With whom to room?

Correction appended

Julia ’11 said that after months of disagreeing with her roommate about how often her roommate’s boyfriend should sleep over, Julia chose to room next year with someone she thought would be easier to live with. Christine ’11 said that she plans to room next year with someone she has known since freshman year after room draw problems led to her being randomly placed with roommates for her sophomore year.

The application for undergraduate room draw is currently live, leaving students to decide whom they will room with next year and how to discuss their plans with their current roommates.

Christine said she found it challenging to tell her roommates that she didn’t plan to live with them again next year. Christine’s name, like those of the other students interviewed for this article, has been changed to protect the privacy of her and her roommates.

“I have had difficulties expressing to my roommates that I wasn’t rooming with them next year — they took it as a personal offense, but the reality is that there are people I am more compatible with,” she wrote in an e-mail. “In some ways, it’s a selfish decision you have to make.”

Christine noted that living with friends can be hard on those friendships. “I think the most difficult situation is when you are actually close friends with your roommate, but you are not compatible on a daily-living-in-cramped-quarters basis,” she said.

“It definitely affects your friendship and it’s a test … if you guys are close enough to get over the fact that you won’t be living together again,” she added, noting that this was the case for some of her friends when they were choosing whom they were going to live with the following year.

Julia said that for her, it was clear by the end of the year that she and her roommate would not be living together.

“Our issues normally stemmed from sleeping habits and her relationship,” she said. “The issue was that she wanted her boyfriend to sleep in our room [several] nights a week. Whenever I said no, that I didn’t think it was appropriate, she took it to our RCA.”

Julia said that though her roommate didn’t expect her to leave the room when the boyfriend slept over, it made getting ready for morning classes difficult and uncomfortable. She added that the couple started sleeping in her room on a regular basis when the boyfriend’s roommate objected to them sleeping in his room every night.

Though the University permits students to choose their roommates, some students still make requests to change rooms mid-year, Undergraduate Housing Manager Angela Hodgeman said in an e-mail.

“For juniors and seniors living outside of the colleges, we probably get on average 15-20 room-change requests per academic year,” Hodgeman said.

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Tim ’11 said he chose not to live with his freshman-year roommate or any of his four sophomore-year roommates for longer than a year, noting that he had a big problem, especially during his sophomore year, with the poor cleaning habits of his roommates.

“The most challenging part was having to deal with them hosting events and then leaving garbage … and never cleaning it up,” he said. Tim noted that he felt cleanliness was an important factor when choosing roommates and that both students should “have the same [level of cleanliness].”

Julia said she chose her current roommate based on her personality, sleeping habits and basic privacy issues.

Christine noted that the eating clubs played a significant role in her rooming choices.

“Eating clubs were a factor in my decision to live with [my future roommate], because since we are going to be in different clubs, it makes sense to room together so we would still see each other all the time,” she said, adding that their dorm would make a “convenient place to pass-swap.”

Christine noted that room draw is often fraught with tension for many students as they are forced to confront friends about whether they want to live together.

“Room draw is definitely one of the most drama-filled parts of the year for many social circles, I think, mostly because it’s a time in which decisions are made and [because] they are made solely by students — you can’t blame other people, like when a friend in a group of friends get[s] hosed by a club … but when you choose who you live with, you have your own actions to speak for what you want,” she said.

Tim said that in general, he believes it is easier for male roommates to get along with each other than it is for female roommates.

“I think that guys are easier to get along with, but by no means will you [necessarily] become friends,” he said, adding that his relationship with [his roommates] was “generally amicable.”

Julia said that though she and her roommate are “at different ends of the spectrum [in terms of personality and interests],” they get along because they are able to communicate effectively. “I think whenever you have a roommate, you need to be able to sit down and have a very blunt conversation with them.”

Correction

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article stated that Julia ’11 said she and her roommate were "at different ends of the [social] spectrum" when, in fact, she was referring to a spectrum of personality and interests.