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What to Consider When Selecting a Roommate

What to Consider When Selecting a Roommate
5/16/2011
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Anna Meskishvili

Personally, I think that choosing a roommate is one of the most challenging things about college. They are the ultimate lottery. But in order to pick the right roommate for you, you must first properly understand yourself.

I’m sure you have all completed (or will soon complete) some variation of the “roommate survey,” which might reveal to you a prototype of the perfect roommate but here’s a reality check: Roommates are not perfect. In order to be the best roommate you can be, evaluate yourself. Speaking from experience, I thought I wanted to be best friends with my roommate, wanted my room to be the social hot spot of the floor and didn’t care about order or rules. Turns out, when you’re busy as a bee like me and are exhausted when you come home, the last thing you want to see is a dog pile of frat boys on your bed trying to see how many grapes they can shove in their mouths. Don’t get me wrong, I work hard and play hard but I always idealized my room as a place I could go to do neither those two things.

The bottom line about choosing roommates, make sure you both are on the same page and don’t just assume you are – talk about it. This is someone you will be living four feet away from for a year and avoidance is not an option. Top issues to cover are:

  • What time do you usually go to bed? Do you need the TV on to fall asleep?
  • Do you plan on studying or partying in the room?
  • If I vacuum the room on Mondays, can you do it on Fridays?
  • Are you going to have a lot of overnight guests? Let’s make a code.
  • Do you expect me to be in the room all the time?

And before you ask your prospective roommate any of these questions, ask them to yourself. Good luck, roomie!

Anna Meskishvili is a rising senior at Boston University pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations at the College of Communication. She is part of Kappa Delta at BU and has loved every second of it. She is also involved in Public Relations Student Society of America and Ed on Campus. Anna was born in the Republic of Georgia and considers herself a citizen of the world because she’s lived in Russia, England, France, Brooklyn and Connecticut. She hopes to someday work in Healthcare Administration Communication. She loves to travel, run and learn.

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