A simple, honest guide to finding the best college roommate
May the odds be in your favor
When it comes to finding your ideal roommate, it will feel like you’re trying to find your spouse — and this marriage can either lead to swift divorce, or they’ll be your partner in crime.
I actually didn’t like her in the beginning of my freshman year and we ended up roommates our sophomore year
A survey conducted by Boise State found that 25 percent of students reported roommate issues, with females more likely to report experiencing a problem than males.
Trust me when I say, finding the perfect roommate will be an uphill battle. There will be times when your roommate will do things that irk you, and you’ll be wishing you lived on your own if solo bedrooms weren’t so expensive.
However, the key of finding the best roommate is to find the person, or group of people, whose baggage you can deal with.
As a junior in college, I like to think I’m a bit wiser from the thousands of mistakes I’ve made. I can not emphasize enough how grateful I am of having a group of people who were there by my side through thick and thin.
So to avoid the dreaded roommate horror stories that you hear—here’s a simple yet honest guide of finding the right roommate.
Yes, my roommate wrote this encouraging message on my bathroom mirror
Join all your class group pages on Facebook
Every school has one, and you need to join one ASAP!
In every class page, you will find four types of people trying to find a roommate:
The person who will post a long, exhausting list of requirements they need in a roommate
They will literally post every single thing about themselves and what they expect of you as a roommate.
We get it, Janet — can you please not already tell me what to do and how you want our floors to be cleaned at exactly 6pm every night? Bye now!
Is it weird to post a whole, long paragraph about yourself without sounding like you are selling yourself to the devil? Yes. But it’s definitely worth it since people will reach out to you.
The person who doesn’t have time to impress you in a post
To the brave souls who truly do not give a fuck about who their roommates will be — I commend you for your courage and bravery.
This is a risky route to take since other people will write out their will on every post and here you are, the person who doesn’t care about impressing anyone.
Round of applause for these types of people, and do not sleep on them, because they always end up being the best kinds of roommates.
The snake of the class page who needs to find a roommate by lying on their post
There’s snakes on a plane, there’s snakes like my ex but the worst kind of snake is the one who lies about being someone they’re not on their roommate post.
WATCH OUT FOR THEM!
They seem perfectly normal on their post, but you will soon find out that they have a weird obsession with Justin Bieber and a poster of him that will haunt you in your nightmares.
The dream roommate that you will want but will have 10 other people wanting them too
You’ll want to hug them and never let them go. Don’t.
Trust me when you read their post, you will hear angels singing and you’ll message them with all the hope of being their roommate. However, you’ll be mortified to find out they’re already messaging two other people and now you’re back to square one!
Find out if your school has Room Sync and use it (caution, this backfires for most)
If you haven’t heard of it, RoomSync is the official Facebook app designed to help you in your search for the perfect roommate.
It was created to ensure sensitive and private aspects of your Facebook profile to stay private while allowing you to interact with potential roommates.
If you’re stubborn like me, this app can be a pain. You are basically on the prowl for your roommate and it’s literally like online dating. It’s worse enough that we have to meet people online and hope they’re not different in person, and every time I’m on it my scam senses are tingling and my trust issues are off the damn roof.
Roomsurf to find your college soul roommate
Surf till you find that one
Just like RoomSync, Roomsurf will also help you find the ideal roommate.
This social networking resource helps college students identify and connect with compatible roommates, allowing you to spend more time getting to know good matches and less time searching for them.
As good as it sounds, there will people on this site that will make you question humanity and if the solo bedroom is still up for grabs on your housing website.
It’s a jungle out there, just make sure your roommate is sanitary and clean if you want to avoid being in the dorm that has a horrible stench to it!
Ask a friend to help you find a roommate
During my freshman year, I had someone random and it wasn’t horrible but she wasn’t my best friend. Instead of using these roommate matching websites, I decided to just ask one of my friends to help me out, and it’s so much easier than searching for one online. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends or make them ask their friends if they know someone who needs a roommate, because most of the times they do.
So what are you waiting for? Go find your roommate and make sure you investigate everything about them beforehand. If they turn out to be complete psychopaths, you could always ask to switch roommates.
We are paying thousands of dollars to be where we are, why not make sure our roommates are the people who we will look back on in a few years, and be grateful that they were in our lives?