Thursday | February 09, 2012
Should Colleges Make Students Find Roommates?
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By
Barbara Williams
9 July 2008
HACKENSACK, N.J. _ College roommates. Nothing in college provides quite as much drama, or influences whether a student has a good year or not.
So should schools assign roommates for sophomores and upperclassmen? For those who do not have someone to live with after freshman year, is it a good idea for the school to match up roomies?
Some do. Others colleges will not accept applications from a single student _ they must find roommates for a typical dorm room or apartment.
After freshman year, Kean University, which has apartment-style dorms for everyone but first-year students, takes housing deposits only from four students who want to live together.
During the three-day signup, some students scramble to find roommates. After that period, those who can’t find anyone are paired up, but are given the lowest priority for housing.
Some school administrators say that the angst in trying to find your own roommate is worth it. They say students who choose their roommates report being happier.
And with almost all colleges experiencing housing shortages, filling apartments four students at a time helps ensure full capacity.
"We encourage students to room with someone they know so they have a better experience," said Maximina Rivera, director of the Office of Residence Life at Kean. "Also, if we accepted people individually, we would then have to shut out groups of four, and we already have a waiting list for those wanting housing."
Rutgers University requires students to sign up as a group for the on-campus apartments.
Joan Carbone, executive director of Residence Life, said when people who don’t have the same habits live together, it can be disastrous. The university has an online service for students who want to find others with the same lifestyle.
"If you get one person who stays up all night with friends and another who studies all the time, they can have a really hard time," Carbone said. "There’s a direct correlation between the satisfaction students feel when they pick their own roommates versus when they are assigned roommates."
Montclair State University takes the opposite approach. Students sign up as individuals but can request roommates.
"We want to give everyone an equal opportunity for housing and if we made them find their own roommates, that might limit who gets in," said Susanne Ferrin, director of Residential Education and Services. "But if they know who they want to live with, they can request the same apartment and will most likely be placed together.
"I know it is pretty common not to be able to sign up for apartments as individuals, but here we will put people together."
___
© 2008, North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Visit The Record Online at http://www.northjersey.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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