Choosing a roommate for your freshman year of college is daunting, chaotic, and exciting. Let me encourage you to ease the process by going random!
Many of the people I met during my freshman year met their roommates through the “UConn Story” on Snapchat or the Instagram page for their graduating class. While some people did match both online and in-person, that seems to be the minority. In my case, going random with my roommate(s) โ yes, I had TWO, was the best decision I ever made.
By going random, you have a higher chance of rooming with someone less similar to you. They may have different majors, sports, hobbies, etc. This will allow you both to branch out on your own to make friends while still introducing new friends to each other. You will also have no pressure to be anyone but yourself because you are avoiding the awkward selection process that many do online. You’ll be able to work on your communication skills and grow as a person. Going random is truly the most beneficial decision someone can make for themselves freshman year.
I am an only child who has never needed to share a room or bathroom with anyone my entire life. I had no idea what I really wanted out of a roommate. My only concept of acceptable living standards were the standards I’d made for myself growing up. When it came time to find a roommate, I didn’t even know what I was supposed to look for. I decided to join a Learning Community (LC), so I could at least live with a floor of people who share a common interests. This narrowed my options, but I still didn’t know how to pick from the small pool of girls in my LC. When I finally logged on to pick my room, the only options left were the two triples on the floor. I thought, “Well, two roommates it is.”
This ended up being the best decision of my freshman year. My roommates and I all went into the year with no idea what to expect from one another. We had to communicate over text for a short time to work out the logistical matters of the room, but other than that we had no “getting to know each other” phase before move-in. Once we got moved in, we talked about our expectations, needs, habits, etc. All three of us had different majors, hobbies, and interests. Besides being a part of the LC, we seemed to have little in common. If I had met them on Instagram and only tried to get to know them through social media, we probably would not have chosen each other because it did not seem like a perfect friendship match. However, the diversity of our interests and lives led to a wonderful living situation the rest of the year. We all met such a variety of people that we could introduce one another too. We were all in and out of the room at different times so we didn’t see too much or not enough of each other. Although our passions and interests led to us all living separately this year, we all remain friends and talk regularly!
Not rooming together this year was an amicable and almost unspoken decision. Because we did not necessarily choose each other in the first place, there was no expectation of living together in the future. Also, because we had not explicitly chosen each other beforehand, there was no pressure to be best friends. I think this is what allowed us to all be ourselves and meet each other more authentically. When you are searching for a roommate before school, people will inevitably be a bit less themselves on the internet. Everyone wants to be liked โ to be picked. The process itself has been described by many as “speed-dating”, and can be very disappointing if both parties do not match each others enthusiasm. When you go random, you bypass any expectations.
Overall, going random with a roommate your freshman year is one of the scariest but most essential decisions you can make. I will continue to recommend it to every person I know that is going into college. It allows you to be your most authentic self, to meet twice as many people, to grow as an individual, and avoid the awkward selection process.