Living with a stranger in a tiny room is already bad enough, but having a bad roommate can make it so much worse (trust me). I am the type of person who wants a clean room all the time, I am OCD about having a clean room. I also can not stand having nasty, old and smelly food left in a mini fridge for weeks. These are all important things to know when dealing with a roommate. Therefore, here are some questions that you should really ask your future roomie, and that you should also consider:
1. Will you clean your half of the room?
You might think right now that a clean room won't matter in college, but it will! The first few weeks, you are still setting up your room and deciding where to put those cute pictures of you and your best friend. But you should still be considerate of your roommate and keep it as clean as possible. It is rough coming to your dorm room and not being able to walk through the doorway without tripping over junk.
2. Do you keep leftovers for a long amount of time?
Weird question, but it is the honest truth.In college you pay thousands of dollars for a meal plan, so you don't need leftovers. I bring some food back to my dorm, but never for more than two days. Your dorm is TINY, so when you keep food in a mini fridge it starts to make your whole dorm stink. I understand that some people want to get their moneys worth, but please remember that it smells like barf after a couple of days.
3. Are we actually going to be friends?
This is also a weird one, but true. A lot of people are just looking for somebody to room with, not a friendship. If you aren't looking for a friendship then its going to get bad quick. Lack of communication can ruin you and your roommate in a couple of days.
4. Is your roommate actually going to stay in college?
You would think this a give away, but a lot of students drop out within the first month. I know someone who dropped out a day into college. You need to know if your roommate is going to be so homesick that they leave you solo in the first week. I understand that college is not for everyone, so I'm not trying to be harsh on anyone.
5. Are you going to have people over at random times in the night?
This one is so important, especially if you are like me and need to sleep. At the start of this semester, I thought it would be nice to have a job. Having a job was not nice and it hurt my studies a lot. I would go to class at 8AM until around 4, then work until 11PM. After work, I was so ready for bed that when I came back to a room with random strangers on my side, I had to leave. Believe me, you should talk to your roommate but they should also respect you and your space.
6. How do you study?
My past roommate needed absolute silence to study, which I needed music. It was hard to do both, therefore asking your soon to be roommate is very beneficial. Nobody likes it when somebody asks you to turn your music off, especially when you are hard core jamming.
7. Are you going to be doing awkward things throughout the night?
This one is just funny. I know someone that did crunches in her bed around 1 AM. Another thing is turning your phone flashlight on, and having it look like a strobe light. Some people enjoy doing their weird stuff in throughout the night, so it would be nice to ask them this question or to tell somebody that you might be doing this.
I hope that these questions help someone when finding the best roomie, and also help people that are struggling through their current roommate situations.
