I was assigned a roommate. Now what? Roommate Advice for New Students
By: Drew Satter, M. Ed., MBA, Assistant Director, Housing and Residence Life
Reach out and say hi! It’s nice to reach out to the other person and greet them. Everyone wants to feel welcomed, so welcome your fellow Zag!
Don’t put too much weight into social media. Take a look at your Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or whatever you use. If you knew nothing else, would that be an accurate representation of who you actually are? Maybe or maybe not. Give this person a legitimate chance and let it develop when you get to campus.
Remember how you were paired. You were paired based on a number of factors that will hopefully help you be successful here at GU!
You don’t have to be BFFs. Ideally you’ll be friends, but at the least, you will cohabitate and be respectful to each other. In fact, it’s usually nice to give your roommate some space to breathe.
Communicate. Talk to each other about who is going to bring what. Talk about how you see your collegiate experience and be able to accommodate each other. Sometimes things are less than ideal, but that’s typically the case when sharing a space with someone else. If there is something annoying that is going on, courteously address it, because chances are that your roommate is not a mind reader or is not picking up on your signals.
Have realistic expectations. Know that you will probably get annoyed with your roommate at some point. It might be rainbows and unicorns to start (or the opposite), and know that things change. The best thing to do is have a good attitude, give your roommate the benefit of the doubt, and communicate respectfully.
Once you arrive. If you still have questions or concerns when you arrive, your RA is a fantastic resource. Your RA has gone through intensive training and can help you out.
I hope this was a helpful cheat sheet to navigating the initial stages of roommate matching. Things are never going to be perfect and your Zag has a lot of influence on how that relationship goes.