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I believe rooming with a random person your freshman year of college is what everyone should do. Pre-arranged roommates NEVER work out. And single rooms aren't as fun, you're definitely missing out on a great experience. I got randomly put into a triple at my school, and had a blast. It FORCED me to meet and interact with new people (because I ended up going to a college a lot of my high school went to, this was a great thing), and puts you out of your comfort zone a bit.
One of my roommates and I didnt get along very well, but I'm actually getting a house next year, and my other roommate is one of the people in it. If I had a single room, I would have missed out on meeting a great friend of mine.
Plus, even if you get a bad roommate, its a great story to tell!!
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Living in a triple... so TWO roommates! Rooming with them again next year.
They're both really cool. Got one of them to start playing SC2.
IMO get a roommate. never know whats gonna happen
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its a risk.. i went for a double and got someone who i did not click with at all, but luckily i became friends with someone in the double next door to me, and my original roommate became friends with the other guy in that room. we ended up switching roommates and it was an awesome year having a roommate that I was friends with.
With that being said I got pretty lucky, if I were to do it over again without knowing who my roommate was going to be, I would definitely go for a single.
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If living with another random person was ok for you, you wouldn't even ask. I say go for single since it's obvious you are not comfortable with the idea.
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On April 22 2011 00:57 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On April 21 2011 23:21 matjlav wrote:I had a double my freshman year. It was a shitty experience. That (in combination with how much it sucked to share my bedroom with my brother from ages 7-12) caused me to myself afterward that I would never share a bedroom for an extended period of time again outside of romantic relationships. That's just my personal experience, but I would definitely recommend a single if you can afford it. On April 21 2011 16:11 ]343[ wrote: I feel like having a roommate at least once in your life is a valuable experience... singles are definitely nice and all, but if you haven't had a roommate before, definitely try it out! I completely disagree. I think that sharing a bedroom with a randomly selected person is an absolutely absurd idea which is highly likely to create unavoidable problems with regards to sleep schedule, homework/study habits, social time, hygiene, etc., and I fail to see what is "valuable" about that experience. It just sucks. Sure, you need to have a flatmate so that you can learn how to share a kitchen or a bathroom or a living room politely. But sharing a dorm room... no. That is just crappy. My roommate in college was not clean. He made the room smell bad by leaving sweaty clothes everywhere. His side of the room was always pretty much just a pile of sweaty clothes. That was my main issue with him. But for me, personally, I just don't feel very comfortable when I don't have anywhere where I can shut the door and know that no one else is coming in. It's not too rational, but I'm fairly introverted and I like to be able to have my alone time. You learn a lot going through that type of experience. Whether or not the lesson is worth it if you have a really bad arrangement is debatable... but to say that it can't be a good learning experience too I think is wrong. I was in a converted triple my freshman year so there were three of us packed into a room meant for two. Us and the converted triple next door ended up doing a lot of stuff together etc and if I was in a single I would have had a much different experience. In my opinion save the single for when you are a little older and are better able to gauge what effect it will have on your college life, health, and academics. I'd also advise against rooming with someone you pre-arrange unless you have a very good reason for wanting to do it.
I mean, when people ask this question, it's usually responded with people that had a bad experience saying "get a single" and people that had a good experience saying "get a double." So it can obviously go either way, but in my opinion, there are a lot of much better and less risky ways to get a good social group than sharing your bedroom with a random guy.
And I don't see how you view getting a single as some sort of risk that you should weight the benefits of when you're older and more experience... having a roommate is way more likely to stress you out and be a detriment....
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Me and my freshman roomate ended up living together all 4 years (2 in dorm then 2 with us + one of my other friends) in an apartment. I got lucky with who I got matched it. Its really luck of the draw, some people end up being good friends others hate each other and try to get out of it asap.
