Rooming with another engineering student is not necessary. My son didn’t and had a great freshman year and was admitted to both of his engineering choices. The northside is closer to the engineering buildings, Sbisa and other dining others but he did have a couple of classes in Heldenfels. But as stated the walk from one side to the other isn’t that bad unless it’s raining which seemed to happen a lot this spring. He spent lots of time in the library which is pretty central to both.