The roommate finding process is a drag

[Anonymous]

This is concerning me. My kid is off to Brown in the Fall and we've heard nothing about roommate assignments/dorms, etc. Hope I haven't missed something!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be great if someone compiled a list of how top schools handle freshman roommates. It really says a lot about the school.

Everyone here is so obsessed acting like experts and analyzing which school has a better econ department or sends more kids to Wall Street. I think how they handle freshman roommates is just as important (assuming the schools are relatively similar academically).

I think random is the only way to go. I was assigned a random roommate. Our neighbor walked in the first day and said "this is a disaster waiting to happen." Despite looking completely different we both grew up in similar socioeconomic backgrounds and with similar values of being easy-going and kind to others, so we got along great - didn't live together after that year but still keep in touch 30+ years later.

What do the different policies say?

[Anonymous]

Random is so much better. My freshman roommate is someone I never would have "matched" with -- we're very different, with different backgrounds, etc. But she became a lifelong friend, and I learned a lot from her. I tell my kids to go random...much better that way, even if you don't end up being super close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A space does not have to be cohesive. They can pick a rug together but other than that…who cares? My daughter got her bedding, roommate got hers.

I do emphasize with the stress of this process for some girls. Absolutely.

A lot of girls care

They need to stop caring. This trend is ridiculous...

[Anonymous]

Random is better. It a problem when roommates have too much in common or when a roommate situation spoils a good friendship. Better to have different activities, academic interests, social circles, so they can give one another space. That’s also the whole point of the residential college experience- to be exposed to people from different backgrounds and life experiences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is concerning me. My kid is off to Brown in the Fall and we've heard nothing about roommate assignments/dorms, etc. Hope I haven't missed something!

I think most of the Ivies don't let you pick roommates -- they do it the old fashioned way where you fill out a questionnaire and the school matches you up. That was true for my kid and it worked out fine.

[Anonymous]

The whole social media roommate search process sounds awful, like a mini virtual version of sorority rush!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole social media roommate search process sounds awful, like a mini virtual version of sorority rush!

I was just talking to my DD about this. It definitely is easier for very outgoing kids. There was a questions on one of the pages here about whether the social media page reflects the personality of the student, if they show they have a lot of friends. A year or so ago, I remember reading on here about prepping your socials for rush and talked to a friend who has a daughter at a southern school. The advice was to have lots of posts with girlfriends.They said to make sure it wasn't the same friends in all the pics and don't include pics with boys unless it's a long-term boyfriend. Also, vacation photos were good, too. I definitely felt a lot of feelings about all of that. It's like LinkedIn, but for personality. A lot of it is curated and doesn't tell the whole story, but it's how a first impression is formed.

Y'all, we had it so much easier in the 90s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole social media roommate search process sounds awful, like a mini virtual version of sorority rush!

It is awful for some kids. Mine was totally put off by it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous. They should go back to random for everyone the way it used to be.

+1. It's part of the college experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous. They should go back to random for everyone the way it used to be.

+1. It's part of the college experience.

But do any large schools have mandatory random? Based on the other post, it’s ones with student bodies smaller than 8000 or so.

[Anonymous]

Reading this post is giving me anxiety and I do not even have a dog in the fight (have boys and their colleges did random assignments of roommates).

Here is my question: For sororities and finding a roommate, if you are judged based on your Instagram account, how can you start over if you had a rough HS existence? I mean, let's say you did not have tons of friends so your IG does not show tons of pretty friends pics. Are you doomed in finding a roommate and heaven-forbid rushing a sorority?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole social media roommate search process sounds awful, like a mini virtual version of sorority rush!

I was just talking to my DD about this. It definitely is easier for very outgoing kids. There was a questions on one of the pages here about whether the social media page reflects the personality of the student, if they show they have a lot of friends. A year or so ago, I remember reading on here about prepping your socials for rush and talked to a friend who has a daughter at a southern school. The advice was to have lots of posts with girlfriends.They said to make sure it wasn't the same friends in all the pics and don't include pics with boys unless it's a long-term boyfriend. Also, vacation photos were good, too. I definitely felt a lot of feelings about all of that. It's like LinkedIn, but for personality. A lot of it is curated and doesn't tell the whole story, but it's how a first impression is formed.

Y'all, we had it so much easier in the 90s.

This jives with what I’ve seen with my DD and her friends as well. They spend hours deciding what photos to post and in what order. Posts with friends is very important in their eyes as a social cue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading this post is giving me anxiety and I do not even have a dog in the fight (have boys and their colleges did random assignments of roommates).

Here is my question: For sororities and finding a roommate, if you are judged based on your Instagram account, how can you start over if you had a rough HS existence? I mean, let's say you did not have tons of friends so your IG does not show tons of pretty friends pics. Are you doomed in finding a roommate and heaven-forbid rushing a sorority?

The good part is that you almost never post on your grid anymore, it’s mostly just stories/reels. It’s not too late but they would want to build up their social network and posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading this post is giving me anxiety and I do not even have a dog in the fight (have boys and their colleges did random assignments of roommates).

Here is my question: For sororities and finding a roommate, if you are judged based on your Instagram account, how can you start over if you had a rough HS existence? I mean, let's say you did not have tons of friends so your IG does not show tons of pretty friends pics. Are you doomed in finding a roommate and heaven-forbid rushing a sorority?

The good part is that you almost never post on your grid anymore, it’s mostly just stories/reels. It’s not too late but they would want to build up their social network and posts.

And with stories, they can save them to highlights.