<p>Does it tend to work out well with unknown roommates freshman year?</p>
<p>My roommate and I got along well throughout the year. The way I came into it was have a positive attitude and establish rules of the room early on. Be sure to stand up and talk about something if something your roommate does bothers you, instead of not saying anything and having them continue to do that bothersome thing. </p>
<p>Also do not expect your roommate will become your best friend. Try and treat it like a business relationship, and if you both turn out friends then great! </p>
<p>I also tried to contact him before move in day so I could sort of get to know him and ease the randomness. I was able to get his e-mail address after calling the housing office. I think if i remember correctly, I looked at his screen name and then asked the housing office for an email address. Then we became facebook friends and discussed if we wanted to bring anything for the room.This also helped. </p>
<p>Overall, don’t worry about it, its going to work out if you think its going to work out. Having a roommate is apart of the freshman experience, and going random is kind of fun, compared to those who room with a buddy from high school. They tend to stick to each other initially and not meet as many people.</p>
<p>in short, it turned out very badly, and we were ready to never see each other again by the end of the year, but I think most of it could have been avoided if we just had set rules and stuff beforehand. </p>
<p>the other thing was just different personalities. However, from what I’ve heard, I think i’m not in the majority. most people were chill with their roommates, or if they didnt really talk to them, but never caused each other problems. most become friends</p>
<p>tumbleweed, maybe we can learn from your experience. Can you elaborate on what sort of rules you might have set to make things easier? Where were the clashes, if you can tell us, and what might have helped avoid them?</p>
<p>Thanks so much.</p>
<p>I remember freshman year when my first roommate played the french horn. She wanted to practice at night in our room when I wanted to go to sleep. Her instrument was loud and the music practice room was locked. Since i was considered to be the complainer, I was moved to another dorm. The second roommate was rather unhappy and unfriendly. The room was nice when she went home on the week-end. My son is enthusiastic about living in Fluor. I just hope he has a better experience than I did freshman year.</p>
<p>basically, the biggest issue we had was with the boyfriend staying over. She had a boyfriend who came all the time, which I was okay with. However, it came to be that he was ALWAYS here…and I just blew up (don’t blow up) when I found out he had a ROOM key without consulting me. Basically I bottled up and exploded and that always ends bad. He never came after that, but it could have been fixed more nicely with set rules. Also, once she brought unexpected guests without telling me, and I looked like a mess, and was very embarrassed. They then drank, and I just accepted to seem like a chill roommate, but I am actually really uncomfortable around alcohol, which we never discussed. </p>
<p>Other than that, the other problems I had were just things like her never covering mouth when coughing, watching TV or playing music when I was studying (she claimed she hated headphones). and not switching from the roomlight to the desklamp when trying to sleep. I did talk to her about these things, but she felt resentful, not being able to do things freely.</p>
<p>mdcissp,
I still laughing over your experience with the French horn player.<br>
GG</p>
<p>My experience with the roommate lottery was good. Though my roommate and I are very different …in the end we got along OK. We did go through some rough times…such as boyfriend staying all night (these were times I had to let her know I was uncomfortable and at least she respected me enough to stop it). We aren’t rooming together next year… but now that she’s gone, I kinda miss her being around.</p>
<p>I’m a little nervous. All I know about my roommate is that her Trojan Housing username is thewave008 and that she likes sports, Top 40 music, and going to bed around midnight and waking up at 8 or 9.</p>
<p>I chose my roommate from Facebook, but I didn’t know her before college. We got along all right, as far as I can tell, although we barely spoke due to different schedules/social circles.</p>
<p>srabiee90, can you contact Housing and get the roommate’s email so you can at least get to know each other a little beforehand?</p>
<p>as i mentioned in my post above, i was able to get my roommate’s e-mail address by contacting housing, then i e-mailed him before school started. I got his name, and was then able to add him as a friend on facebook to get a better sense of what kind of person he is. it helped when we first met on move in day with not much to worry about since we introduced ourselves early on before actually meeting in person.</p>
<p>i met my freshman roommate here on this board actually (2 yrs ago) and we are still friends o.o</p>
<p>I sent her a message via the housing site and then a week later, I sent one to myself just to see how it worked. It went to my e-mail, as well as the housing site.</p>
<p>Sorry if this is widely known, but do we get a different roommate/room each school year?</p>
<p>you can choose whoever you want. you can choose to keep your roommate if you both want to, or room with someone else you made friends with that year, or elect to have a random roommate assigned</p>
<p>oh cool, thank you!</p>
<p>To a previous poster, I lived in Fluor Tower and thought it was a great place to dorm overall. I think your son will love it.</p>
<p>Anyways, freshman year for me worked out OK for me in terms of dorming. I’m definitely going to repeat what other people said about establishing rules. It might seem like a very nerdy or authoritative thing to do, but it can be the difference between sleepless nights and pleasant cooperation. Of course, you don’t have to be a donkey about setting rules, but be at least a little firm to let your roommate know that while you’re chill with most things, there are a few things that you won’t tolerate. </p>
<p>I actually ended up living with two different roommates my freshman year. My first roommate and I had a little incident where he invited a lot of girls over and also invited alcohol to my room. I don’t drink, so I wasn’t very appreciative of the fact that beer bottles were everywhere when I returned from home (I live close enough to USC to go home every now and then). What made me angry (but I laugh about it now) is that my parents decided to surprise me with a visit that day (we all walked up to my dorm room together), only to notice girls snoring on my bed and booze on my desk. I blew up a little (nothing major). The roommate was a little defensive, but I think he began to understand what I could and could not tolerate. After that, everything was peaceful and great. We actually became really close roommates and found opportunities to help each other out. My parents still joke with me about having a secret and wild college life. Thank goodness for parents that have a great sense of humor!</p>
<p>So how does my second roommate during my freshman year factor in? I was really good friends with a suitemate, and my roommate was really good friends with that suitemate’s roommate. However, the two suitemates were terribly matched. In a peaceful 4-way deal, I moved out of my room to my suitemate friend’s room, and my suitemate friend’s roommate moved to my former room. Complicated, I know, but you’re keeping up! Anyways, this was probably the BEST move for me because it moved me further away from the hallway by going from an “A” room to a “D” room (I lived in Fluor Tower, and the noise could get loud on the hallways), and because my new roommate and I had a LOT in common in terms of likes and dislikes (especially with regards to alcohol, guest policy, and so forth). We ended up rooming together again this past year, which was my sophomore year.</p>
<p>I actually think that it’s rare to have a “perfect” or close to perfect roommate. At the same time, I think most roommates are very tolerant. There are some exceptions here and there, but the dorm experience is certainly one to be had!</p>
<p>I am sure this is a sensitive question. As a parent, I noticed some of the responses that one of the difficulties a few of the freshmen students had with roommates concern boyfriend/girlfriend visitors and drinking. Is this the unfortunate experience of a few people or a more common concern? My son does not drink and is conservative in nature. Also, my own view is that over night visiting boyfriend/girlfriend is not appropriate and does not belong around roommates in the same room.</p>
<p>Regarding boy/girlfriend visitors, make sure you and your roommate have made some sort of agreement. Whether they’re okay with overnight s/o visitors or not, it’s best to know earlier (even if neither of you are dating at the time), and if they’re not okay with regular visitors, ask if they will accommodate special circumstances (eg. s/o is from out of state and is visiting for a couple of nights, has been sexiled by their own roommate, or is too wasted to make it back on their own). Signals on the door are also pretty useful.</p>