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United States24554 Posts
On April 22 2011 07:49 matjlav wrote:Show nested quote +On April 22 2011 00:57 micronesia wrote:On April 21 2011 23:21 matjlav wrote:I had a double my freshman year. It was a shitty experience. That (in combination with how much it sucked to share my bedroom with my brother from ages 7-12) caused me to myself afterward that I would never share a bedroom for an extended period of time again outside of romantic relationships. That's just my personal experience, but I would definitely recommend a single if you can afford it. On April 21 2011 16:11 ]343[ wrote: I feel like having a roommate at least once in your life is a valuable experience... singles are definitely nice and all, but if you haven't had a roommate before, definitely try it out! I completely disagree. I think that sharing a bedroom with a randomly selected person is an absolutely absurd idea which is highly likely to create unavoidable problems with regards to sleep schedule, homework/study habits, social time, hygiene, etc., and I fail to see what is "valuable" about that experience. It just sucks. Sure, you need to have a flatmate so that you can learn how to share a kitchen or a bathroom or a living room politely. But sharing a dorm room... no. That is just crappy. My roommate in college was not clean. He made the room smell bad by leaving sweaty clothes everywhere. His side of the room was always pretty much just a pile of sweaty clothes. That was my main issue with him. But for me, personally, I just don't feel very comfortable when I don't have anywhere where I can shut the door and know that no one else is coming in. It's not too rational, but I'm fairly introverted and I like to be able to have my alone time. You learn a lot going through that type of experience. Whether or not the lesson is worth it if you have a really bad arrangement is debatable... but to say that it can't be a good learning experience too I think is wrong. I was in a converted triple my freshman year so there were three of us packed into a room meant for two. Us and the converted triple next door ended up doing a lot of stuff together etc and if I was in a single I would have had a much different experience. In my opinion save the single for when you are a little older and are better able to gauge what effect it will have on your college life, health, and academics. I'd also advise against rooming with someone you pre-arrange unless you have a very good reason for wanting to do it. I mean, when people ask this question, it's usually responded with people that had a bad experience saying "get a single" and people that had a good experience saying "get a double." So it can obviously go either way, but in my opinion, there are a lot of much better and less risky ways to get a good social group than sharing your bedroom with a random guy. And I don't see how you view getting a single as some sort of risk that you should weight the benefits of when you're older and more experience... having a roommate is way more likely to stress you out and be a detriment.... My second year I got a single (wasn't available first year) and spent the whole year on my computer.... not that computers are bad or anything but I wasn't prepared to be on my own yet (contrast that with my very active freshman year where I was spontaneously playing basketball with people from my room/floor, eating at the dining hall with them, playing poker, etc).
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On April 22 2011 09:07 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On April 22 2011 07:49 matjlav wrote:On April 22 2011 00:57 micronesia wrote:On April 21 2011 23:21 matjlav wrote:I had a double my freshman year. It was a shitty experience. That (in combination with how much it sucked to share my bedroom with my brother from ages 7-12) caused me to myself afterward that I would never share a bedroom for an extended period of time again outside of romantic relationships. That's just my personal experience, but I would definitely recommend a single if you can afford it. On April 21 2011 16:11 ]343[ wrote: I feel like having a roommate at least once in your life is a valuable experience... singles are definitely nice and all, but if you haven't had a roommate before, definitely try it out! I completely disagree. I think that sharing a bedroom with a randomly selected person is an absolutely absurd idea which is highly likely to create unavoidable problems with regards to sleep schedule, homework/study habits, social time, hygiene, etc., and I fail to see what is "valuable" about that experience. It just sucks. Sure, you need to have a flatmate so that you can learn how to share a kitchen or a bathroom or a living room politely. But sharing a dorm room... no. That is just crappy. My roommate in college was not clean. He made the room smell bad by leaving sweaty clothes everywhere. His side of the room was always pretty much just a pile of sweaty clothes. That was my main issue with him. But for me, personally, I just don't feel very comfortable when I don't have anywhere where I can shut the door and know that no one else is coming in. It's not too rational, but I'm fairly introverted and I like to be able to have my alone time. You learn a lot going through that type of experience. Whether or not the lesson is worth it if you have a really bad arrangement is debatable... but to say that it can't be a good learning experience too I think is wrong. I was in a converted triple my freshman year so there were three of us packed into a room meant for two. Us and the converted triple next door ended up doing a lot of stuff together etc and if I was in a single I would have had a much different experience. In my opinion save the single for when you are a little older and are better able to gauge what effect it will have on your college life, health, and academics. I'd also advise against rooming with someone you pre-arrange unless you have a very good reason for wanting to do it. I mean, when people ask this question, it's usually responded with people that had a bad experience saying "get a single" and people that had a good experience saying "get a double." So it can obviously go either way, but in my opinion, there are a lot of much better and less risky ways to get a good social group than sharing your bedroom with a random guy. And I don't see how you view getting a single as some sort of risk that you should weight the benefits of when you're older and more experience... having a roommate is way more likely to stress you out and be a detriment.... My second year I got a single (wasn't available first year) and spent the whole year on my computer.... not that computers are bad or anything but I wasn't prepared to be on my own yet (contrast that with my very active freshman year where I was spontaneously playing basketball with people from my room/floor, eating at the dining hall with them, playing poker, etc).
I second this. I already talked about my freshman year, but this year I ended up getting an apartment with a friend from HS (we have to choose living arrangements in like October where I go to school, so not enough time to find who you want to live with for second year...thus a HS friend) but he is almost never home. Basically I am in a single room. And I also spend a lot of my time on the computer, whereas last year I was out also playing basketball, or wandering the city, or just watching tv or playing COD with all the people around me and in my room.
I agree, its very difficult to be living on your own and keep up the activity and social-ness that a college kid should have.
