<p>On the Facebook page for the school I am most likely going to, people are looking, and have actually found, roommates. I'm wondering if I should try to do the same, or just let the school decide for me?</p>
<p>I, personally, am going to let the school decide. Assumably your school has a pretty good roommate match questionnaire, and will do at least a decent job. If it ends up being horrible, you can always talk to your RA (or equivalent position). But picking someone on Facebook could make you miss some facts (Cleanliness, drinking, sleep habits, etc.) that you might not think of, but the school questionnaire has.</p>
<p>A couple of things about that.</p>
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<li> A lot of those Facebook pages have nothing to do with the colleges and universities themselves. A lot of them–especially when they’re established so soon, before deposits are even due–are created by a for-profit company called ■■■■■■■■. ■■■■■■■■ will collect a lot of information from you, and then help you find a roommate who’s likely to be compatible with you. ■■■■■■■■ won’t charge you for this. But then you kind of have to ask, “What’s in it for ■■■■■■■■?” The answer is, information. After you give ■■■■■■■■ all that personal information, they have it, and they sell it.</li>
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<p>Eventually, your college or university will give you a way to exchange information with potential roommates and see if you can find somebody compatible–kind of like eHarmony for college freshmen. But they’re not going to do that until after the first of May, when students have all made their decisions and paid their deposits.</p>
<p>So, would you rather do ■■■■■■■■ now and give up your personal information to a for-profit company, or wait for something from your university or college? I think the way I’ve slanted the question probably tells you what I think the better answer is.</p>
<ol>
<li> Crimsonstained, you’d better check that the college you plan to attend will actually try to match you with somebody compatible. At my daughter’s college, you can find your own roommate through that eHarmony-like roommate match, or you can let the college assign you a roommate. But if the college assigns you a roommate, they won’t match you on the basis of anything other than gender. Aside from matching women with women and men with men, they make no real effort to avoid putting a bookish violinist with a beer-guzzling rugby player, or a Zionist with a jihadist. So, make sure you have the real scoop before you decide to leave it up to your college.</li>
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<p>I think the best thing would be to try to find a roommate through a mutual friend. This worked very well for my sister. This strategy allows you to choose someone new who is recommended by someone you know and trust.</p>
<p>Sikorsky, the school I’m attending does a roommate match questionnaire, I’m 99% sure. And as far as I know, many schools do this, but maybe most don’t. I don’t know.</p>
<p>See how the school matches. One of Ds schools actually used meyers-briggs. Some use very complete questionnaires. Some, as mentioned above, may only ask a few things. Most at least ask for self-evaluative questions about cleanliness, morning/late night person, etc. D2 found roommate through some scholarship events they had been to together and then found suitemates on fb site for their living/learning community. Ds roommate contacted girls and asked lots of specific questions. D1 let school match. Before school they talked and seemed compatible, but ended up having nothing in common but not a horrible experience, just didn’t become friends.</p>
<p>They have a very generic form online, of the usual questions, like cleanliness, morning/night person, loud/quiet, etc. I don’t really know anyone over there (I live in FL, and the school is in Boston)</p>
<p>I am going to stay overnight, so maybe I’ll find someone. The FB page is where all the girls are just talking and getting to know each other. Some girls have found roommates, just by listing facts about themselves, and other people having things in common. I find that kind of cheesy, but if it works, sure!</p>
<p>let the school decide</p>