<p>Well even though my freshman year of college doesn't start for a couple of months, I'm already having a little dilemma. A few months ago, I started talking to this kid on facebook. It seemed like we both got a long really great (similar interests, major, study habits, cleanliness, etc). After meeting up a couple of times, we decided to put eachother down as roommates. (this was back in March), ever since then we made sure to keep talking (texting, facebook, etc). A few weeks ago, I had my orientation for school (which was two days). My roommate was going to be there as well, but during the two days, I didn't really hang out with him a lot, because our schedules were kinda different. I also figured, "Why spend my time hanging out with him, when I'm gonna be with him every single day come August?" So I spent my time with other people. When I got back to New Jersey, he texted me saying that he'd talked to another kid who wants to be roommates, and figured that he'd be better off rooming with him because "he realized that he's gonna do a lot more partying then he originally thought". I guess this excuse would work and everything, if ONLY he hadn't told me that he's not a "partyer". Not wanting to be difficult, I said okay and we emailed housing to have our names taken off. Now because the deadline has passed for housing, I can't request a new roommate, which means I'm going to have to go random. What do you guys think about this? Did I do something wrong for this to happen? Now I'm worried that I'll get a crappy roommate :/ I need advice!!</p>
<p>First of all, I think random roommates is the best way to go for freshman year. Hopefully your housing survey had questions like bedtimes, neatness, etc. so the logistics work out. </p>
<p>Also, I think his excuse is fine. It looks like he didn’t party much in high school, but maybe during orientation he hit up a few parties and liked it. He seems to be respecting your wishes of not partying too hard and thus switching roommates. </p>
<p>I guess the worst case scenario is that he found someone that he thinks is cooler than you. Well, his loss. </p>
<p>In short, I wouldn’t make too much of it-- you don’t even know what your random roommate will be like! Chances are it’ll be someone you can stand to live with.</p>
<p>Random is the best anyways. Clearly that guy wouldn’t have been a good roommate. I always think it’s hilarious how people think they have such an edge when they find someone on Facebook vs going random. You don’t know a person from Facebook. Even meeting someone a few times, you have no idea. People are going to put their best foot forward and look like much better roommates than they are. You really don’t know how good of a roommate a person will be until you actually live with them. Finding someone on Facebook is just like going random, you just have a face and a name is all. It’s really not that different. Also, people are allowed to change their minds - he might not be a partier now but he’s allowed to change his mind about that, and he probably thought you weren’t into that so he was trying to be respectful.</p>
<p>A lot of people do the random roommate thing. I’m doing that because I don’t know anyone at my school to room with and I don’t have a facebook, plus, like someone else said, you don’t really know them from there either. As long as you put time and thought into the roommate/housing survey about preferences, they should be able to match you with someone you can get along with.</p>
<p>Random is better anyway. Forget about him and contact your new one when you get their information.</p>
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<p>that’s where you went wrong.</p>
<p>In my opinion, this guy was kind of a jerk. But I digress.</p>
<p>I went potluck for my freshman year and was relatively satisfied.</p>
<p>One of my high school friends went potluck and wound up becoming best friends with his roommate. I wouldn’t freak out.</p>
<p>yea I guess going random is “part of the experience”, but the only thing that makes me reluctant is that the survey my school (Pitt), asked was really really vague. :/</p>
<p>It’s too early to tell whether you made a mistake or not. IMHO, you took a gamble.</p>
<p>…potluck? Like “bring your own dish to the party” potluck?</p>
<p>Potluck? </p>
<p>Are you Asian, by any chance?</p>
<p>Agree with most others - it’s hard, if not impossible, to tell what kind of roommate someone will be until they are living with you. “Neat” could mean two different things entirely to you and your roommate - something I found out the hard way. My roommate was random, but we both agreed we were “untidy.” Turns out I’m untidy. She’s, for lack of better word, a slob who leaves food waste in our rooms for weeks. Yet when we first chatted on facebook, I thought we were going to be super similar.</p>
<p>Just relax and don’t worry about it. I think most people end up doing fine with random roommates. If anything, you’re better off without this guy.</p>
<p>I don’t think you really went wrong anywhere (unless you actually told him you didn’t want to spend time with him or made that obvious through your body language, but I’m sure that’s not the case), and neither did he. If we take his excuse at face value, then he’s probably doing you a favor (it could also mean he found someone whom he thought would make a better roommate, but speculation’s not going to get you anywhere). </p>
<p>There’s no sense in psyching yourself out at this point. You may or may not get a bad roommate, but your former roommate also may or may not have turned out to be the roommate from hell.</p>
<p>people change.</p>