<p>Any suggestions for filling out the roommate questionaire? I'm going to be a freshman at Porter and would like some advice about roommates, and or stories about your own. Anything, really, would help. Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m also a freshman, but here’s what I could gather. Be honest when answering it (really think, DO you snore? ARE you messy? ARE you alright with druggies?)</p>
<p>Apparently they do a decent job of matching you with similar folks. So I guess, what advice I can give (just as a fellow incoming freshman) is try to be as honest as you can with that thing. I still need to send my in…</p>
<p>Be honest. Don’t say that you don’t party if you want to drink during the weekdays. Don’t tell them you go to sleep at midnight if you actually plan to sleep past 2am every night. Think long and hard about what you are looking for in your living situation next year. I was pretty modest when I filled my housing application out, and wasn’t terribly thrilled with who I ended up with. I think housing does their best to match students up, but a fair amount of students either lie, don’t know what they want until they get to UCSC, or have their parents fill out the application.</p>
<p>@ PhantomBMAN and Cali Trumpet: That helps tremendously haha. I think that I just keep over-thinking it- because I’m sort of conflicted on some things? Ha. But I guess, like you both say, that the most important thing would be to be honest.</p>
<p>Descibe the person that you plan to be next year and what you want in your roommate. Are you are a crazy party animal or a turtle that sits in front of the computer 5 hours a day?</p>
<p>Well what’s messing me up is the drug and alcohol policy… is it best to put that you would want your roommate to follow it often, or sometimes? I guess at this point that is what I am stuggling answering.</p>
<p>Again, it depends on you. Personally, I don’t choose to drink or smoke (weed or cigarettes). If I were to do it over again, I would have insisted that I be placed on a substance-free floor. </p>
<p>If you drink and smoke occasionally, but don’t want your roommate to be big smoker/drinker, I would definitely say that you DONT smoke or drink. People tend to make themselves look more goody goody than they really are, and you sometimes get screwed when someone who LOVES to party puts down that he/she “parties occasionally.”</p>
<p>Well, I’m thinking that I will put that my roommate follow those rules “often”. I’m not a huge partier or anything, I would rather be apart of smaller get-togethers. I don’t want a roommate that is a HUGE partier-at all. But I would like someone that occasionally likes to. But my options on the housing thing are “always”, “often”, “sometimes”, “rarely”, and “never”. So I just feel like there really isn’t an in-between answer that I could put.</p>
<p>You should really consider each of those answers. I’ve seen SO MANY students from hs who have the mindset that “college is something new” and they can “reinvent” themselves from who they truly are. So this basically entails a quiet student fills out that they party and drink, sleep late, and etc. Then when college actually starts, they realize their roommate is somebody they can’t stand or get along with at all. The roommate starts to hangout with other people and the quiet student is left without that “roommate companion” that always makes college worthwhile.</p>
<p>I was brutally honest in my roommate application and I got a roommate that I still hang out with to this day. I remember when I filled out my application awhile ago that I was tempted to write in things that would make college seem more interesting, but I’m SO glad I didn’t. I know a lot of people who didn’t like their college experience because of their roommate and believe me… freshman year is an experience you don’t want to miss out on :P</p>
<p>@MidnightGolfer: I ended up putting “often”. I went back to the questionaire and thought about a lot of the answers carefully and feel like I answered them quite honestly. I think you’re 100% right about how most people feel like they want to “reinvent” themselves when for the most part their habits stay the same. So your answer really helped me to think about that. I think I’m just nervous about getting a roommate- but I know most people are.</p>
<p>I know I was nervous too, but I wouldn’t really think much about it. Even if you don’t like your roommate, there will be plenty of people who live on your floor and sometimes you form better relationships with them instead (I’m currently living with 3 people who lived on my floor last year).</p>
<p>Also remember the survey really isn’t that full-proof. I’ve had people who wrote “never” for smoking and partying, but they still got paired up with people who always did. I also had a friend from hs who loved to do both of those activities and she got put into a substance-free floor.</p>
<p>Hmmm, okay haha. I guess I will just embrace whatever comes my way. Your feedback has definitely helped me feel better about it! I filled out what I thought would be best for me, and that’s what counts. Do you know how common it is for a person to get their requested dorm/hall theme? I requested one and just want to know what my chances would be!</p>
<p>My son requested substance free (in Cowell) and got his first choice. I remember he spent lots of time on that housing application. Ironically, he and his roommate get along well, even though they are a little bit opposite of each other. Next yr. they are getting an apartment there and sharing a double. I don’t know what his roommate put on his housing application, buy my son put a lot of personal interests, study habits, music taste, etc on his…and they seem to have those things in common.</p>
<p>Usually if you request a dorm (as in substance free/gender neutral/etc) then you usually get it. My freshman year (2008), UCSC admitted too many students and there was a lot of students who got placed into dorms that they didn’t want (quiet floors/substance free). However, I heard they are getting better with their admission numbers. </p>
<p>I would also agree with BlauKat wrote. I think there was a section on the housing application that said “tell us more about yourself” or something like that. That’s where I just wrote about my interests, music taste, what I define as hanging out with friends, and basically what I’m looking for in a roommate. I think they used that portion more in my case.</p>
<p>Okay, well that helps! But do you know anything about getting first choice in say… the Outdoor Experiences Hall… 'cause that is what I chose as my main preference.</p>
<p>I don’t really know about that because I actually haven’t heard about that hall 
Sorry!</p>
<p>Haha, it’s all good. I was just wonderin’.</p>
<p>‘Outdoor adventure’ for UCSC students translates to ‘Getting high in the forest’</p>
<p>If you’re at Porter, chances are you are not going to get the hall you request unless you request substance free or single gender (and gender neutral, gay-friendly, etc). </p>
<p>Last year, when everyone found out their room assignments, the facebook group went crazy because a lot of people got placed in random halls they didn’t necessarily want to be in (myself included). </p>
<p>As for the roommate questions, be honest and really ask yourself, “Do I want a roommate that will be coming back to the dorm drunk off his/her ass at 4 am?”
I know I’m generalizing when I say this, but chances are that if someone says they “party occasionally” on their survey, they are lying to some degree and things will probably change once they get here and realize that alcohol and drugs are in abundance.
Maybe it’s just who I ended up with as a roommate, but at the same time, I know quite a few people in my hall who claimed to not party at the beginning of the year, then went ape**** and starting partying on weekdays as well as weekends.</p>
<p>Just be careful what you put down. And if you end up with someone who you can’t stand to live with, there is the option of switching rooms.</p>
<p>Very good advice given by rectangleshorts. This is what I was trying to convey.</p>