Entering housing as an individual is a tough thing to do. It builds anxiety as you wait to see who you will be paired up with. Will you have one roommate, or will you have 2 roommates? Will you have to share rooms, will you have bunk beds? Will you have to share a shower with the whole floor, or just with your roommates? These are the things incoming students, or even transfer students think about as they get ready for a semester at their new school. For some schools, you are given your assignment early in the summer along with who your roommates will be as well. I know for returning students in my college, housing assignments along with who you are paired up with are not given out until the middle of August. This brings major anxiety to individual students. It just simply does not give much time for roommates to communicate on what is needed for the dorm, who will bring what accessories, and not enough time to even get to know each other.

I heard a statistic once that 75 percent of first year roommates that were randomly paired up end up staying together. That truly is an amazing statistic to know that for the most part these schools are essentially doing the right thing when pairing roommates together. I know in my case as a transfer I was put together with two random roommates who had many similarities but they are not my roommates for the upcoming year. I did not have any problems living with them and that is a great thing.

Colleges pair people up by using surveys. In these surveys they ask questions about all types of things including, sleep schedule, favorite music genre, interest in sports, if you smoke, activities, hobbies, etc. A few of these things can easily be used to pair people together and create an instant connection. So, certainly do not fill in information that you think is “cool”. Do not fill information that is incorrect because then you will be paired incorrectly.

All the built up anxiety going into your freshman year, or just simply as an individual will hopefully lead up to roommates that you will enjoy and won’t have a problem with. I sure know I had anxiety to find out who I would be rooming with. I knew I would immediately Facebook them, message them, and see who was bringing what. It’s an interesting thing the housing selection process and apparently it’s decently accurate. As I said before, I won’t be rooming with the roommates that I was randomly selected with for this most recent year and it certainly isn’t because we didn’t connect, I just found kids that I consider my best friends now and I couldn’t turn down rooming with them.

Don’t panic individuals! The statistics prove that MOST of you should be fine. Those of you that do not like your roommates, well, you must have bad luck. There is always next year. Good Luck!