How to Deal with a College Roommate?

In most schools it is standard to randomly select the roommates for the freshmen and new students unless they file a petition for a specific roommate. This practice often causes that students with conflicting or opposite personalities get paired together. There are even some cases where you have to share your room with more than one roommate.

This tension can cause you problems to concentrate, add stress to your life, disrupt your schedule and even lower your grades, making your overall first year experience less pleasant. The important thing to remember is that no matter what the problem is that you are having with your current roommate/s there are things you can do to improve the relation.

The Night Owl vs. the Early Bird

Lets be honest humans are wired in different ways, while some of us work better after dark, have to spend the first 30 minutes of our morning waking up and cannot function without our coffee and a long shower in the morning, there are others that wake up before their alarm goes off, have an insane amount of energy, without the coffee, and have to be in bed before the stroke of midnight.

Having a roommate who's biological clock is opposite than yours can be a nightmare. First you both need to be mindful of each others schedule. Create a schedule for each of you that include average bed time for each, what time do you guys have to get up in the morning, and the nights before major tests or projects are due.

The Night Owl should leave the room to go study, chat, work on a project when is bed time for The Early Bird. This should not be a problem since school campuses always have computer labs, libraries, and other places available for students at late hours of the night. The Early Bird should get up quietly and turn off the alarm as soon as possible to try and not disturb the Night Owl.

Clean Freak vs. Pigsty Dweller

If your roommate is the opposite on cleanliness and organizing than you are, the first thing to do is delimitate your space. I know some rooms are to small, but what I mean with delimitate your space is: your bed, desk, side of or whole closet, your dresser or drawers of the dresser, your drawers in the bathroom that is your space.

If you are the Clean Freak then focus on your space and as long as your space is clean and organize it should be fine with you. The only thing you can request from your roommate is to keep their mess off of your space.

If you are the Pigsty Dweller focus on keeping your mess inside your space, do not let it into your roommates. Do not let any of your friends mess up your roommate's space or change the arrangement of the room without your roommates consent.

Communism vs. Capitalism

No, I am not talking about social systems; I am talking about attitude towards our belongings. There is a kind of roommate who thinks that you guys should share everything; clothes, food, electronics, toiletries, etc., and there is another kind who is definitely not willing to share anything.

First step is to realize that you live together so you are bound to face situations where your roommate is going to need to borrow something and vice versa. Make a list of the things you guys are willing to share with each other. Make another list of the "forbidden" things and a list of the "emergency only". Agree to ask before taking anything even if it is in the ok list.

Book Worm vs. Party Animal

One of you spends most of the time studying, reading, and learning, while the other one spends most of the time socializing on the phone, the computer, watching TV, listening to music or going and coming from parties and get-togethers. This one is easy, create another schedule where you both have equal time to spend in the room. Since your class schedule is most likely different, or at least slightly different, take that into consideration as well. Most importantly be considerate: wear headphones if listening to music, turn the volume down and activate the subtitles on your TV, don't read out loud if your roommate is on the phone or napping.

Social Butterfly vs. Loner

One roommate has an intense social life while the other is happy being on their own. The problem is that the social roommate wants to bring friends over while the Loner feels uncomfortable being around people he doesn't know. Also there is the case when you might be both Social Butterflies but the kind of friends you like are completely different.

The best thing to do is to size up each situation. If your roommate is taking a nap, sleeping, studying hard or doing homework it would be the time to pick another location for your get together. On the other hand if you are just watching TV in the room and your roommate walks in with his friends to work on a project, do homework, or study, it will be nice of you to lower the volume of your TV and accept the situation or look for something else to do or somewhere else to be.

Finally remember that some schools would let you change your roommate as soon as your second semester. Always be polite, well mannered and mindful of your roommate and if everything fails start looking for a new roommate.