For many incoming freshmen, the idea of sharing a room with a complete stranger is the most nerve-wracking element of the new semester. It is only natural, then, that an increasing number of students are opting to pre-select their roommates online in an effort both to ensure roommate compatibility and to mitigate the difficult adjustment of learning to live with someone else.
While Facebook has been the most popular online forum to find potential roommates, a bevy of new websites and online applications have popped up that are exclusively dedicated to the roommate selection process. URoomSurf.com and RoommateClick.com have received particular attention from both institutions and students. Several schools have actually encouraged their students to utilize these websites, and more than 83,000 students at 775 U.S. schools have used URoomSurf since its creation. Both sites follow a simple, user-friendly format similar to other online communities.
Colleges are far from reaching a consensus about roommate matchmaking; some schools reject the idea as petty, while others have decided to embrace and even encourage it.
While Tufts is not typically an institution to follow the herd, this year the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) introduced an online program to give students the option of selecting their roommates based on detailed profiles similar to those on Facebook.
The system, StarRez — used by 270 colleges, including Cornell, UC Berkeley and Boston College — aims to expedite the university housing process by relying wholly on students' online selections. The roommate matching service is one of the most striking features of the new program, as it enables students to communicate with various potential roommates directly.
StarRez roommate questions include both basic information, such as bed time and cleanliness level, and a space for a biography. Fortunately, it also provides flexibility. "If [students] wanted to do a roommate matchup based on the StarRez profile, they could choose to. Otherwise, they could have [their roommates] randomly assigned. The feature basically gives you the option of seeing who your roommate could be," Yolanda King, the director of ResLife, said.
Not all would say this flexibility is a good thing: New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd recently wrote an op-ed criticizing roommate screening. Titled "Don't Send In the Clones," the piece argued that learning to live with someone new and possibly different from you is a critical aspect of growing up. "Choosing roommates who are mirror images may fit with our narcissistic and micro-targeted society, but it retards creativity and social growth," Dowd wrote.
While not all hold opinions as strong as Dowd's, those who support random roommate pairings typically defend their choice with the adage that roommates are meant to be a source of learning and growth — not necessarily best friends.
"I think learning to live with someone is part of the college experience," junior Ellie
Crutcher, who chose to be randomly paired with a roommate before her freshman year, said. "I knew a few people who did it through Facebook, and I chose not to just because I wanted to leave it up to chance. If I had chosen someone and it was a bad situation, I would have felt responsible."Crutcher also admitted that she had heard of many situations in which pre-selected roommates "backfired," further discouraging her from the option.
"I also believe there are a lot of things about compatibility you can't find out over Facebook or online profiles," she said.
Crutcher was eventually paired with a swimmer in Houston Hall and, despite the differences in their schedules, it was a good experience, she said.
"I don't think you need to room with your best friend," Crutcher said. "I think living around people you're close with is more important than living with [them]."
Incoming freshman Alexandra Allport thought about using the StarRez matching system but eventually decided to be randomly assigned a roommate for the same reason.
"I made a bio and I got requests from people — but I was sort of hesitant and afraid that I would pick someone too much like me and things would go badly," she said. "I wanted it to be more organic and standard college procedure. Getting a random roommate is kind of exciting."
Allport emphasized that her choice to go random did not indicate a disregard for compatibility.
"I wasn't looking for a best friend but I definitely had some preferences: someone who has an appreciation for quiet time but not someone who is a recluse, someone who's flexible and can make compromises," Allport said.
But, like Crutcher, she is skeptical about the veracity and authenticity of online personas.
"After I received the names of my [StarRez] matches, I would look through their Facebook photos, but that whole process is so judgmental. I think you have just as good a chance at getting along with someone you choose as you do with someone random," Allport said.
Allport doesn't regret her decision and is excited to meet her roommate, who attended boarding school in New Hampshire — a long way from Allport's home in Oregon.
"I thought it was exciting to be thrown into the mix and be with someone different rather than someone who was too similar to me," she said.
In contrast, King views roommate screening as only helpful.
"Roommate tensions have started to decrease, and I think that has a lot to do with students using Facebook and exchanging information before deciding they want to live with each other. I think it's a student choice," King said. "I think some students are more comfortable living with someone they know versus someone they don't know. And some students want to live with other people they don't know."
Andy Thorne, a junior, was impartial to pre-selecting a roommate when he was approached by another incoming freshman online during the summer of 2008.
"We messaged back and forth on Facebook for a while and it was clear we got along and he wasn't a serial killer," Thorne said.
The rest is history, as the two quickly became inseparable and knew almost immediately that they would continue living together sophomore year. While Thorne admitted that he had exceptionally good luck, he points to several awful roommate pairings he witnessed — including a particularly discordant match in his hall — as proof that going random can have dire consequences.
"The ability to compromise [and] communicate and a good attitude" are the important factors in a roommate, Thorne said. He believes these qualities are more likely to become apparent through direct communication. "We could choose a roommate based on interests and things that were important to us — things that students would actually care about,"Thorne said.
