<p>I know, dumb question. But I've finished all my apps and all my financial aid stuff. Right now, I'm thinking about what college will be like. I'm really not too hot on the whole room mate thing... Are room mates allowed to party in dorms? What if a room mate brings over a significant other? What if he makes a lot of noise? What if he has a serious problem with smelling bad? What if he gets off of getting off on your bed? etc etc etc... I can't help but be overwhelmed with all the bad/undesirable things a roommate could do. Say it ain't so Joe.</p>
<p>You'll look over most of the bad things and have a great time if you two get along. If you don't get along, chances are it'll won't be fun for you.</p>
<p>I'm still in high school as well--but this past summer I went to a pre-college program where I had a room mate for six weeks. We didn't really get along per say--but we weren't enemies either. I had a bit of a problem with her CONSTANT messes on her side of the room--I mean, she was seriously a pig. And when she brought her friends in (I tended to go over to my friends dorms where they had a common room to [hang] around in) I just turned up the volume on my headphones. No one is asking you to be friends with your roomie, and even if they are a little insufferable at least its a funny topic to bring up with your friends :). Overall it really wasn't too bad, and I had a great time anyway. We both just kept to ourselves, and she was nice enough, its just that we had a personality clash. </p>
<p>Some of my friends had GREAT roommates--ones that became their best friends at the pre-college. And some have terrible roomies--there were two girls on my floor that had to put a line of tape through the middle. If you have a terrible roomie though, it's easy to change rooms in college. Either way, you'd be surprised at how uninvolved you can be with your roommate. It's really not a terribly big deal if you have a bad roomie. </p>
<p>Hope this sort of helped!</p>
<p>My first year of living in dorms was annoying experience, my roomate "had" to play video games after 1:00 am while I tried to sleep to get up for the class at 8:30 morning.
After a month, I switched rooms and I had another roomate who this time was courteous, but stayed at him room all day 7 days on his computer and wasn't sociable at all, so we had nothing in common. Next year, I got to live with another roommate that I am neither an enemy, neither a friend with him. He leaves a big mess around and smokes pot so for me that is a personality clash.</p>
<p>But I know other people who had great roommates and became best friends. For ex, I know two guys that in a first year of college did not live together in dorms, but became really good friends and booked themselves an apt dorm together for the second year. Now in the third year of college they still live together off-campus and are even involved in the same fraternity. </p>
<p>So I would say it depends a little bit on a luck.</p>
<p>Our floor has community standards, but not everyone is going to adhere to them. It can be loud, but usually if you ask people will keep it down. 35 girls share one floor, 4 showers, 4 sinks and 4 bathrooms, so it's going to get a little gross at times.
Some RAs will look the other way if you drink in your room with some people, as long as no one's passed out/throwing up and you keep the noise down.
If I were you, I'd get a single. Roommates can be hit or miss, I had a lot of issues with mine</p>
<p>My roommate freshman year was a total b***h. She was this private school rich girl who I had nothing in common with, to start off. But she also snored worse than any guy I've ever met! It was like sleeping next to a revving car all night! I had to wear earplugs every night and could sometimes still hear her through them, and she never remotely cared how much it bothered me. I mentioned it to her and she basically said, 'deal with it, it's not that bad" when it WAS THAT BAD. I cannot sleep through snoring EVER, even when it's much less loud than that. Luckily both of our suitemates moved out after first semester and she moved into their room (we still had to share a bathroom, but at least there was a wall between us now so I usually couldn't hear the snoring). </p>
<p>Sophomore year, I lived with a good friend and learned that's not always the best idea. Neither one of us were particularly tidy so our room was always a mess, but SHE would leave things to mold in dishes on the counter! All I ever did was have my clothes and some papers strewn about sometimes, I would never risk bugs! But we got through the year and are pretty much best friends now (after not living together for 2 years).
Last year I lived with my cousin, which was sort of an experience. You can't just hate them and not ever talk to them again if something goes wrong bc you're related to them! We shared an apt together, and my only problem with her is that she never ever paid me the bill money on time. All the bills were in my name so she would pay me and I would pay them, but she was ALWAYS late with everything, even the rent. Other than that, she was fairly clean and we had separate rooms and bathrooms, which was good.
