By Carrie Wells, McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
For many college freshmen, their randomly assigned roommate can be a nightmare. The late-night partier paired with the studious church-goer, the co-eds who loathe each other’s musical tastes, the roommate who borrows clothes without asking _ all a result of too few questions posed on roommate questionnaires, some say.
To combat this issue, some universities are using alternative methods of matching roommates, matching students by hand instead of computer or asking more in-depth questions. Most universities use a simple five-question form that asks basic things such as how clean a student is or if they smoke, saying randomness in roommate matching is part of the college experience.
But Michael Gaynor, 20, said he knows from experience a more in-depth roommate matching process can be beneficial. The University of Richmond senior lives with his roommate from freshman year, as well as two others who were freshman-year roommates. The university has been matching roommates by hand based on in-depth questions since the 1970s.
When Gaynor and his freshman-year roommate unpacked their bags, they realized they both had DVD collections of the TV shows Family Guy and Saturday Night Live, and had many of the same CDs as well.
“That was a great match; whoever did it that year did a really good job,” he said.
The experience was part of the reason Gaynor wanted to work for the Office of Undergraduate Housing over the summer, spending four weeks hand-matching roommates.
“When you’re going to college _ your first time really away from home _ the last thing you want is a roommate who’s your complete polar opposite,” he said. “A student’s room should be their little haven after a long day of class.”
While Gaynor said most people put general things on their roommate questionnaires (shopping for girls, Sunday football for guys), he said he found two girls who both listed Japanese anime among their interests, and realized the rest of their questionnaires were nearly identical.
“You have to look at those really common answers and derive something deeper to find the perfect match for each one,” Gaynor said.
Carolyn Bigler, the assistant director for undergraduate housing at Richmond, agreed, saying she’ll frame certain questions in an indirect way. For example, she asks a question about how often students nap.
“The purpose isn’t to tell me whose napping, but to tell me how much time they’ll be in the room,” she said. “One big complaint is ‘my roommate is always in the room, I never have any privacy.’ What I’m asking is not always what I’m really interested in. I don’t care if you nap.”
Like at the University of Richmond, Toni Greenslade-Smith of Ohio State University sorts roommate questionnaires by hand. But while Richmond gets less than 3,000 applications each year, Ohio State gets around 9,200 applications.
“Less than one percent 1/8of students3/8 request for a room change as a result of their roommate match,” she said. “Our sense is that the students are pretty pleased with how we handle their material and their assignment.”
At the University of Maryland, College Park, a group of student leaders is trying to expand the roommate questionnaire to include more questions.
“A lot of people had talked about the basic questions: ‘Do you study in your room?’ or ‘Do you smoke’ and decided they just weren’t enough to get you with someone similar enough to get along with,” said Alex Beuchler, a 21-year-old senior and president of the Residence Halls Association.
The process is still in its planning stage, she said, but the group wants to eventually submit recommendations to the Department of Resident Life to add possible questions such as ‘how important is your privacy?’
“We’re trying to foster community and give people the best first year experience, without interfering with people’s ability to meet people who aren’t like them, because that’s part of the college experience,” said Beuchler.
© 2008, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
