Friends of a feather room together
Allie Rohwer
Issue date: 3/4/09 Section: Opinion
The semester is nearing midterm, which means many things: time to prepare for tests, time to work on projects, and time to buckle down with your studies. This is also the time when you pick your roommates for the following year.
Living situations on campus can be hectic, and can raise many questions, such as where to find the right place and who to share it with.
You could post a flyer to find a random person to live with you in an apartment or choose to be paired up by University Housing and Dining Services' infamous roommate survey system for the residence halls. Anyway you slice it, random roommates could lead to a terrible year.
Living with someone is about more than just getting along with them. You have to be able to share and co-exist with one another. When a random roommate is assigned, you have no idea how that other person lives, let alone the kind of secrets they could be keeping from you.
Choosing a familiar face is probably the most popular way to find someone to live in an apartment with. If you choose a friend to live with, there are many things you know upfront, like their family history, who their parents and siblings are and even who their significant others are, and how often each of them like to visit. When living with a random roommate, these things can be discussed, but if your roommate is vague about how much her overprotective mother calls on Saturday night, it could lead to a problem.
Then comes the boyfriend or girlfriend factor. Are you comfortable with two people you don't know sleeping next to you on the weekends, or changing clothes in front of you when one of them comes to visit?
When you choose to live with a friend, you are familiar with their living habits. When paired up with someone you don't know much about, you can't pinpoint how messy he or she is until it's too late. Also, in this same case, if you have a problem with the way your friend is living in the room, you can easily ask them to clean, whereas your random roommate might take offense.
You also know about study habits, or lack thereof. If you choose your friend, you know how they study or whether they go out and don't study. Being paired randomly with someone you don't know could lead to miscommunication about this topic, and you could end up being woken up at 5 a.m. on a random day.
Overall, picking a roommate can be a great way to hand pick your memories for the next year of school. It can also be memorable in that living with someone you don't know could make for a long, awkward year. Whatever you decide to do, just know that when the going gets tough, the person you live with has access to your personal belongings when you're not there. This could work in your favor, or it could be the biggest mistake of their life.
Living situations on campus can be hectic, and can raise many questions, such as where to find the right place and who to share it with.
You could post a flyer to find a random person to live with you in an apartment or choose to be paired up by University Housing and Dining Services' infamous roommate survey system for the residence halls. Anyway you slice it, random roommates could lead to a terrible year.
Living with someone is about more than just getting along with them. You have to be able to share and co-exist with one another. When a random roommate is assigned, you have no idea how that other person lives, let alone the kind of secrets they could be keeping from you.
Choosing a familiar face is probably the most popular way to find someone to live in an apartment with. If you choose a friend to live with, there are many things you know upfront, like their family history, who their parents and siblings are and even who their significant others are, and how often each of them like to visit. When living with a random roommate, these things can be discussed, but if your roommate is vague about how much her overprotective mother calls on Saturday night, it could lead to a problem.
Then comes the boyfriend or girlfriend factor. Are you comfortable with two people you don't know sleeping next to you on the weekends, or changing clothes in front of you when one of them comes to visit?
When you choose to live with a friend, you are familiar with their living habits. When paired up with someone you don't know much about, you can't pinpoint how messy he or she is until it's too late. Also, in this same case, if you have a problem with the way your friend is living in the room, you can easily ask them to clean, whereas your random roommate might take offense.
You also know about study habits, or lack thereof. If you choose your friend, you know how they study or whether they go out and don't study. Being paired randomly with someone you don't know could lead to miscommunication about this topic, and you could end up being woken up at 5 a.m. on a random day.
Overall, picking a roommate can be a great way to hand pick your memories for the next year of school. It can also be memorable in that living with someone you don't know could make for a long, awkward year. Whatever you decide to do, just know that when the going gets tough, the person you live with has access to your personal belongings when you're not there. This could work in your favor, or it could be the biggest mistake of their life.
Be the first to comment on this story