Roommate advice/warnings/tips

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Hi, so I'm gonna be a freshman next year; got a triple regular dorm in the Units. On one hand I'm sort of looking forward to it and am glad it's not a double, because it sort of lessens the chance of having a terrible roommate. On the other hand, there's the possibility my roommates will like each other a lot more than me and perhaps use this to make life miserable (even though I'm not planning on spending a lot of time aside from sleeping in the dorms, I'd like to be able to socialize/hang out in the dorms without being constantly hounded by and taking crap from two roommates allied against me). </p>

<p>I'm a girl, btw and I'd greatly appreciate any/all advice from people who lived/are living in triples! Thanks in advance</p>

2

<p>So I had terrible luck and did get stuck in a triple with 2 girl roommates who sort of ganged up against me (they shared the common interest of smoking weed inside the room every single day and inviting in drug dealer friends). Thankfully, the rest of my floor was much more normal and I ended up hanging out in the floor lounge like 7-8 hours a day. We had a pretty tight knit group on our floor by the end of the year and my roommates were the outcasts. We weren’t even cordial to each other by the end of the year and I seriously defriended one on facebook lol, but I had a pretty fantastic freshman year through it all.</p>

<p>You will probably have better luck with roommates than I did, but don’t let it ruin your freshman year either way. It’s a good thing you’re living in a unit and not Foothill/Stern because you will meet a ton of people instantly and find other people to hang out with. Do try to get to the room early so you don’t get stuck with the worst bed/desk. And if they really turn out to be bad, then don’t be too nice and give in to them all the time. You don’t need to make everyone like you.</p>

3

<p>I’m gonna be a freshman too :slight_smile: I’m kinda inexperienced, and I was about to say that your roommate is probably worried about the same thing, so if you guys have open communicate and use your manners, it’ll be ok. But maybe that was naivete/inexperience talking? I hope the whole drug-dealer/pot-smoking thing doesnt happen :S</p>

<p>By the way, you said “good thing you’re not in Foothill/Stern”?? Crap!! I got a double at the Foothill, is that bad? :cry: What should I expect?</p>

4

<p>Lol overachiever, I have the same fear too lol! I hope that won’t happen since that’ll prob ruin my dorm experience. Really hope all three of us can get along very well :D!</p>

5

<p>i was in a triple my frosh year.</p>

<p>me and my 1 roommate totally friended up immediately and the 3rd person was kind of outcasted/ignored. </p>

<p>so yeah. idk. good luck</p>

6

<p>its preparation for life. This stuff happens in the workplace, with roommates after college, with neighbors. You learn to deal with meh or worse people and with annoying situations.</p>

7

<p>I was in a Unit 1 triple my freshman year, with two other girls. Overall, things went well, and now that I’m living with friends in an apartment next year I realized I took our mostly drama-free year as roommates sort of for granted, as two of my apartment-mates have already been causing problems about how one of the apartment bedrooms is bigger than the other… But I digress.</p>

<p>One big key to living in a triple: Figure out who gets what bed/desk before move in. Don’t start the year off with a ‘I need to scramble and race to my dorm room so I can grab the best bed and 90 percent of the closet space’ mentality, it definitely creates resentment. Happened to a friend, one of her roomies took so much of the storage space it wasn’t even funny. But my roommates and I agreed on bed/desk arrangements over facebook… And we waited until everyone was there to divide up storage space.</p>

<p>One of my freshman year roommates and I clicked instantly. Both outgoing, liked some of the same TV shows, liked to party, and above all loved to sleep in. Haha. We were friends in addition to being roommates and I’m sure we’ll still be good friends, even if we won’t be living together next year. But it helped that we were pretty similar, so there were never squabbles about space or how clean/dirty the room was, etc. When one of us wanted to go to bed, the lights went out, no questions asked, but most of the time we went to bed around the same hour anyway. Housing did a good job putting us together.</p>

<p>My other roomie wasn’t in the room much. She was very hardcore about her studies, but she mostly studied in the lounge on our floor. She was quiet and for the most part courteous. She was just different; woke up every morning at like 6, stayed up until 3 studying, and didn’t party. We didn’t have a close relationship or anything and if I see her on campus in the future, I’ll wave, that’s about it. Haha. We didn’t have any conflicts though… She just wasn’t there, and when she was, it was either to sleep for two hours or to grab her books and leave.</p>

<p>As far as bed/desk advice goes, 'cause I know I had those questions as a freshman… The two best beds are the bottom bunk and the lofted bed, in my opinion. And the desks are all pretty much fine.</p>

<p>It seems like a lot of triples had the ‘two people become friends, one person is outcasted’ thing crowslayer mentioned. It was mostly like that on my floor with the exception of one triple of girls, where none of them were really friends with each other lol. But even if you are the ‘outcasted’ person chances are you’ll make plenty of friends on your floor and it won’t even matter.</p>

8

<p>I suggest you go in at move-in day super early and steal the bottom bed (only1) unless it’s a minisuite triple…
My experience:
freshmen Unit 1 triple minisuite–roomy for watching tv/video games/ hanging out. my 2 roommates were Jr transfers
sophomore Unit 3 triple–cramped but roommates were down to earth. had an awesome view of the bay/close walking distance to class</p>

<p>Having just graduated, I have to say that no matter what the outcome, you’ll have many fond memories living in the dorms in the end.</p>

9

<p>Life lesson: do not create enemies. Be confident, and don’t let people walk all over you. If there’s a problem, work it out. If you don’t get along, there are 9,998 more people out there to be friends with.</p>

10

<p>@berklebear That’s really good advice. I’m keeping a notebook with all the things I need to remember. I’m getting worried since I opted for an apartment which seems fine but I’m sharing with 2 grad students. They are like already friends so I’m worried I won’t fit in. It’s so new for me and the first time I move out. I admit I have low self esteem (i.e. too self-conscious) and I wish I could give a stronger first impression. Really hope it works out.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice!</p>