We asked girls (and guys) around the Ball State campus to tell us about their worst roommate experiences. These are the top seven horrifying results.
(Editor’s note: to protect the identities of those who responded, only first names are included)
1. The Endless Singer
“During my freshman year, I had a roommate who would never stop singing. At first, I thought it was just a thing that would happen once in awhile and go away or stop. But after a month, I realized that this was going to go on and on for the rest of the year. It wasn’t even good music – most of the songs where from TV shows or commercials. I went through six pairs of earphones in the first semester.” – Brandon, junior
2. The Cheater
“My first roommate and I went to high school together, so I felt like I knew her well enough to be comfortable rooming with her. She was still dating a guy we went to high school with when she got here – at least I thought she was. By the second week of school, she was going out to parties and bringing back guys that definitely were not her boyfriend. This went on for at least two months, and when her boyfriend made a surprise visit to campus in October, I was the one who had to listen to an entire night of crying and yelling when he found out.” – Kelsey, senior
3. The Package Deal
“I lived in the dorms again during my sophomore year, but instead of staying with roommate from my freshman year, I went random for the second time around. When I met him for the first time on move-in day, he seemed pretty cool. He told me all about the stuff he liked to do and what he was interested in, and he briefly mentioned he had a girlfriend somewhere in that conversation. Well, that girlfriend turned out to be more important than anything else in his life. Before I knew it, there were three of us living in the room, not two. It got to the point where she had her own key to the room, and there would be times when she was in the room without my roommate or I. I definitely didn’t enjoy coming back to my room to see a group of girls painting their nails and eating Chinese food.” – Adam, junior
4. The Insomniac
“So when I moved into my first house off-campus, there was this guy that would literally never sleep. I’m pretty sure he never even laid down in his bed for longer than a few hours. I would go to bed and he would be on his computer doing whatever it is that he does, and I kid you not, when woke up in the morning to go to class, he would be sitting in the exact same spot – and he was doing the exact same thing. I got to the point that we were getting concerned about him never sleeping or leaving the house, so we staged a little intervention meeting. The guy got so mad that he packed up like two boxes of stuff and left. We haven’t seen him since.” – Alex, senior
5. The Fighter
“My first roommate in college loved to fight. It wouldn’t even be about important things. Sometimes, I would just say something about a class or about my day, and she would go crazy. I mean, she would always have some sort of rude, mean comment to respond to everything I had to say. Even if I wanted to compliment her hair, I would get a sarcastic, annoyed remark as a response. We stopped talking after the first semester.” – Kayla, sophomore
6. The Ghost
“I had a roommate once that I never, ever saw. She was there on move-in day, and then I saw her a couple times after that, but that was it. I guess it wasn’t really that bad, but I’m glad I wasn’t depending on being friends with the person I was supposed to share a room with for an entire year.” – Amber, senior
7. The Food Thief
“My roommate right now loves to eat food. She actually loves food so much that she steals mine when I’m not there. At first, I thought I was just forgetting where I out stuff, but then I saw food wrappers and bottles in our trash can that I didn’t remember eating. I love food. I really love food. So we’re going to be having a conversation about what she can eat and what she can’t.” – Carly, freshman