Who should I room with next year (sophomore year)?

College Life
1

Long story short, title says it all. Long story long, I’ll be a sophomore living in the dorms again next fall and I’m having some trouble deciding on my living situation for next year, and the application for roommate requests are due in about three weeks (I had since January to figure this out… priorities). Fortunately, I have quite a few options for potential roommates, but I’m not really sure which direction to take.

Option 1 is living with two high school buddies in a triple. The two of them are currently rooming right now and have invited me to live with them next year. We have somewhat similar interests and I’ve spent enough in their room to be sure that there wouldn’t be any problems living together, though my only concern is that this I’ve haven’t really made too many friends this year, partially because these are the only guys I hang out with, and that if I room with them I would probably be inclined to not try to make any other friends if I’m hanging out with these guys all the time. Also, I’m currently living with someone else I went to high school with (neither of us wanted to risk going random) and I kind of want to try rooming with someone I don’t know as well this time.

Option 2 is living with a guy I met from a club this year. We get along pretty well, but to be honest, I don’t think I could room with this kid for a whole year. For one thing, we have similar majors so we take similar classes and he’s one of those guys that likes to remind you how smart they are all the time. This is one of the few things about people that I absolutely can not stand. He will correct me on everything I say that is even slightly incorrect and will constantly tell you how much work he has to do all the time (he started out a few levels above me in certain classes from the credits he got in AP classes). Which brings me to my next point. Even though he actually does have significantly more work to do than I have in my classes, he tends to get a bit… Emotional over stressful things. That’s what he’s told me himself, anyway. Whether it’s academic or relationship problems, I don’t feel very comfortable being around him if he’s going to have an episode every now and again, it’s too awkward.

Option 3 would be to just do a random roommate. Having spent my first year with someone I knew already, I kind of wish I took the chance with the random just to see what it’s like living with someone you’ve never met before. I would like to try it, but from what I’ve heard, you’re more likely to get a roommate who’s either weird or an inconsiderate jerk that nobody wanted to room with. There’s no roommate matching service at my school, so I’d have to take a blind chance. I could get really lucky, but more likely than not I could see things going wrong here.

My fail-safe option would be the triple, but I was wondering what advice other people could offer on random roommates?

2

I would recommend rooming with people who you know that you can live with. You will always be able to make other friends if you want to, and having a random roommate or living with someone else isn’t going to force you to make any different friends. If you don’t like your roommate, you’ll likely spend most of your time with your other two friends anyway. You can always make more friends outside of that group. Living with a stranger isn’t going to motivate you to do so more than living with your friends.

Option 2 shouldn’t be an option. If you don’t think you can live with this person for a year, don’t.

Option 3 (in my opinion) is a little silly, unless you prefer to live in a double, rather than a triple. Living with a stranger really isn’t something you should feel like you have to do for the experience. Living with other people is always a good thing to be able to do, but you don’t need to make yourself live with a random person. I just don’t see what you have to gain from the experience, unless you don’t want to live in a triple.

3

I agree that you should eliminate #2.

For #1, you have a group of friends (the roommates) and you know that they are good to live with.

For #3, you may make new friends, or you may lose the 2 other friends because they do stuff without you. You also don’t know if they will be good to live with.

So based on this I would say to go with option #1, but join a group/club where you can make other friends and it gives you a reason not to hang out with the other guys from time to time. Or get the guys to join a dorm intramural team and you can meet more people.

4

I agree with the previous posters. Eliminate option # 2. It seems like option # 1 is a safe bet and I understand your concern that you might not meet new people; however, you might become connected with more people through your new roommates. Additionally, I would not count out option #3. Going random with automatically require you to meet a new person who might become one of your good friends. Most importantly, that random roommate might introduce you to other people that they already know.