<p>I bought my son Bose headphones (good idea) which would be helpful in a dorm situation. However, I wonder why Binghamton (if it is correct that roommate selection is pot luck) does not have detailed questionnaires about student personality and lifestyle preferences? For example, do you go to sleep early or late, like it quiet or not, favorite activities? </p>
<p>I can tell you that the housing office at USC did an awesome job of trying to match the kids with compatible roommates and offer a variety of housing options (quiet floor, cinema students can live on the same floor, kosher apartment available, international group, and other special interest housing). </p>
<p>Do not like the idea of freshmen living off campus as they miss out on making friends.</p>
<p>Towson is my son’s first choice, but am searching through this thread in case another good school comes up. He was enthusiastic about Binghamton after meeting the rep and is applying–also appreciate all the feedback from Binghamton on this board so I feel more comfortable with applying there.</p>
<p>predicting roommate success is very difficult – i can see why some schools don’t bother to try. </p>
<p>many students use facebook to try this themselves – often there will be a discussion thread for the page of admitted students where they can post info and try to find a compatible roommate. the problem with any roommate survey, official or unofficial, is that the students are completing it before they get to college. students may simply not understand how they will change when they get to college and are faced with the enormous amount of freedom they have. the kid who was in bed by 10 am in hs, may find themselves up regularly to 2am – more freedom, no morning classes, more interests and opportunities that weren’t available in hs, whatever. the kid who never took a drink may throw themselves into the party scene when faced with all the freedom at college. the kid who might have been appalled at the idea of sexiling may suddenly change their views when they get involved in their first serious relationship.</p>
<p>i’ve known kids who chose roommates thru facebook for whom it worked out great; i’ve known kids who chose roommates thru facebook for whom it worked out horribly. i’ve also known kids who chose roommates who they knew well and it worked out horribly. from what i’ve seen among my kids and friends’ kids, i think kids are just as likely to find a compatible roommate thru luck as they are thru a deliberate process.</p>
<p>I like the USC model of offering special interest housing and quiet floors. This helps set up some parameters to enhance success with housing. I like reading on the Binghamton housing info. that faculty staff member is assigned to housing–this should provide students some support as needed.</p>
<p>Noticed (for anyone interested) UMCP has beautiful honors housing at Anne Arundal Hall. Noticed this when my older son went on the scholarship interview day. If anyone is lucky enough to get this housing assignment–all honors kids, remodelled building–classic red brick Georgian style but the inside has carpeting, high ceilings, large window with light, study room on the floor, etc.</p>
<p>I think some kids are more flexible and easy going–depends upon your child’s personality.
There are no guarantees with potential roommates, but anything that can help make things successful is better </p>
<p>Younger son can be in a double as long as the other kid is quiet and goes to bed early. I am not sure younger son can handle all the potential negotiating of vastly different lifestyles.</p>
<p>Thanks for your posts regarding S2’s lack of interest in the process. He seems a little more excited while we are actually on a visit - then reverts to complete disinterest a few days later. Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember that not everyone is as into the college process as I am!</p>
<p>mdcissp - I agree with you that every kid’s experience - including what aid they are offered is going to be different. I just really had no idea what to expect with S1 - so it really surprised me that there was such an enormous range of offers - from pretty much zilch to very generous.</p>
<p>Suze Orman - so I did watch her college financing segment last night - nothing new to me - but might be of interest to someone reading this thread who is going through this process for the first time. She recommended websites finaid.org and fastweb.com; another guest mentioned that most colleges offer monthly payment plans so that you don’t need to come up with a lump sum, and they discussed being in the top 20% of the applicant pool at a particular college in order to get merit money. Again, as Yabeyabe predicted - nothing revolutionary - but this would have been new to me 3 years ago, so perhaps it will be new to someone reading this as well.</p>
<p>Very good point by unbeleivablem about how kids change, although I still think it is worth trying to find a good fit. In addition the Facebook surverys, you see a lot of kids posting brief descriptions of themselves–“lax bra who lives to PARTEEE!!!”–and asking for roomies.</p>
<p>Re monthly tuition plans–I use one. The fee varies by school ( mine is $50). Note that the payments start prior to the start of of school, usually on a 12 or 10 month calendar.</p>
<p>mdcissp, on our tour of the University of Rochester, IIRC, the tour guide told us that they used to use a detailed survey for roommate selection and later decided to do away with it and discovered that they had fewer problems with no survey than they did with a survey. I can’t recall the reasoning – perhaps students had excessive expectations of incompatibility after completing a survey or helicopter parents or something – but I’m pretty sure that they happily have no survey now. (My memory is vague, but I’m pretty sure it was U of R).</p>
