After a full day of classes you return to your room, your sanctuary, only you’ve got an unwanted guest invading your personal space — your roommate. They eat your food, play their favorite band Creed loudly at all hours and never go to class. Don’t you wish College-in-the-Woods offered singles?
Finding the right roommate can be tough. He or she is someone you will be spending most of your time with, sleeping next to and perhaps, with their permission, stealing their Easy Mac.
Being assigned a roommate at random can be tricky business, as there is only about a 50/50 chance that you will get someone you get along with. So if you’re living on campus next year, or even moving off, it’s better to make the effort and know who you’re going to be rooming with.
Senior assistant director of Residential Life, Grace Hoefner, said before signing those papers, it’s best to get to know your potential roommate.
“Communication is key. You have to talk to people about your lifestyle, your habits, what you expect from a roommate,” Hoefner said. “Sometimes choosing to live with your best friend is not the best idea.”
By making it clear what you’re looking for, you can limit the possibility of having to change rooms mid-semester, which can be a hassle. With the help of students, Release has compiled a list of criteria to use while looking for the perfect roommate, suitemate or housemate.
1. Find someone who can hold his/her liquor.
“I had a roommate who once came home from the bars at 3:30 a.m. and promptly threw up in my hamper,” junior Gabby Roberts said.
Needless to say, their friendship ended quickly. Being sure that you and your roommate have the same lifestyle when it comes to partying is critical. Living with someone who’s chem-free when you’re not can lead to major problems down the road.
2. Be sure to find someone that you are compatible with, someone you have the same interests as.
“There’s nothing like sitting next to someone helping you get to level 70 in World of Warcraft,” freshman Andrew Turnwall said.
Turnwall said he plans on rooming with the same person again next year.
3. “Find someone who has a busy schedule, so you can have your girlfriend over whenever you want,” freshman George Quintanilla said.
To accomplish this, make sure to find someone who’s pre-med or someone who is planning on pledging. That way, you can have the room to yourself a lot of the time. Even if you don’t have a significant other, if you just like living on your own, living with someone who is rarely in the room can be beneficial to your sanity.
4. It’s also key to find someone who has remotely the same sleep schedule as you.
However, even if you don’t go to bed at exactly the same time, be sure to be respectful of each other.
“I had a friend whose roommate was really loud. He would stay up all night and bring people to hang out in their room until like six in the morning,” sophomore Tahara Miah said.
5. “Don’t split your shit,” freshman Merrilee Frable said.
“My first roommate and I decided to pay for half of everything, including the fridge and a rug.”
When Frable ended up switching rooms early into the semester, it just made her move across campus more annoying than it already was.