College students are often assigned to live on campus in the residence halls during their first year. While some continue their college experiences living on campus, others either move back home because of discrepancies with prior roommates, or get an off campus apartment or house to make their college living situation more comfortable. For some time now, there have been complaints of students not getting along or having problems living with others on and off campus. As a student, being able to pay the bills can be a hassle, but having a roommate or two to help share expenses can seem like the best thing to do. While the financial aspect is taken care of, you still are faced with having to live with other people who may at times get on your nerves.
“To be honest I am a little nervous about having a roommate,” Nateesha Johnson, an upcoming first year student, said. “The whole idea of being around a complete stranger makes me nervous, but also rooming with a friend could cause future problems with our friendship.”
To those students who are nervous about having a roommate, there are certain precautions that can be taken in advance to avoid future discrepancies. One way to avoid problems would be to choose a roommate who is somewhat similar, but also different. Also, choose one ahead of time to get to know the person. If that person isn’t someone you would choose to room with, then there is time to try to find a different person.
Roomsurf.com is a website that allows students to interact with other students who are entering the school and looking for roommates. It also gives the student a head start on finding out things about people who are moving on campus and who may share common interests. Sometimes students apply for housing at the last minute and get into situations they didn’t plan on signing up for.
Courtney Brigman, a third year student here at WCU, had a horror story she wanted to share with the campus about her second year experience with her old roommate. ” The first semester of my sophomore year had to be one of the craziest experiences I think I will ever go through at WCU,” Brigman said. “I had a roommate that had to have her own everything! Her own television, her own radio, microwave, and would not share anything. Talk about selfish, we had two of everything in the room!”
Another student experienced several cases of horrible situations and went through five different roommates in three years. Shlonda Jones, a fourth year student, said, “Only two out of the five roommates that I’ve had I could deal with, the others were irritating.”
“I had a situation where I was put into a triple in Tyson hall with two very promiscuous roommates that wanted to party and act a fool every day of the week. The other I had was just too needy, wanted lots of my attention and time and was way too emotional,” Jones said. “Luckily I did have two experiences that I enjoyed here at WCU that outweighed the negative aspects of some of those roommates I had to deal with.”
To avoid certain situations such as these, the website collegeboard.com offers college roommate rules and helpful ways to get along with your roommate(s) when put into negative situations. For those students who plan on taking summer courses and are looking for a roommate for the fall semester, the best idea would be to start now to avoid crazy situations such as these.
Jazzmine Carruth is a fourth year student majoring in professional studies with minors in journalism and education. She can be reached at JC659524@wcupa.edu