may have already decided there are parts of you that you’d like to change and college offers a fresh start. The reason to mention all of this in a post on roommates is that when you room with a friend the expectation is that each of you is getting a known quantity. It can be hard to branch out or change when your friend expects you to be the same old person from HS. A random roomie has no such expectations.</p>
<p>Along that same vein, it can be harder to meet new people when you have the comfort of the old clique to fall back on. Conversely, there can be friction when you get invited to do something with a couple of new people and your roommate/friend thinks he should automatically be included. This gets magnified, for example, if one of you gets a bid to a frat and the other doesn’t (or isn’t interested).</p>
<p>Coming into it being friends often seems to give a sense of privilege that you don’t have with a stranger. That means borrowing clothes, books, having people over later when the roommate has to study or has midterm the next day, and so on, all under an assumption “they’ll be cool with it”. Further many people don’t have a good sense of their friends habits and quirks, things that are going to quickly show up when you share the same 10x10 space. You might not know them as well as you think! It can also be easier to talk about things that bother you about the housing situation with a roommate that isn’t your friend than to complain to your buddy about what he’s doing.</p>
<p>I’d sum up by saying the housing office isn’t in the business of assigning friends, they’re assigning shared rooms. Often it may turn out that strangers become friends but it doesn’t have to happen, and as long as you can treat each other with respect then it can work out fine. Rooming with a friend from HS can work out, but also comes with some potential drawbacks.</p>
<p>I roomed with two random roommates and it turned out really well, but even my friends who aren’t as close with their roommates say that it still works out for them because they just have to know HOW to room together - respect each other’s things, etc.</p>
<p>If you want to room with your friend, fine. But do you know anything about his living style? Is he neat, messy, a hardcore partier, loud, introverted, or anything else that might annoy you as a roommate? Sometimes it’s good to know these things beforehand to help you make your decision.</p>
<p>Well, there are upsides and downsides to both. This year, I went random and my roommate is super respectful and nice. We respect each others’ space, belongings, etc. But we don’t talk besides “How was your day?” every once in a while. This has been really good for me, however that’s not the kind of roommate relationship some people want. They want someone who they have can be good friends with, in which case I would recommend going with a friend, but not one you’re really close to or spend a lot of time with. That would just result in you getting sick of each other. The thing with random is that you might get a crazy person. I got a really good one this year by chance, but I’m not going to risk it next year.</p>
<p>Didn’t read the other replies. Knowing what I know now, I’d say a stranger. If you hate how the stranger lives and want to move out, you can both be reasonable about it and eventually maybe even be friends. “Look, you’re a great person but I guess I’m pickier than I thought about how I keep my room, so I’m moving out. Don’t take it personally. I wouldn’t want to live with my brother/sister either but I love them.”</p>
<p>Whereas with a friend from high school, if that person’s habits gross you out, or worse, vice-versa, you’ve got nowhere to go.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I’ve had terrible roommates before, strangers, and yes, it sucked.</p>
<p>HS Sr here. I have a similar issue, as a few of my friends want me to room with them in the occurrence that we both go to the same college. I’ve explained how I don’t want to because I want to meet different people and go beyond what I am in HS. I don’t want to be hanging out with the same people from HS and doing a lot of things under the same routine. I am most likely going to room with a stranger. I honestly feel that the gamble is worth the potential reward.</p>
<p>I had the same decision to make my senior year, and I ended up going with my HS friend. It was a great decision! We were really good roommates, and at first we kind of clung together and hung out with all the same people at the same time etc…but by the end of the first semester, we had our own main groups of friends, separate from each other, but we would still hang out and do stuff together etc. I’m so glad that I didn’t go random because the likelihood that I would’ve ended up with a roommate that I liked seems pretty low based on the group of girls that I had on my floor (I disliked more than half of them).</p>
<p>I came to college with one of my best friends but we live apart for the first year, that way we could make new friends and have a back-up in case one of our floors totally sucked. Well, my floor was the anti-social one so I just hang out with her floor, who are all fantastic people~ So I guess it worked out.</p>
<p>We’re getting an apartment together next year though.</p>