Introduction
You’re headed off to college, and while you can’t wait to experience dorm life, you’re a little nervous about finding a roommate. Will they be messy? Rude? Watch way too much TV? You don’t have to worry though — there are plenty of ways to find a college roommate who will be the perfect match for you! I’ve got all the advice on how to find a college roommate who will be your friend for life.
Figure out what you want in a Roommate
Of course, it’s important to consider the other person’s perspective. You don’t want to annoy them or be annoying yourself—you just want to find a roommate who is similar to you in some way. For example:
- Similar interests
- Similar sleep schedule (if applicable)
- Similar study habits (e.g., if one of you likes working at night and the other likes getting up early)
- Similar social habits (e.g., one of you loves going out with friends every weekend while another prefers staying home)
- Similar personality
Talk to your future roommate on the phone
The next step in finding the perfect roommate is talking on the phone. When you talk to your future roommate, you want to get a feel for their personality, hobbies and interests, schedule, family background, and academic interests. It’s also important to know how they do academically in college as well as their performance on previous standardized tests like the ACT or SATs.
After you’ve talked with them over the phone (and met them in person if possible), it’s time for some serious thinking about whether or not this person would be a good fit for your program at school. You’ll want to keep these things in mind: 25 Super Important Things Every College Student Needs To know
- Do they have similar goals? Will they help each other reach those goals?
- Is one friend more outgoing than another? Does that mean there will be more social events happening at home or does it mean everyone will focus on studying?
7 Tips on how to find a college roommate you’ll like
You will have a lot of classes with each other and probably spend more time with your roommate than anyone else you meet in college. And while it may seem like the most natural thing in the world, finding a roomie isn’t always easy.
Here are seven ways to help make sure that when you do find someone who wants to room with you, they’re someone who will be a good roommate:
- Be open-minded and flexible about who your roommate is going to be
- Make sure they’re someone you get along with before committing to live together for an entire year (or two years or three years). You don’t want to end up hating each other after just one month because there was some miscommunication about what kind of people were living together at first glance!
Read reviews of the school and dorms
A quick Google search for “reviews of XYZ College” will reveal plenty of reviews, but you may be more interested in checking out what students are saying about their dorms.
To do this, find your college’s website and look for a section called “Residence Halls.” If they don’t have one, try searching “XYZ College dorms” on Google or Yelp. You might notice that there are some reviews written by non-students who don’t live on campus—these are usually written by parents who visited their child’s place at school (and hey! They’re still important).
Once you’ve found your way to the right site and come across some helpful reviews, keep reading! The next step is finding out how these different dorms compare with each other by reading specific comments from students who lived there.
What to do and what to say when looking for a college roommate?
- Be Organized and Prepared
- Know What You’re Looking For
- Be Realistic About How Many People Will Contact You
- Don’t Get Attached to Anyone Too Soon
Look into other options like off-campus housing, or living with relatives
If you’re still not sure if living with a random stranger is right for you, there are other options.
Some students prefer off-campus housing rather than on-campus housing because they feel it’s safer or more convenient. Others want to live in different parts of town and get to know their surrounding communities better. If this sounds like something that might work for you, consider looking into these places:
- Houses/apartments are owned by either the person renting them out or by multiple people who own it together (like a group of friends).
- Dorms on another campus entirely—for example, if your school has satellite campuses throughout the state or even country! This can be especially beneficial if one campus has more resources than another (like being closer to a major city) but only offers certain majors at each one—it gives students increased freedom when choosing where they want to live based on what coursework is offered at that location specifically rather than just which school itself has more classes available overall.”
Consider their sleep schedule
- Consider their sleep schedule.
If you’re a night owl, you may not want to live with a morning person. If you’re a morning person, you may not want to live with a night owl. In general, it’s best if your roommate is as similar to your sleep schedule as possible so that neither of you will feel frustrated by the other’s habits or routines.
Get to know your future roomie before moving in together
Once you’ve found your roommate, it’s time to talk about living together. Before moving in, you should make sure that your interests are compatible and that you share similar sleep schedules.
To better understand each other’s expectations for the room, ask questions like:
- What do they expect from a roommate?
- What type of person would be their ideal roommate?
- What kind of space do they like living in (e.g., quiet or social)?
It’s important to have a good relationship with your roommate.
The roommate you choose is the person who will be your roommate for at least one year. It’s important to have a good relationship with them because they’ll be there for you when things aren’t going well, but they can also be a source of stress.
Whether they’re supportive or not, they can also help make new friends!
One thing that many people don’t realize about college is that once you get into it and settle down into your new routine, living with your roomie will seem completely normal after a while.
Conclusion
College can be stressful for many reasons. One of them is the fact that you will have to live with someone you might not know that well, or at all. But there are ways to find a compatible roommate, and I hope this article has helped you see what they are. Don’t think it’s impossible—there’s always someone out there who would make a great roommate! You just need to find that person and convince them (or yourself) that you will be best friends forever if only they live with you next year.
