Ask a Trojan: Finding a Roommate

By Kelly Kinas ‘16

Yo, Anonymous! First off, Congratulations on applying, getting in, and choosing USC!! Welcome to the Trojan Family!

Housing freshman year is really… interesting. In my experience, finding a roommate online is kind of like online dating. People put themselves out there and you can either put yourself out there and wait for someone to contact you or look through all the people and reach out to people. It depends on what you want to do.

On the other hand, a lot of my friends freshman year did the whole “find a random roommate” thing and found a best friend or at least a person they could hang with for a year.

Either way, you’re gonna have to make a choice. Below, I have outlined the pros and cons of each side and you can decide!

SO FIRST THING’S FIRST: What do you want in a roommate?

Are you looking for someone like this?

Or someone like this?

Are you looking for a best friend, someone to get do everything with, or just someone so you’re not completely alone? Maybe you just want someone to be there if you need them but you don’t want or need a new or another best friend.

From my experience, if you want to find a best friend, I would find people online. On the Admits page, there should be a post where people outline who they are, where they want to live, and what they’re looking for a roommate. You can add these people on Facebook and message them! You might have to take initiative and take a chance with sending a message!! It doesn’t have to turn into a roommate relationship but if you want to figure out whether this is the best way to find a roommate, talk to people and see what happens.

Because if you’re looking for a roommate, then you agree that:

If you’re looking for just a decent person to spend a little time with then I think the random roommate choice could be for you! There’s definitely a higher chance that your personalities might not match if you don’t talk before choosing but that doesn’t mean it will a disaster like that horror film “The Roommate”.

^^ Leighton Meester was real creepy in that movie. Random roommates does not mean that. In my experience, random roommates can make life a little more difficult because:

• If your roommate does not become a close friend, you will have to be more social and forward and find different people to hang out with instead of him/her.
  
• If your roommate doesn’t like having people in the room and likes to study there but you’re more social and want to hang out and chat it up in your room, that will cause some tension that could have been solved if you chose a roommate yourself.
• Maybe you are very forward and your roommate is more sarcastic and it might be difficult for you both to communicate.

All of these things can be worked out if you communicate and take time to understand each other. These are not necessarily bad things; I just think that it’s better to figure these things out before you become roommates and not after.

There’s no guarantee that anything will be bad or good. You have to really go with your gut. There’s no “fault” either. I know in your question you stated that if you personally pick someone and they end up being rude or mean or whatever, then you have no one to blame but yourself. That’s no way to think about finding a roommate. This is an important decision but it won’t make or break your freshman year.

If you love your roommate, WOOO! 

If not, you’ll find other people to hang out with. You’ll go to another floor and hang out with those people. You’ll spend more time at your sorority or fraternity house. You’ll spend a lot of time in the library. 

You’ll be okay.

And if you’re not then:

MY ADVICE (After that long winded response):

Look into finding a roommate online, even if you’re scared they won’t be as cool in real life as they are online. Talk to some people before you decide to go random. If you’re pretty easy going, a random roommate probably won’t phase you. Look through the Facebook posts. Message a few people you think look and sound like a person you would want to hang out with and see what happens. If you don’t like anyone enough to commit, go random!

Everything will work out. You’ll be fine. You know why?

Because you’re a Trojan.

Fight on!

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