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What makes a great  

College Roommate

  pair? Is it similar interests, values, study habits? College housing staff spend countless hours making roommate matches based on personal preferences, but that system has been known to fail miserably. Many students even check up on their assigned college roommate on MySpace or Facebook before school starts, only to conclude that they won't be a good match. So why not put students in charge, and let them choose roommates for themselves?

That's exactly what some colleges are doing.

Western New England College (Springfield, MA), for instance, allows its students to choose roommates online, thereby removing the mystery from roommate matching and eliminating a rush of panicked phone calls from students and Parents. On the other hand, if roommate problems do arise, students probably get less sympathy from the housing office since they were the ones who chose their roommate in the first place.

At San Francisco State University (SFSU, San Francisco, CA), students have the option to add their name and e-mail address to a list of incoming freshmen who want to choose roommates. From there, students consult social networking sites to refine their roommate search, and they contact potential roommates via e-mail and text messaging. In the fall of 2007, more than two-thirds of eligible SFSU freshmen decided to choose roommates for themselves.

At the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT), students complete a personal housing profile online. Then, they can perform an automatic roommate search, which generates a list of top roommate matches. Students can then contact potential roommates through the school's site.

The Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH) housing staff creates acronyms based on five lifestyle questions answered by each student. Once students with matching acronyms are paired, they receive a note with roommate contact information. Students are not allowed to switch roommates until three weeks into the school year.

Obviously, you want to get along with your college roommate. But you also don't want to miss out on important aspects of the College Experience--making new friends, welcoming diversity, and broadening your worldview. As a New Yorker, I would have never chosen a girl from rural Ohio to be my college roommate. But she and I became best friends and stayed together all through college.

Whether you stick with the luck of the draw or choose your own college roommate adventure, you could be making a friend for life.


Robyn Tellefsen is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.

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