<p>I have no idea where i'm going yet, but if I go to UMDCP ill know about 20 other people there. Would you suggest rooming with someone from my high school, or with some random persion?</p>
<p>My recommendation is to try someone new. Why hang out with your high school friends? You're looking for a new experience, right? And you can always see the HS people whenever you want.</p>
<p>You might learn something -- about another part of the country, about a new interest, about yourself -- by living with someone "random."</p>
<p>Actually rooming with someone who you trust or can trust is more important. You never know how just a random person operates, but if you room with a friend that you get a long with well than the living arrangement is just gonna be that much easier. And learning new things? Your going to college, where youll experience new things anyway you look at it, so you don't need to live with someone random to have new experiences.</p>
<p>UMD is such a big school in terms of the number of people and the actual campus being so spread out that it might be beneficial for you socially to have those people you know and to room with one of them, for the first year at least</p>
<p>I would think that rooming with someone you know would make you more likely to only spend time with your highschool friends, and not as much with new college people.</p>
<p>If you end up at a school where you have orientation in the summer before actually moving in in August, I suggest you try and find someone there that you might want to live with. I agree that you should avoid living with an HS friend because it give both of you a false sense of social security. You'll be less likely to hang with new people, but then if one of you really embraces a new crowd or a significant other, the other roomie will be all alone. Room with stranger. It is a little scary, but most of the time roomies cohabitate with very few troubles, and in some cases you end up becoming good friends.</p>
<p>I go to UMD, and I definitely suggest you room with someone you don't know. It's helps you socially because right from move-in you're wanting to meet people. Out of my floor, 4 rooms are doubles who requested each other before coming to Maryland.</p>
<p>I've heard more horror stories about friends rooming together than with random roommates.</p>
<p>People talk about how huge UMD is, but once you live there, your world shrinks dramatically. The new close friends are all ones I live with (well, except one, but that's a long story)--my floor has become pretty close.</p>
<p>My roommate and I aren't the best of friends (we just run in different social circles), but we're all right. I wonder if he'll want to room with me next year--I'm all for it, but he's made good friends with some other guys. We'll see I guess.</p>
<p>I still suggest living with someone you know. HOWEVER only if you are ok with ruining the friendship. (this doesn't always occur but just warning you)</p>
<p>Living together brings alot of conflicts... I lived with my friend in high school and although I'm still friends with her I really didn't like living with her.</p>
<p>HOWEVER if you guys get along living term wise (sleeping time, noise tolerence, dirtiness, whatever else might come along) I think it's a great idea. I like my roommate but if I came to a school where alot of my friends were going to, i probably would've roomed with them.. because I just have a small number of people I get along with really well...</p>
<p>I do think i got to know alot of cool people thanks to living with an unknown roommate.</p>
<p>Pick and choose.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody, sounds like some solid advice. I really don't want to room with one of my high school "buddies", but I needed some reasurance, since I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm all for trying new things and meeting new people though, so it sounds like I'll get whoever they put me with.</p>
<p>another vote here for rooming with the stranger. For one thing, you probably don't know how compatible you'd really be since hanging out together is different than living in the same room. There are plenty of stories of "friends" that end up hating each other due to misunderstandings, etc; "Joe won't mind if I wear his shirt today" is something a friend from home is more likely to assume than a new roomate. </p>
<p>If you have a circle of friends from home it will be comfortable to hang out with them rather than going thru the hassle and stress of meeting new people, even though the latter is probably better for you in the long run. And college should be a time for exploration and personal change. Whether this be more studying or less, more partying or less, changing how sociable you are, and so on, your friends know the current you, and it can be hard to change it when the friend from home expects (with some justification -- it's why you room together instead of with a stranger) you to be the same person you were before.</p>