<p>The email about choosing a roommate arrived today. Does anyone else’s son or daughter seem overwhelmed at the prospect of making the wrong choice? Do we really want someone like ourselves or different? Do you believe random pairing gives you the opportunity to make friends with someone you would not have chosen? On Facebook, some of the kids are asking who has done certain activities, such as BBYO, and asking to room together. What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>I’m trying to let D manage this on her own. She is in a UC so her choices are limited (total of 5). As she put it, none seem like a “perfect” match for her but there’s just no telling what works and what doesn’t. </p>
<p>I was laughing with old friends (on Facebook) – we were all RA’s and Head Resident’s together in college back in the '80’s. The kids (or really more often, their mothers) filled out these 5x7 index cards and we would spend hours trying to make the “right” match. In the end, some worked, some didn’t. We probably made some life changing matches and some just didn’t matter. Certainly my freshman year roommate is long forgotten…</p>
<p>Honestly, after I read the e-mail, I really felt like sending an angry reply to them. This whole process is really stupid. Why can’t THEY just pair us up. It’s only about 1,500 freshmen. What was the whole point of asking me what my top three dorm choices were when there is a chance that I might not get any of them.
I’m not going to go through hundreds of people to find my match. This is not e-harmony. They should just pair up people based on the dorm they picked because each dorm has its reputation and it’s most likely that most people in the same dorm are going to get along. (Ex. Almost everyone in Anderson wants to party and be social.)
Sorry I just needed to rant a little.</p>
<p>iwrite: I think random pairings take the stress off a lot of people. I also think that you should go with more different than similar. Make sure to have some things in common (early bird v. night owl, psychotically clean v. horrifically messy) but beyond that you want to be pretty different. You don’t want to go looking for a friend as a roommate (sometimes it works out that way – and that’s great) but you just want to be able to LIVE together. </p>
<p>I think this new system is a bit of a joke. The 2014 Facebook site has turned into a veritable dating website for roommates. Tell your son not to put a whole lot of energy into it: my first year of college I can remember crying to my mom because I talked to my roommate for the first time and she was the exact opposite of me – from a rural area, loved pink, country music and hated politics. We ended up loving living together and did so until I transferred 3 year later, I just went to her graduation and she is one of my best friends.</p>
<p>I would encourage him to go with a random – just to see how it works out. And stress that this is not permanent and he can do just about anything for 9 months (especially when you’re not in the room most of the day) and then he’ll be able to choose his own roommate out of his new circle of friends.</p>
<p>This roommate thing is really a mess. Why doesn’t AU hook them up to Match.com, its almost the same thing. Nothing like adding stress to an already stressful time in a students life. I think it would be better if AU just matched them, I’m sure the failure rate of matches would be the same</p>
<p>In addition, my daughter has been talking and working through this and thought she and another girl had worked out a good match, then my D was assigned to a double and her potential roomie to a triple. My D doesn’t like the idea of a triple, and is hesitant to step down to a triple and risk not de tripling!</p>
<p>same here, D has a double and everyone she matches with seems to be in UC. I think they would have screened them out if she isn’t in UC, she shouldn’t even get these people as possible matches. Just another giltch in this new moronic system</p>
<p>And, only 6 days left to make that match! We were going to do the live chat tomorrow night to ask questions, but it is son’s graduation. I think my son would work hard to make any roommate pairing work. But, to deliberately choose someone so different than yourself is a difficult to choice to make.</p>
<p>does anyone know if i can just pick one roommate and then let the school pick the other one since I’m in a triple? Will we get the dorm we want?</p>
<p>Hmm I’m transferring and I didn’t get an email about picking a roommate. Guess they just assign roommates to transfers - I think I prefer it that way.</p>