Okay so I am a residential freshman this year at a very large (15,000 people on campus) university. School hasn’t been in for long but it has kinda made me miserable. I like my classes and I enjoy the events and things the school holds, but I can’t stand living there. I was fortunate to get a nice room but there is just something about it that every time I walk into it I just feel awful. I have a roommate and we get along okay, not best friends or anything but its not a horrible situation. However, I’m a very private person I like my space and I haven’t been able to relax at all being here which has really took a toll on me mentally and physically. So my school is about to open up room change requests and bed buyouts. And there is a room that has no one in it on the floor and building I am in now. There is no guarantee I will get it if I request but I might get a room to myself if it all works out. But I don’t know if that is the right thing to do. I know living with someone your freshman year is important but I’m taking hard classes this first semester and I really need to be able to relax. But if I do get it I have no idea how I would tell my roommate. So I wanted some advice on what I should do or how to approach this.
(Also I feel like it would be better to have my own room because of COVID-19 and everything)
Go for it. Lots of kids don’t enjoy living with roommates, at that’s ok. My D needs be space. She and her roommate did not get along freshman year. Fast forward and they are very good friends now that they don’t live together and my D is enjoying living in an apartment with others but still having her own bedroom and bathroom.
I found the lack of privacy very difficult as a freshman back in the day too, so I sympathize. I would say go for the empty room. If you don’t get it, though, I don’t think a move in with another roommate is going to make that much difference (unless, of course, you truly don’t get along). Realize too that there are no guarantees that even if you do get the empty room that it will stay a single for very long. Lack of personal space is probably one of the biggest reasons why so many college students move off campus as soon as they are able to.