Extroverted DD found her roommate on Instagram after weeks of talking to dozens of girls and was very thoughtful about the process. She wasn't concerned about being good friends but wanted someone compatible. They happen to now be best friends and she is so glad they discussed music, food, partying, alcohol, sleeping habits, study habits, etc.

one kid picked a roommate online. They were friendly but not friends at all. Worked great
One kid also picked a roommate online. They are still besties 2 years later.

My son went random. His roommate was this anti social kid who would stay up all night looking at his iPhone and sleep most of the day. He transferred or dropped out.

Anonymous wrote:For those parents of seniors who will be going to a school where incoming first-year students can choose between finding their own roommate or “going random” (ie letting the college match them), which is your student doing?

For parents whose children have had this choice already, what would you recommend?

What does the STUDENT want to do? Ours elected to have the school match. Not ideal but it was fine. Only one year.

Random.

Anonymous wrote:random is nothing like random in our day, because 75% (at least!) of the extroverts have already partnered up. so you're stuck with the internationals or kids with no social media or super introverts. and those are the kids who really could use an extrovert roomie to push them out of the room from time to time

I agree with this. A few decades ago, I would say go random - no question. Choosing a friend can lead to different expectations and more hurt feelings....there's usually more grace when two people start as strangers, and it's a good life experience and leads to knowing more people IMHO.

But but but, it's so different now. People meet through SM and become friends and form groups way before stepping foot on campus. So as PP said, it leads to a different, smaller cohort being available to randomly pair with. I don't know how this is playing out these days.

Thoughts on this?

Random “match” for my DS ended up with him having a roommate who was the exact opposite of everything DS answered on the questionnaire. They were not a good match.

But it worked out in the end, with my DS being out of his room a lot, meeting a lot of new people.

My current HS senior DD is going with picking a roommate (a young lady she’s met thru admitted students social media) and hopefully it works out well. But who knows?