Do you smoke? Are you a morning person? Do you need complete silence while studying?
Think way back _ to the summer before freshman year. At some point, you received a piece of mail containing a sheet of paper asking some of these questions, and maybe a couple more. The questionnaire was supposed to ensure that your roommate for the coming year would be someone you could live with peaceably. So why is the freshman roommate horror story such a familiar one?
Maybe it wasn't (or isn't, for those freshmen) so bad. You had your share of arguments _ whose turn it was to fill the Brita, who left the wet towel on your bed, who tracked mud across the carpet _ but in general, you got along. You laughed, you cried, you watched out for each other. But when the time came to decide on housing for sophomore year, it never even occurred to either of you to live together again.
One female sophomore 'got along' with her roommate, but the two weren't exactly best friends. "In general, we were very different in terms of personalities and backgrounds," she said. "We tolerated each other."
Entering a new environment, sometimes very far away from home, college freshmen usually look to their roommates for some level of comfort or a sense of home. It's nice when roommates get along with each other, but most hope to develop real friendships. The sophomore wishes she and her roommate had been able to develop a closer friendship, something beyond mere 'tolerance.' "I'm fairly tolerant of people, but it would have been nice to have someone closer to me in terms of personality _ it would have made my freshman year a whole lot nicer," she said.
Sophomore Eva Guy and her freshman roommate shared many of the same interests and took some of the same classes, which might have led to a potential overload, but she insists that they didn't get sick of each other. "We weren't around each other all the time," she said. "We were really considerate of each other and we didn't have any major problems."
The two were also lucky that they shared similar bedtimes. Unlike many college students, Guy said that she and her roommate both went to bed around 11:30 p.m. most nights. "That's pretty early for a college student, and it's rare to find someone else that goes to bed that early," Guy said. Although the two got along pretty well, they decided against rooming together this year.
On the other hand, sophomore Matt Alford had such a positive experience with his freshman year roommate that they decided to live together again. "I feel really lucky that I got a roommate that I'm so compatible with," he said. "But part of the reason we get along so well is because, in some ways, we're very different people, in personality aspects."
Beyond just "getting along," the two became good friends during their freshman year, developing the same group of friends. "We both had similar social expectations from college," Alford said, describing their similar stances on partying and social lives.
After a pleasant year, the two returned to campus last fall to share a room once again. "Halfway through second semester last year, we just kind of decided since we had something that worked, why change it?" he said.
Realizing that freshmen must share a very cramped space with a stranger for nine months, colleges try to pair up students with compatibility in mind. But does Tufts do enough to try to make sure that its first-year students will enjoy an amicable living situation?
When sophomore Jeremy White received the roommate survey the summer before his freshman year, it wasn't exactly what he envisioned. "I was amazed that that was all they asked; that they matched people up based on that," he said. Although he thought that the questions asked were important ones, he didn't feel that the questionnaire was sufficient.
Luckily, he and his roommate had a pretty easy time together last year. "We got along with each other," White said. "We both really tried not to step on each other's feet."
For one transfer student, the survey didn't help at all. The sophomore arrived last fall to meet her new roommate, another transfer student, and found they had irreconcilable differences that the survey should have prevented. "We had completely different schedules, and she was a smoker and I wasn't," she said. "I guess they didn't even look at the surveys."
Three weeks into the semester, the sophomore and her new roommate switched spaces with a couple of girls down the hall. Although they decided to swap rooms, she said that the two parted on good terms. "We got along, and we were friends and everything. We just both knew that it wasn't going to work out for either of us," she said.
And as for the survey?
"I think the questions are enough, but they have to actually look at them," the sophomore said, laughing. "It's really hard to place people exactly where they want to be."
"I think it's a hit-or-miss situation," Guy said. "The big things, like smoking and sleeping habits, they already ask about, but in terms of personality, you can't really tell."
Although Alford had a more positive freshman-roommate experiences, he thinks the survey needs to be amended. "I think it needs to be more detailed," he said.
He suggested questions that cover study and lifestyle habits more thoroughly. "There's more dynamics to a roommate relationship than whether or not you smoke or stay up late," he pointed out.
