Roommate selection, tips, or tools. ALL ADVICE REQUESTED!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

Hello!

I applied on October 1st for housing and on November 1st I filled out the roommate selection tool on UA MyHousingPortal. I liked the Class of 2020 page and most of the posts (95%+) are sorority girls asking for roommates there. For all UA parents and students out there, what is the best way to find roommates, especially those within specific majors (i.e. engineering) and those not interested in rushing? Any advice would benefit not only me but anyone else wondering about finding someone asap. Thanks!

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Our DD found hers after I joined the Class of 2019 parents page on FB. There were several parents mentioning that their kids needed one or two kids to fill out a suite, and she replied to one that I saw.

If you go early to a BamaBound you might also meet someone there that you could room with.

Finally, IIRC, the process involved everyone posting a “bio” on the housing page and you can browse and find kids you would be compatible with.

3

My daughter found her roommates using the UA roommate finder tool (this was a few years ago; she’s a senior now). She was specifically looking for girls who were NOT going through recruitment and she found plenty. She was not looking this early, though. Although we made the deposit in October, she didn’t really start looking until February or thereabouts. I happened to know the mothers of 2 of her roommates through CC. That was prior to the days of the parent facebook pages.

4

First off, know that you’re not alone! I was asking this yesterday on the Parents of 2020 FB page just yesterday (for my S, of course).

Most high school students are still waiting to hear on acceptances from schools, so right now the pool is much smaller than it will be in Spring. Also, girls are usually more quick off the mark to get their roommate situation lined up than the boys.

I don’t know that the housing page will be much help- looking (over my S’s shoulder), most of the boys’ bios were pretty terse (usually little more than “I like playing XBox, and being chill. Roll Tide!”). Again, something I think girls recognize is more important for roommate selection.

The best way (I think), short of actually knowing people going already, is to join the FB University of Alabama Class of 2020 group… but to make things confusing there are at least 10 groups named “University of Alabama Class of 2020”!! I can’t tell you which to join (because not being a student, I haven’t joined any), but the one my S was directed to (by the D of a parent in the parents group) has Denny Chimes and cheerleaders with the A flags on the home page.

Post an introduction post, prowl through the other members- send messages, make FB friends, chat. Remember you don’t have to be best buddies to be good roommates, and in fact, depending on personalities, you may not want that. But usually finding some common interest is a good starting point.

Also, don’t assume that good roommates have to have the same major! It’s good to have study buddies, but college is also about expanding your horizons. My S went down to Honors Academy this summer for a week. At the time, he was planning to be a Biology major (he’s now going to try Environmental Engineering to see if it’s a good fit), and had as roommates a Business major, an Electrical Engineer and a pre-Law Government Studies. Their day time schedules didn’t have much in common, but they all got along great. They had meals together, and at the end of the day played games.

5

You’ll be okay and will find roommates. A LOT of the guys don’t get serious about finding roommates until maybe mid-March. At least that was the way it worked when my son was going through this in spring of 2014. A large majority of the engineering guys do not join a social fraternity, as I’m sure you’ve heard…so you’ll have plenty of potential roommates. (He used the UA roommate finder in Housing, and then connected with some potential roommates on an imcoming student FB page and/or via text.) Good luck and Roll Tide!

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What do you do if your kid has never had a FB account?

I’m afraid if my son opens one now (and I’m not even sure he’d be willing to do it), that that looks strange because he hasn’t been on there long.

He’s a tech-y kid who I do not think would rush. Very nice, very smart, reasonably neat (I can’t make promises there LOL). Also not a drinker or party-er, but not self-righteous about it. Accepted into Honors College, put down housing deposit in early October. Wants suite-style dorm (Ridgecrest?).

ETA: sorry - didn’t mean to hi-jack the thread. But I’m wondering the same thing as OP.

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@SouthFloridaMom9 It won’t look that strange, to be honest. Despite how it sometimes seems, not everyone is in the FB universe. Even just posting (as part of his introduction to the group) something like “I’m new to Facebook” is likely all the explanation needed. A photo or two (it’s nice to put a face to the text), and maybe a little bit of likes… doesn’t have to be anything elaborate.

It’s all really just preamble to a conversation off-the-boards between two or more people. That preamble can come from UA’s housing site, it could come from parents chatting up here on CC, it could come from meeting at Bama Bound or a local Bama presentation. Honestly, it sounds like your son, my son and @JPChipotleMan could make for good roommates (Ridgecrest East or West, for sure!). But I’m not going to play roommate-matchmaker for my S.

And really, worst case scenario is to not worry about it and just nab a room on housing day. You’ll be paired up with 3 other wonderful students, perhaps with random and differing backgrounds and interest, but all of whom have at least one thing in common- they all chose to go to Alabama! Roll Tide!

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DS1 used the roommate selector on the housing portal and got great matches.

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@JPChipotleMan I never did get to read your response. I am unsure why mine was removed by the Mod. Anyway, Good luck with your search. Roll Tide!

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There was an issue with Terms of Service violation…my post was removed.

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@SouthFloridaMom9 DS has a FB page but doesn’t post on it, most of his friends also gave that up years ago. Girls seem to do that type of thing, at least from my experience, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

DS had one kid respond to him from Housing site, and they never communicated again until they moved in. He had a fairly early pick, went in & picked the room he wanted from what was available. Once you do that, you can read the brief bios on the other roommates.

The first room had two guys that were planning to rush. DS did not plan on doing so, so found another room in the area he wanted. The guys were OOS & didn’t plan on rushing, so he stayed with that.

It has been a great experience. They are all Honor students, all OOS, 2 other engineers but different areas & fourth is business major.

I was concerned as he had very little interest in pursuing roommates, but that seems to be typical for most of the guys.

Through some of my contacts, a few guys contacted him, but they stated outright they planned on partying pretty heavily when they got to campus. (don’t know if the parents knew this) He did not follow up w/ those.

My advice, try the roommate selector, personal contacts if you have any, but don’t worry about it all that much. Just pick a dorm, area, & room. Check out the roommates, if they look OK stay with it, or choose another one. There were a lot of guys who left it up to chance & were equally as happy.

12

Its still way too early to find roommates. My daughter did not end up at Alabama but considered going there and looked for a roommate both there and at other schools. What we learned throughout the process kids were changing their minds left and right as the Spring progressed. Kids thought they were going to be attending school A and at last minute picked school B. Kids thought they would live in dorm A but a parent said no. Kids also use twitter and instagram to find roommates. Also there are some private web services to match roommates and that was better than any school’s website my D used for the most part.

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As I stated above, DS and many of the other guys didn’t have roommates until they went in the day they were able to select a room.

In most cases, it works out just fine.