<p>This has probably been addressed (many times) before but since I am lazy by nature, I'll ask it anew: How do colleges choose or select roommates? I once heard, through an open door, a conversation where a Housing employee was matching roommates by when they applied. My son heard at his school roommates are chosen by religion. </p>
<p>Do you know what criteria schools use to match roommates? I'm sure there are as many ways as there are schools, but I'd still like to hear them.</p>
<p>At University of Miami, where my son goes, I was told they pick randomly. The only criteria they go by is smoker, non-smoker. Other than that...totally random.</p>
<p>Here at Virginia Tech they're supposibly random, the only criteria being smoker or non-smoker. It still seems like there aren't many mixed-ethnicity rooms, except those that were requested that way. A few, but not as many as I think you would see if it were totally random.</p>
<p>Well, Georgetown's got a pretty unique system. They have students fill out a preferences survey, and write a little about themselves in a comments section. Then all of the surveys are posted online anonymously for about a month and you can write messages back and forth with the people whose surveys look interesting and you can decide from asking whatever questions you want who you would like to be your roommate and then invite someone. If they accept your invitation to be a roommate, then it's final and you get an email with their name and email address. If people don't select a roommate by the end of the month then they are assigned a roommate based on their responses to the survey, which is about living habits and preferences.</p>
<p>Son's school allowed (made it easy, even) friends to request to be room-mates. Since about 20% of his class went there, most found someone compatible on their own.
D1's school had about half from out of state, so most rooms had one in-stater and one from somewhere else. Athletes seemed to never be with someone from the same sport - in fact diversity in everything seemed to be the biggest factor. I always envisioned them dealing the kids out like a deck of cards: "OK, we need another International on this hall, and 2 more from the Midwest." They made all the choices and kept it secret until move-in day.
D2's housing office had a multiple choice "how would you feel in this situation?" to answer about noise, privacy, neatness. We'll see how they did. D has been in contact with the roommate via facebook and is pleased so far.</p>
<p>My two Ss filled out questionnaires that asked questions about their study habits, sleeping habits, whether they tolerated noise or preferred a quiet space, their neatness quotient (or lack thereof), etc...
I don't recall if they were asked about their religion. At Harvard, a housing dean is supposed to hand match roommates, all 1600+ of them. If that is true, she did a great job with S's roommates. 4 out of 5 will continue rooming together for all four years.</p>
<p>Wow, marite - 4/5 for four years! That's great, and a real testament to good roommate matching. I was wondering if those internet sites like "eharmony.com" do something similar.</p>
<p>I don't really think they use religious beliefs as the basis for roommate matching at my S's school. It just seemed that way from some of the kids on the hall. My son and his roommate are not the same religion,and they get along great.</p>
<p>S is a self-described atheist. His roommate is a devout Jew. They get along fabulously (I have boned up on kosher restrictions). The other thing is that each of his blockmates comes from a different state, and there is ethnic as well as religious diversity among them. I believe this is quite intentional.</p>
<p>My son just got his rooming assignment -- diverse as among ethnic groups, region and type of area (Eastern large city, Southern medium city, Midwestern rural), and presumably religion, too. Maybe interests as well. But all boys.</p>
<p>From the Stanford Student Housing website:</p>
<p>"When making housing assignments, we try to make each residence a microcosm of the freshman class, balancing factors such as home state or country, academic interest, gender, and ethnicity. We also consider students' preferences for required first-year classes because some are based in the residences. Housing assignments are announced in early August. </p>
<p>Roommates are matched by the New Undergraduate Housing coordinators, two current Stanford students. The coordinators try to pair students who share common interests but who also have some differences that will enable them to learn from one another. A student from California is likely to have a roommate from another state. Two varsity athletes in the same sport won't be put together. A student interested in physics might be paired with someone who is a history buff, but both might be avid jazz fans. We don't grant requests for a particular roommate because we want students to have the chance to build new friendships. Students are not informed of the name of their roommate in advance of their arrival because we believe their relationship will work out best when they start on equal footing, without any preconceptions about one another."</p>
<p>From my observation, they seem to do a very good job of matching roommates.</p>
<p>The tradition of not informing students of the name of their roommate in advance is not new, but it prevents the current issue of parents disapproving of the roommate before meeting him or her based on Facebook postings!</p>
<p>I don't know how Duke does the choosing, but S won the roommate lottery last year!!! What a fantastic guy, and a really good match/balance to our S.</p>
<p>At my school a housing dean matches the 370 or so of us by hand. The form we fill out has the standard smoking, sleep habits, single-sex-vs-coed questions, and then check-boxes with around 20 descriptors like outgoing, gay-friendly, athletic, substance-free, musical, liberal, environmentalist, shy, sci-fi/fantasy buff--check as many as apply. It generally works pretty well, because something like 50% of students choose to stay with their freshman roommate for a second year.</p>
<p>UVA asked a number of questions. My son put that he was "messy" because his room at home isn't kept as neat as the other rooms in the house. He was clearly placed with someone who had also answered messy to that question and we have learned that there is messy and then there is MESSY. The roommate's clothes were literally knee deep all semester without a spare inch of open floor space, even on S's side of the room. It was like wading through snow drifts to get in. Other than that, nice guy.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My son just got his rooming assignment -- diverse as among ethnic groups, region and type of area (Eastern large city, Southern medium city, Midwestern rural), and presumably religion, too. Maybe interests as well. But all boys.
