Heading to college? Here's some advice about how to survive your roommate from the book "How to Survive Your Freshman Year" (Hundreds of Heads Books, www.hundredsofheads.com, $14.95), straight from people who've done it:

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"We had a bad roommate the first year. He was really unstable; he would go from loving us one minute to hating us the next. He was really inconsiderate to our neighbors and friends. After a couple of months, we had to go to the building director and have him thrown out."

- Paul Heithoff, George Washington University

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"I'm in a triple. What happens in a triple is that two people combine and go off together. And that's what happened with me; I'm the odd one out. But I don't feel bad about it because they're not my kind of people."

- Amy Hoffberg, University of Delaware

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"When I started college, I was under the impression that a roommate was a temporary assignment, much like week-long summer camps. However, after a few weeks of living with the most miserable person ever imagined, I came to realize that he didn't seem to be going away. In college it's important to be comfortable with your living arrangements: If you're unhappy, tell someone."

- Anonymous

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"In order to survive your roommates, you have to be friendly and considerate. If you are nice, you will get treated the same way (and if you don't, then you have a reason to be treated like a jerk). Some people like living alone in singles, but I enjoy a crowd. Sure, it makes hooking up tricky (and hilarious) sometimes, but it also expands your social circle, and gives you lifelong friends - or enemies! It all depends on what kind of person you are."

- Pete, Princeton University

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"My last roommate's boyfriend tried to move in with us. He had gotten kicked out of his dorm and was a troublemaker, dealing drugs. I'm very passive, but I had to stand up for myself and voice my opinion, even though that's kind of difficult for me. I said, "That's not fair, you can't do this." He was there all the time, his stuff was in our room all the time. And when they fought, it would be really awkward. They'd cuss each other out and scream. So, I just went to the R.A. and the boyfriend got banned from our dorm. But we worked everything out and in the end it was fine."

- A., James Madison University

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"Dorm living is probably good for me. It's different. I'm going to meet a lot of different people, and I'm going to have to deal with a lot of different lifestyles. I think one of my roommates is homosexual, and now we have another one moving in, and I don't know if I really feel comfortable with that - it's weird for me just because of the way I was raised. I just have to adapt, and that may take a while."

- Anonymous, Georgia State University

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Hundreds of Heads Books' survival guides offer the wisdom of the masses by assembling the experiences and advice of hundreds of people who have gone through life's biggest challenges and have insight to share. Visit www.hundredsofheads.com to share your advice or get more information.

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© 2008, Hundreds of Heads Books, Inc.

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