This year I am living by myself in a studio apt and it is magical! I love not having to deal with anyone else's crap. I pay all the bills myself, don't have to rely on anyone else for money, and can clean/not clean whenever I want. I am always slightly messy, and I don't have someone bi**hing at me all the time about it.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman and have had two roommates this year. The first one lasted 6 days before he withdrew from school in a huff because he didn't get a private room like he requested. He was a pure jerk, no 2 ways about it. He went to bed around 9 (wanted the lights off, no TV, no video games, no music on headphones, etc) and got up at 5:30 every morning, including the one weekend he was there (the jerk got up and turned the bright overhead room light on at 5:30 Sat AM, I was ready to strangle him at that point). He complained constantly about everything and wanted total silence while he was studying, which was every moment he wasn't in class. He also informed me that he would not tolerate any partying in the room and I should hang out with my friends elsewhere and not in our room. Needless to say, he had no friends of his own. If he hadn't withdrawn from school, I would have found another room on room swap day, it was THAT bad.</p>
<p>After the jerk left, a guy on my floor moved in on room swap day and we get along great. We have similar schedules and study habits. He's in-state and goes home many weekends. He's considerate and allowed me to have say in making the "room rules" lol. If I don't transfer next year, I can see myself rooming with him again, either on or off campus.</p>
<p>It depends on your roommate?</p>
<p>Agreeing with fizix2. <em>shrugs</em> My roommate and I get on all right. The only mildly annoying thing that really happens now is her tendency to stay up late watching terrible movies with a male friend of both of ours past the point when I want to go to bed, and they're both usually happy to move out to the dorm's common area if I ask, so I don't consider it a worry at all. There have been a few other areas of annoyance over the year (on both our parts!), but sitting down and saying "hey, this bugs me a lot, would you mind doing X instead" and/or working out compromises has dealt with the vast majority of them. </p>
<p>Said male friend, by the way, DOES have a terrible roommate. He copes by spending a lot of time in our room and basically going back largely to sleep. According to him, his roommate is fairly creepy but not that much of a problem. </p>
<p>My roomie and I didn't know each other at all until the summer before we both moved in (we turned out to live about 20 minutes away from each other, so we spent some time hanging out and getting to know each other before starting college). We met by contacting each other on a profiling site offered by my college for first-years. It seems to have worked out really well, incidentally; we'll probably room together next semester if neither of us can score a single, which is likely. (We've both agreed that we work well together, but a single would really rock--even if they're hard to nab in the good dorm we live in.)</p>
<p>If he makes a lot of noise then tell him to turn it down.
If he smells then tell him to shower.</p>
<p>If he doesn't listen to you, take pictures of him having sex.</p>
<p>
[quote]
He went to bed around 9 (wanted the lights off, no TV, no video games, no music on headphones, etc) and got up at 5:30 every morning, including the one weekend he was there (the jerk got up and turned the bright overhead room light on at 5:30 Sat AM, I was ready to strangle him at that point). He complained constantly about everything and wanted total silence while he was studying, which was every moment he wasn't in class. He also informed me that he would not tolerate any partying in the room and I should hang out with my friends elsewhere and not in our room.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Uh oh, sounds a lot like me... Guess I'll get a single then.</p>
<p>Don't worry so much about it, Namurt--that was me too, in high school. If you bend a little and compromise (which it sounds like this guy did NOT do), your roommate will probably compromise their habits so everyone is at least moderately happy.</p>
<p>Exactly SolaCatella, my first roommate was not willing to compromise on anything, he acted as though it was his room alone, and that he expected me to conform totally to his "rules". In his mind, I had absolutely no rights whatsoever. In the end, things worked out for the best and I couldn't be happier with my current roommate. It's all about compromise and treating each other with basic respect.</p>
<p>I was also one of those people not looking forward to a roommate for the simple fact I had no space of my own to get away to.
My first semester I had a great roommate with a sophomore who was courteous and kind. Everything flowed smoothly, no bumps. </p>
<p>But I'm one of those crazy night owls so instead of having to leave for the study room in the wee hours of the morning for homework (also so I have the freedom to not have to be courteous aka things like having friends or my boyfriend over for an all-night horror movie marathon TO even turning on the TV when I want) I switched to a single- my roomie transferred schools anyway. I love it. Early b-day present from my parents!</p>
<p>I only had a bad freshmen year experience but that was only because I never shared a room or a bathroom before. I kind of sort of have my own wing at home so that was my fault for not knowing how to react to a new situation.</p>
<p>The following years turned out great and am still friends with all of my roommates post-freshmen year.</p>
<p>I'm not uber friendly with my roommate, but we co-exist enough to put up with each other. The way it works: I do her a favor, she'll do me a favor. It works.</p>
<p>I'd suggest thinking about the things that are most important to you BEFORE you go to college. For me, at least, the most important thing is that I can get into my room to get my stuff anytime. Otherwise, as long as I'm out of the room, it's fine. Except for one thing. And, my roommate would do that.</p>
<p>Figure out your priorities.</p>
<p>OP, most colleges now send out questionnaires before you apply which help with roommate assignments. they typically ask you things like whether you wake up early or stay up late, if you're messy or clean, if you smoke/drink/party, etc. They then use these to try to find someone who you will be compatible with. It's not perfect, but usually people end up with someone they can tolerate, if not more.</p>
<p>when my brother was a freshman, he and his roommate didn't get along at all and eventually my bro put up a sheet in the middle of the room so that he didn't even have to look at him or talk to him. His roommate was a stuck-up kid in the Honors program who had no friends and didn't compromise at all. My brother was really nice to him at first and tried multiply times to get him to go to a party with him but he just didn't budge. He even told the RA that he was drinking in another room and got my brother and his friends in trouble.</p>
<p>All these bad roommate experience stories begs a certain question for me. How hard is it to switch roommates? Do colleges make that process hard? Or is it more about finding somebody else who wants to switch? </p>
<p>Also, people have been telling me that I shouldn't room with a good friend from high school. Comments on that one?</p>
<p>^^ my school has a room and/or roommate swap day about 10 days into each semester. You can change rooms/halls/or roommates on this specified day. At my school it's generally up to the student to coordinate everything (Housing provides lists of available rooms and people looking for a new roommate).</p>