Choosing a roommate in college is quite a process. It always stresses me out…even though it shouldn’t.
After watching shows like Friends or Gilmore Girls (if you want to call Paris and Rory BFFs), it seems like it would be awesome to live with your best friends. You get you see your best friend 24/7, there is always someone to talk to when you get home and you can dish on life all the time…but for some people that might not work.
For those freshmen out there (or soon to be), picking a random roommate for a dorm might be a wise idea.
You just need to think long and hard about the kind of person you could live with, and for some people, that would not be one their friends.
Pro Random Roomie:
1. You wouldn’t have to worry about getting in fights with your friend too often, and if you did you could just go back to your dorm. (It would be really awkward being in a fight with your best friend and not having anywhere to go.) Plus, who would you complain to with your roommate problems if you lived with your BFF?
2. You would get to make a new friend, who knows, it could end up being someone really close to you.
3. You would have a whole new experience! My random roommate was Indian, so I got to learn a lot about her culture and vice versa.
Con Random Roomie:
1. It could be awkward, living with someone you don’t know too well.
2. She could be into totally different things than you are.
3. She could be a recluse and never leave the room.
Living with someone new means there are going to be awkward times no matter what. You’ve never lived with this person before, how can you expect it to go smoothly 100 percent of the time, even if it is your best friend?
Emily Fisher, a sophomore at UF, opted for a random roomie her freshman year.
Fisher said it went pretty well; they never had roommate issues or fought. She also said she would without a doubt do it again.
Her advice to when you should opt for random:
Do it freshman year, “…when else are you going to do it?”
Fisher decided to live with friends this year, because she wanted to have more fun, she said.
She wasn’t worried about living with her friends because she had her own room, an added bonus to living in an apartment.
Apartment random roommates are a little different. Two of my three roommates are random, and that has worked out pretty well so far.
Apartments usually have a questionnaire, unlike the school, which helps choose random roommates based on what you filled out.
The one at my complex had basic question such as, “How often do you party?” and “How many hours of the day do you study?”
Those questionnaires, although not always accurate, will help find people more like you…at least like you enough to live with.
You know yourself better than anyone…so just think about what would make you most happy. Or ask a person out of the situation what they think, an objective view always helps.
Good luck!