During college years, students may be presented with an unfortunate dilemma: a horribly small dwelling or a large pad with roommates whom you may or may not get along with. The students who choose to have roommates may be asking for more than they can handle. Picking the right roommates means the difference between hell on earth and a nice place to live.
“When you find a good roommate, keep them,” said Jerome Maese, associate director for Residential Life.
Picking roommates:
- Look beyond friends and find people you can be compatible with, Maese said.
- Finding someone with similar habits and patterns works well, he said. Opposites also complement each other well.
- Finding someone who can pay his or her share of the bills is vital.
- If one rents a room, investigating the roommates provides a level of financial and physical security, he said. Pick a six-month lease until you know you and your roommates are compatible, he said.
- “You can put up with a lot of stuff for six months,” he said.
- Asking questions and being honest with the answers helps prove whether two people can live together, he said.
Questions to ask:
- 1. Finances: How much will each person pay? When? How will utilities be split? What can both parties afford?
- 2. Lifestyle compatibility: How much noise is acceptable? How much cleaning must be done? Partying or studying?
- 3. Boundaries: What kind of boundaries will there be in the roommate relationship?
- 4. Comfort level: Do both parties feel comfortable and safe with each other? Can both parties easily communicate?
Communicate:
“Setting up lines of communication is always better than setting up ground rules,” Maese said.
Set up a meeting at least once a month between roommates, he said. Ask if anything over the past month bugged your roommates in an open forum.
Universal rules:
- Buy your fair share of toilet paper.
- Don’t stink up the kitchen. Smelly cooking infiltrates each person’s room.
- “Cleanliness and using other people’s stuff without asking” form the basis of most arguments between roommates, Maese said.
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