Personal Roommate Experiences, Tips & Advice

Having a roommate may seem daunting at the beginning of your freshman year - it was for me. A roommate meant a new person I had to share space with, work on stuff around, and talk to for nearly a year. Luckily, my roommate turned out to be as nice as she initially seemed, and we’ve gotten to a point that we’re comfortable working around each other with our different habits. Even if your roommate isn’t as great, there’s no need to worry! At my school you can change roommates every semester if you wish or stay in your room with your current one the entire year. If you can’t switch at your university, hopefully there is something for you to bond over or talk about, so you aren’t two planets orbiting the sun at different speeds. My university has a matching system like a dating website - you manipulate sliders to the side of what you want, or you leave it in the middle if you are in between. Things such as when you shower (morning or night), if you can sleep with lots of light or no light, whether you’re going to be a hard worker or you’re at college for the fun of it, and more were all on the list I had to fill out. Luckily, my roommate and I didn’t differ too much on paper, and only differed a bit in person! This was such a good thing for our roommate experience - even if you are randomly matched to someone, you get to know a bit about them before move-in day. Abby and I were able to talk long before we accepted each other and even during the rest of the summer to get to know each other better. My advice is if you get matched, or pick a match, over the summer, make sure to talk to them! My personal roommate experience started out with doubts. Hopefully, yours won’t. I hate to say that most of mine came true after I had moved in with my roommate, Abby. She had a boyfriend who constantly wanted to talk or be with her, was something of a night owl, procrastinated on doing her work, and, in fact, worked off campus. Until we figured out that we needed to keep each other accountable for deadlines, tell each other when we needed to work on homework, get each other up in the morning, and tell each other if we would still be awake or not when the other came in, life was pretty much a big game of tip toe. Pro tip: the roommate agreement helps to outline certain times for activities, such as when you can have guests, and other important things, but you’ll need to talk over your different habits and work styles before too much time has passed. You might find yourself holed up in the library because your roommate has people over and you can’t study. Now, it all isn’t as gloomy as I may make it seem. Abby and I eat most of our meals together, enjoy listening to the same music while we’re studying, and love sending each other cute ideas on Pinterest. Even though I do a lot more studying and homework than she does, when it’s time to relax, she’s instantly ready to put in a movie or watch a bit of tv when I need a break. She’s very optimistic, and is always ready to talk with me, something hopefully you find in a roommate! All in all, we get along well, and we are trying to help each other balance work time and fun time, which is a good goal for both of us. My last bit of advice is if you can find something to bond over, usually the year will go by fast. If that means you both complain about being locked out of the bathroom by your suite mates, all the better. I hope you enjoyed hearing a bit about my personal roommate experience, tips and advice.