[/quote]
That could change soon. The University is enacting gender neutral housing starting next year, I believe.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago house application includes a short Q&A section and an area for additional comments. Roommate assignments are done by hand.</p>
<p>At Syracuse University its random. You just say whether you smoke or not.</p>
<p>They also have learning communities though (studying, LGBT, outdoors, etc.) and you can request to live in a certain one.</p>
<p>Beyond that its all random.</p>
<p>I don't know how Duke does the choosing either, but my D had a totally incompatible roommate. They had absolutely nothing in common and the roommate was extremely arrogant and obnoxious. Roommate talked for three hours on the phone every night to her boyfriend while my D tried to study. My D could not stay and listen to three hours of repetitive chatter - it was the same exact conversation day after day. It was worse when he came for a visit and stayed in their tiny room for a week.</p>
<p>The roommate had said she didn't care about bedtime. My D had put that she stayed up until 2 to 4AM. The roommate went to bed promptly at 11PM.</p>
<p>Your S's roommate was most likely honest in his answers. Our D's was not and our D was the one who ended up suffering. The roommate was only happy when she got her way and our D was miserable. They went for days without speaking to each other.</p>
<p>Since then I have heard that Duke is well known for NOT doing a good job of roommate matching. Their questionnaire is very short and does not cover many areas of concern. And it does not help if the student completing the questionnaire is not totally honest in their answers.</p>
<p>The school both my younger ones went to assigned rooms totally randomly. Including smoking preference since there is no smoking anywhere so why should it matter?</p>
<p>First one tolerated his roommate for a year. Speaks to him online once-in-a-while now five years later, but definitely not great friends.</p>
<p>Second one made instant friends with his roommate. They even had the same major. Still a very, very good friend.</p>
<p>Gosh Westcoastmom - your d's last roommate sounded like my d's....facts a little reversed, but basically the same situation in that ldgirl's roommate was also not honest on her roommate questionnaire and became extremely unreasonable if she did not get her way 100% of the time. (She actually told my d.... 'I don't do well with compromise' and 'my ego requires me to get my way'. Weirdness.) In their case, both had stated on their questionnaires music and tv were okay in the room, serious studying would be done outside the room, both would be flexible on sleep/awake hours depending on class schedule (meaning if either had an 8 a.m. class, the other would try to be reasonable and not expect to party in the room until 3 a.m.), both were semi-messy, etc... </p>
<p>But did that happen? Uh...nope. Halfway through the semester, roomie abruptly stated she expected total silence in the room in the evenings, all lights on for studying until the wee hours. When my d was alone in the room, she would play her music on a low volume while doing homework...and if the roommate came in, the roomie would turn her music on, blasting it until my d turned hers off. No civility, plenty of arrogance (mixed with crying jags, screaming fights on the phone with her parents, throwing of clothes and shoes, etc...). Miserable situation.</p>
<p>On the brighter side, my d has talked to her new roommate a few times this summer and she is a sweetie. Extremely laid back...breath of fresh air. As my d says, not 'emo' at all. lol!</p>
<p>D's school had a form to fill out with info re: study habits, sleep times, messiness factor, taste in music, etc. Supposedly, much effort put into matching with like roommates. Her roommate seems very nice, but they seem quite different on the surface. However, as long as the roommate can handle D's late nights & affinity for watching a.m. news, all should be well (although if D can't keep the dorm room any cleaner than her room at home, the ROOMMATE will be the one complaining). After all the roommate horror stories other parents have shared, we both feel this particular match will work out fine.</p>
<p>I know a young man whose small school put all the freshmen in a room during summer orientation & they couldn't leave until they had matched THEMSELVES with a roommate. Pressure!! Tour guide at Davidson said they use Meyers-Briggs personality test as part of their matching process. Student I know at Wes says matching there seems random (although he has no complaints).</p>
<p>The Meyers-Briggs test for roommate selection!!!! WOW! </p>
<p>My S2's girlfriend just got her roommate assignment today and the nice young lady already told Lisa she'd have to be in bed by 10:30, and that she has sleep apnea and uses a machine at night. Lisa is trying to talk her parents into letting her join the Marines or something. Just kidding, but I'll just say... she's nervous.</p>
<p>My eldest S's roommate last year was "a bit of a night owl," going to bed when my S left for his 8 am class. He lofted his bed and made a "bat cave" under where he studied, played video games, etc. That worked out ok since they had a HUGE room.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great responses.</p>