uniguy

1) Is it better to have a person you know but who isn’t a really good friend as a roommate or a random roommate? I’ve asked this in the international forum because I think for us, however comfortable we may feel with people from other countries, we would still want someone to talk to in our mother tongue.

2) When colleges say random roommates, do they really mean completely random or do they pair roommates of the same country or nationality?

S33D

2) Depends on the college.

montanaro

^ Agree. Some colleges don't put internationals together.

clam_chowder

my friend (international) in OSU chose to live in the "mixed bulding" where american & intern. student can live together.
she has 3 roommates (who are should be random roommates).
it turned out all 3 of them are native americans from ohio,,just different city,,
its really sucks.

clam_chowder

i personally will choose the random one, cause i want to practice my english.

S33D

I will choose no roommate i.e single room

b@r!um

2) My college pays attention to mix international and domestic students, i.e. there are a few international students in each dorm and international students get a domestic roommate. Other colleges may handle this differently.

When you say you want a roommate from your own country to speak in your native language, I would caution you to pay attention that you do not speak in your native language 80% of the day. Granted, speaking English 24/7 is very exhausting during the first few months but you will get used to it. However, if you speak in your native language a lot, it will take you a lot longer to get fluent in English. I very much support international students getting together and speaking in their native language once or twice a week, but beyond that it may keep you from fully integrating yourself into the (American) college community.

hewey

Living with people from other countries/cultures is one of the best experiences I've ever had. You'll be irritated, disgusted, suprised, appreciative, intrigued, amused and entertained, all within a day, and by the end of your college years you'll be truly satisfied with the experience. If I do end up in a college overseas I'd definitely want to get a roomate who isn't an Aussie (as I am). The other pro is that living with an American (in the US) could possibly make your ease into American life a lot easier, and not just in terms of language. You'll be there for at least two to four years, so it's important that you do pick up on the certain changes that living abroad incurs. While it's great to keep and be proud of your own country's customs, you'll definitely need to adapt to a lot of America's, and it'll be far easier if you're living in close proximity to a few natives. Ridiculous little things that are handy to learn, like how to order a drink or meal properly (sounds absurd, but it DOES change in different countries), how to tip people (big one in the US), what different phrases mean, and even different names for objects (for instance, "rubber" in Australia means something completely different in the US and UK).

The only real problems I can foresee are if your roommates are just generally not nice people or not nice to live with, and this can just as easily happen if you live with someone else from your own country.

Tsenguun

hey what if two int'ls become roommates? how about improving our English in this case?

loathed

there are always chances to meet other people other than your roommate (whos an international). so dont worry about that.

missil3

I would agree, I lived with people from three different continents. It was an enriching experience, we used to talk and discuss about our differences and pointlessly argue. However not everyone gets along that well with their roommates. If you are willing to take a chance I would suggest taking a random room mate else go with one of your friends.

Also some unversities assign roommates based on a questionnaire.