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I want to move out next year for university but my parent's won't let me unfortunately since I live in the same city (on the other side of the city). I know that my university fund has enough to cover me for undergraduate and living in residence. From what I've read here, it seems to be one of the big parts of university life. So I want to convince my parents to let me move ouy for first year (I'm planning on some exchange programs abroad in 2nd year.) I need some valid sounding arguments; you guy's got any aside from "party it up (because I really don't plan on partying much in university, just not that sort of person)?"
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getting a suite with two/three friends is the best option imo
I'm living with 2 friends and it's kinda sucks. I'm a kind of person that stay up late(like 4am), but then my roommate goes to bed at around midnight everyday and he's so fking sensitive to light that i have to turn down my desk lamp as lowest as possible. It's so bad how I couldn't see shit when I'm working.
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If you're pretty tolerant of other people's habits, feel free to get a double. Otherwise, get the single.
Does your university have any roommate profiles? My old university used to try and match roommates based on the sleep and study habits in their profiles, so it helped a little for most cases. Then again, even with the profile matching, I ended up with a roommate who had trouble sleeping when there was any light in the room (needed a face mask and everything), so it took half a year for us to work out a compromise since I tended to study late. Also, she had trouble falling asleep with my mouse clicking, which made playing SC very difficult if my APM went anywhere over 20. Oh yeah, and I couldn't find any girls to room with who also liked playing SC. >_<
Another year, I had one who was really messy as hell, but she kept the mess to her side of the room, and we got along really well. So it really depends. See if you can talk with people, find out their usual living habits first, then if you can find people you really like, go and grab a double or a suite.
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wow i didnt check tl for a day or two and so many replies...
my uni has a crappy matching thing with stuff like what time do you sleep, do you smoke, it really doesnt help at all. i decided to go with a single because i don't want to risk having a ton of bad roommate stories a year from now lol. im also a neat freak and i cant stand any noise so theres a huge chance my roommate will end up irritating me in some way or another given theres no door or anything dividing the double. im a pretty social guy so i'll find friends in our hall / other dorms / clubs / etc so there's no concern about that. ill definitely go for a double next year to save some more cash + for the experience though.
also i made a noob mistake when considering my options before... i called the fin aid office and found out today that i could reduce my meal plan to the most basic one and have almost exactly enough money to afford a single (my financial aid package provided for a double and a pretty big meal package i didnt really need), so in terms of money theres no problem -_- single it is
thanks alot for the help peeeps
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you're a newb pressure.
hf at college <3
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I decided to take a triple and got two really cool roommates.
Both really interesting people and really good friends, while I know of people in doubles punching each other or some shit.
You should definitely take a double imo.
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Having a roommate enhances your college experience in general. I had a cool guy, or at least i thought he was until the 2nd week when my room reaked of weed all the time. So... I kicked him out, had a super single for an entire quarter and took someone almost halfway through the 2nd quarter. He's a cool guy, we have fairly similar interests, same major, we have a friendly environment and keep common courtesies. I'd say just take the double and meet the person. If he's impossible to live with you can always switch out
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switching out costs money too lol so im even more scared of the risk of ending up punching my roommate all the time ive made my choice and im pretty secure about it now. ill prolly try it out next year though
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On April 24 2011 00:44 Pressure wrote:switching out costs money too lol so im even more scared of the risk of ending up punching my roommate all the time ![](/mirror/smilies/puh2.gif) ive made my choice and im pretty secure about it now. ill prolly try it out next year though
Honestly, it's not as bad as you're making it out in your head. Either way, your first year is rife with new experiences experiences, so you'll be missing out on this one.
My first two years I had roommates. They were both great. We got a lot closer than we would have otherwise. Keep in mind that roommate relationships are a lot different than normal friendships since your current idea of friendship doesn't include living together.
Since then I've lived in singles, but that's because I was an RA for three years! Over that time I saw a TON of roommate dynamics and found that the best roommates were the ones that were open about issues before they became big issues. Many times I had one person come to me with an elaborate story about why their roommate was terrible and why they needed to move to a different room. The first words out of my mouth were always "Have you talked to them about it?" and sure enough, the answer was always no. Relatively few people made the effort to move after talking out their problems, so if and when you're ever in a living situation with someone else keep communication a top priority. And have fun with it ![](/mirror/smilies/smile.gif)
I will offer some general advice about your mannerisms, though:
1). Live in a special interest community - community building is tricky for first year students, but it's a LOT easier and fun when you all live on a floor with one common trait.
2). Buy a fan - you said that noise drives you crazy and even though a fan makes noise, it tends to drown out the noises of the floor. You will rarely find absolute silence in a residence hall, but you can drown it out with a consistent noise.
Other than that go in to college with an open mind!
I'll close with a quote I heard somewhere that has a lot of truth to it:
"Your roommate always leads to a good friend. Either you become good friends with them, or you become good friends with the person you hang out with to avoid them."
Happy studies!
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