<p>Within hours of joining an accepeted student Facebook group, my son was contacted by someone asking if he wanted to be roommates. It's a pod set-up, with a shared common area, and this kid appears to be trying to fill the whole unit. He has convinced my son that this may help them get the dorm they want. This kid does have similar interests, but the housing office asked about attitudes towards drinking, smoking, and room cleanliness, and these could be big issues. My advice was to let the university decide on a roommate, as he can always hang out with this kid. What do you think?</p>
<p>I think it tends to be six of one half a dozen of the other. My older son and his first roommate basically shared space, but never talked. My younger son liked his roommate, but they had absolutely nothing in common, and ended up keeping completely different hours as well which was awkward. Tufts asked a lot of questions - for example about music, while CMU asked three. Tufts also has an official system where kids can describe themselves and they pair up. My son considered rooming with someone that he discovered later would have driven him crazy and was glad that he just took the luck of the draw. There’s no reason though that kids can’t ask each other questions about tidiness, smoking, drinking, and staying up late on Facebook too.</p>
<p>My daughter met her current roommate on Facebook. They met up twice before officially deciding to room together. It’s working out great and they are very good friends.</p>
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<p>Very true. I’ll make the suggestion, but those are touchy subjects.</p>
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<p>That would be the ideal situation, but unfortunately it’s not possible because of distance.</p>
<p>Toledo --</p>
<p>I don’t think those are touchy subjects. My D discussed those exact things with prospective roommates.</p>
<p>Our D found her freshman roommate on Facebook. I think that they started to get on one another’s nerves towards the end of the year. So they decided not to room together this year. Fortunately my D’s current roommate has turned out to be easier to get along with. I think it can be hit or miss when you choose your roommate on Facebook.</p>
<p>There have been lots of threads here starting with “My D and her roommate met on Facebook and everything seemed great, but now that they are actually living together it is hell.”</p>
<p>I think that HONESTY about the hours roommates want to keep at college, existence of pre-existing SOs who will be staying over, drug and alcohol use in the room, and neatness are probably the factors most likely to make or break a situation. And it is important that kids reveal how they see themselves living while in college, NOT how they live in their parents’ house. </p>
<p>I would advise my kid to ask a potential roomie about those things, but NOT in an open post on facebook! And I would make it clear that the answers were between my kid and the roomie. Getting all shocked and parental about the questions and answers is not going to be helpful.</p>
<p>I realize that our situation is not like many- my daughter’s roommate only lived about 90 minutes from us so it was easy for them to get together. Even though they are good friends and are rooming together in a suite next year, there are times when my daughter needs a break. That’s normal… It’s hard living with someone.</p>
<p>My senior in college daughter did this…the girl lived in our state and they seemed to have a few things in common socially , but at the end of the day, they were actually very different people and really didn’t get along that well. The roommate had an ease major and had a lot more free time…and she liked to have boys over late at night when my daughter needed sleep. That was the easy part of it. The girl turned out to have a lot of emotional problems which made for a trying freshman year , and she was really dirty in terms of housekeeping
I think boys might get along better or at least be less dramatic about it all</p>
<p>A lot of schools are using Facebook for their roommate selection process and kids might not have a choice.</p>
<p>Sometimes I think it’s better that the roommates don’t have a lot of common interests. It’s better to focus on personalities and not if you like to do the same things. Like other’s have said, you need a break from your roommate sometimes. D got contacted by another incoming freshman on her team about rooming together. We suggested that not happen–way too much time together and no where to be apart from each other.</p>