<p>Sorry, I talk to prefrosh a lot and get preachy sometimes.</p>
<p>I'm going to ditto that as a first year you should have a roommate. While I do know some people who don't get along with their roomies, I get along with mine great. It's so nice to have someone to talk to at the end of the day, compare notes and stuff. My biggest word of advice is to NOT be friends with your roomie outside of the room. Everyone I know who started out as friends with their roommate (going to meals together, just basically spending time outside of the room together) ended up not getting along towards the end, where as I only hang out with my roomie in our room. We never eat together unless it's like pizza ordered out or something. The way I see it is that this way we don't get sick of eachother. </p>
<p>But I know I would've been a lot more bored and lonely if I didn't have my roomie. Plus it's a great way to meet new people. I know a ton more people because she has the over to the room, and we generally have similr friends (so she likes my friends too). I dunno, it works out well. Even if it didn't, it's a goodlife experience. </p>
<p>I can say that I'd never had problems making friends until i started college. Everywhere I've ever been within a week or two I've had GOOD friends. Not here. It took me easily 3-4 months before I developed people who I can just call up and talk to or hang out with. I know that if I hadn't had my roomie I would've been miserable. Plus even if you have a bad roomie it makes for great conversation starters.</p>
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Everyone I know who started out as friends with their roommate (going to meals together, just basically spending time outside of the room together) ended up not getting along towards the end,
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<p>Boy is this sexist, but were most of them women?</p>
<p>how do u take care of biological 'urges' though :P</p>
<p>I had a roommate the first year, due to following advice in books. The books said about the same thing that equine99 said- especially advised roommates for shy students. However, the dorm was so social and friendly that a roommate was not an advantage. A single would have been more convenient. No problems- just differering schedules, my alarm going off too early for her, her coming in late when I was already asleep, etc. The following three years, I had single rooms and loved it. However, if you are attending a megasized, impersonal school, a roommate may be valuable, as equine99 said.</p>
<p>Not to be a worrywart, but in a recent crime in Virginia, a girl may have avoided murder if she had a single dorm room. Her roommate had a guest over and wanted privacy, so the girl left "for a few hours". She evidently had no place else to go, and ended up spending time with an acquaintance who happened to be a psychopath. OK, this does not happen often, but people do end up camping out in a dorm lounge or sleeping on the floor of a friend's room while the roommate has a guest. This is disruptive to your studies and your general health.</p>
<p>Why not just take the next step, and live in an apartment with 4 padlocks and a hazmat suit on 24/7 because there might be a terrorist attack in the dorms?</p>
<p>My S is trying to make the same decision - one other thing to consider is whether or not requesting a double may give you an advantage for where you want to be for housing (usually there are more spots for doubles than singles). </p>
<p>And after reading Tom Wolfe's book, I am Charlotte Simmons, a story based on the fictional Dupont University (which sounds suspiciously like Duke), I believe the term danny901 and OneMom are looking for is "sexiling" !!</p>
<p>Re: sexile </p>
<p>It's not a problem if the roommates discuss the rules and regulations (ie, how often you can have an overnight guest, how often one roommate is allowed to make the other one stay away, etc.) and establish some sort of signal to say, "Don't come in here, right now." I knew of students who would hang a particular photo or some mardi gras beads on the door as a discreet signal to their roommates.</p>
<p>Re: roommates in general</p>
<p>I loved having a roommate, and I loved not having one. I lived in a triple, my first year of college, and sophomores had to double up, as well. Although my first-year roomming situation wasn't great, we all ended up being friends--I chose to room, the next year, with one of them. There's something to be said for having a roommate. Sure, schedules can be different, and you can really end up irritating each other, but that's part of learning how to respect other people's time and space. I share an apartment, now, and I still have to use those lessons--how to do your own thing without waking someone up, how not to hog the bathroom, how to clean up and do your part to make the space liveable.</p>
<p>It's a crapshoot, certainly. I'm the only one of my three siblings who had good luck with roommates, but I still wouldn't opt for a single the first year. If you're at all shy, or if you aren't comfortable walking into strangers' rooms to meet them, then a roommate would be an excellent choice. (Just don't room with your best friend ... or any friend. It's a good way to kill your relationship.)</p>
<p>I have gotten so close with my roommate that even if we get the option for singles, we might not take it.</p>
<p>UCLAri--yes, most of them are girls, but there were a few boys too.</p>
<p>Singles are more expensive.</p>
<p>I have a single, it was only $180 more than getting a shared room. I recommend it if you have problems with sharing in general.</p>
<p>i pray that i can get a single when i go to college, hope to have a lot of company and dont want to have to arrange timetables with my roomates company.</p>
<p>nay. at least not freshman year</p>
<p>Single, definitely, if you care about your grades and your mental health. I've had random roommates 4 semesters in a row now, hoping it would work out. No, it hasn't, and I'd be awake till 3-4am while my roommate watch idiotic cartoons on my tv, I'd be awoken to manatees humping each other while I was in the room, and currently, I have a roommate who doesn't take showers, who smells like cheese and soy sauce (him being Caucasian too), and the room reeking everyday. No amount of febreeze can solve that. Anyway, it is luck of the draw. I've had a great roommate for Johns Hopkin's Center for Talented Youth in 10th grade (we are great friends still), and also during summer sessions in college. However, when grades mattered the most, it didn't help to have a roommate at all. Especially lazy, stupid ones.</p>
<p>I would do anything to get those semesters back, and pay whatever extra thousands it was to have a single. I can't even get a single now because of this overcrowded public university (Umass Amherst). I have to keep reminding myself I go here for free.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck.</p>
<p>thatbiggbad wolfy,
At least u can console yourself with it being free. With my kids I have paid about $500/mo for just room and their experiences sound similar to yours!</p>
<p>well i can see why youd have trouble at umass-amherst Wolfy... the fact that your not paying anything means that your prolly at the top 5% of your class, and have a stronger work ethic than most of the people you get stuck with, creating two people with extremely different views</p>
<p>a good room mate is a blessing. I have a Bulgarian room mate and we have no problems.</p>
<p>Maybe next semester I'll get a female room mate. Things wud get interesting.</p>
<p>P>S: Sorry Nadi...Just kidding</p>
<p>equine,</p>
<p>Again...sexist as all heck, but it was my experience in college (and working in the dorms) that more women had trouble living together than men. If guys fought, they usually worked it out. Women, when they fought, usually made their molehills into mountains of incredible animosity.</p>