Brynne’s take:

I started out my roommate search with the University of Texas housing application, where you can select preferences about noise level, extroversion vs. introversion, how early you plan to get up and even how much you smoke. The system matches you up with people who answered similarly, but you don’t get to see their actual names, just their ID. I messaged a couple of people, but never got an answer. I went on one of the UT Class of ‘22 Facebook groups, and saw that a lot of people were uploading pictures and descriptions of themselves and asking for roommates.

I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I made a post with my major and preferred dorm building, sat back, and waited. After a day or two, I got a message from another journalism major from the Woodlands, and we hit it off over text. We have the same movie tastes, the same taste in books, and we’re both members of our schools’ newspaper. We’ve officially requested each other as a roommate in the housing system, and we’ve scheduled a time and place so we can meet each other in real life before we actually start living together and so our parents can meet.

It’s a relief to not worry about who you’ll be spending nine months of your life with in a small space, but I know that my experience isn’t the norm.

Rachel’s take:

My roommate search at Texas A&M  started like everyone else’s. I took a 15 minute survey about my daily habits, my personal preferences for my roommate and which Living Learning Programs (LLPs) I was interested in. At the end of the survey, I created a “profile” with my phone number and email that could be sent out to my potential roommates, those who match with my questionnaire answers. I thought the rooming process would be a piece of cake.

Turns out, it is not. I have to wait to figure out which LLP I have been accepted into. Each program has their own acceptance process with each program requiring a different amount of time to process applications. I figured it would be a month, maybe, but it has been three months since I turned in my application. I recently got an email from the Housing Department at A&M stating that I should be expecting my LLP assignment on or before May 15. Once I get my LLP, I can choose my roommate from others accepted into the same program.

The whole rooming process hasn’t been stressful, but it hasn’t been easy. I want to know who my roommate for my first year of college is, but I have to wait for this drawn out process to play out.