<p>If a survey generated more problems than random chance, i would change the survey. No survey is perfect, and kids change, but even such basic facts as whether a child is sports-minded; likes chess; plays videogames; does not smoke cigarettes; or prefers a roomie of the same religion tells you valuable information.</p>
<p>i honestly think common interests can give a misleading expectation of compatibility. i can’t tell you the number of times parents in august have told me how excited their kid was that he/she shared x,y and z with their prospective roommate (often even after a fair amount of on-line or telephone communication), only to hear by october that things just weren’t working out because their personalities clashed.</p>
<p>sharing living space with a stranger is hard – especially when MANY of these kids have never had to share a room in their lives and are not used to negotiating the types of issues that will arise. i think these surveys often lead to disappointment because it leads kids to think things won’t be as hard as they will be.</p>
<p>I completely agree with unbelievablem about roomates. it’s rare for them to be best friends. I think the most important thing is to be considerate of each other and just get along. Most kids find good friends on their floor, in classes, or in activities.</p>
<p>Yes, common interests are not enough and being best friends is far from certain–but the question is actually whether kids with common interests are more likely to get along than kids without common interests and I think the answer is yes.</p>
<p>Similarly, the question is not whether surveys guarantee good results; it is whether they generate a better average outcome than blind chance. As the vast majority of colleges use surveys, they obviously believe it does.</p>
<p>S1 used one of those surveys. I cannot imagine what criteria was used to match S with his room mate. They had totally different is interests, but they did have similar sleep/wake cycles so that may have been it. They were rarely in the room at the same time and had a different circle of friends. They were however respectful of each other and I think they considered each other to be friends. This year, due more to a change in circumstances than a problem they aren’t together. S is rooming with a friend he hangs with. I am wondering if he is going to find this situation easier or harder than last year. I think being respectful and each having time in the room without the other is an ideal room mate situation. Not having a lot to talk about fosters good study habits.</p>
<p>My son is very sound sensitive. After we see the acceptances and determine where my son goes to college, I will have a chat with the housing office to find out availability of a quiet floor and/or single room.</p>
<p>My D chose to live on a substance-free hall, and it’s made a big difference in her level of comfortability. Her floor is calmer and there’s a warm feeling. (The RA made them cookies and left them by their doors on the first day of classes.)</p>
<p>As far as the roommate situation goes, my D and her roommate come from different parts of the country and have completely different interests. They don’t hang out as best friends, but sometimes they eat together. They are respectful of each other about noise, sleep issues, etc., and my D feels she is very nice. My D was hoping for a best buddy type of thing, but I think this will work out in the long run (well, at least for this year).</p>
<p>And yes, there was a housing questionnaire.</p>
<p>md- My D is someone who would have wanted a single if the school had that option, but now she is so glad she has a roommate.</p>
<p>I think that the effectiveness of surveys are varies by school. I don’t think that my daughter’s school uses them, and she had pretty good luck with roomates. She did apply for special interest floors her first two years, but did it mainly to choose her dorm. Choosing a substance-free hall like Psychmom’s daughter did sounds like a good way to find a relalively quiet dorm.</p>
<p>My D is not thrilled by her roommate. They have different friends, sleep/study schedules, and neatness levels (my D is the neater one, can you imagine? At home, her room looked like an obstacle course). However, the roommate is a very nice girl and D has been able to work out issues with her. There is no way they will be rooming together next year. There was a detailed questionnaire but obviously it did not work out as well as my D hoped.</p>
<p>Wondering about substance free dorm: Could there possibly be kids recovering from substance addictions in them? Not trying to pass judgement here, but don’t really know if substance free dorm is reserved more for recovering kids, kids from very strict religious homes which don’t allow any alcohol (not even an occasional glass of wine) whatsoever, or are just nice kids who are very health oriented, stay away from alcohol, non-party types of kids. Not sure what to expect with substance free dorm.</p>
<p>Mdcissp: I think you would need to check out the substance-free dorms at the individual school. There will probably be a mix of the types of kids you describe above. Sometimes parents force kids to choose these dorms, and the kids drink anyway. I do think that these floors tend to be quieter overall and would present an opportunity to meet students who are not big partiers.</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing. I had heard that at some schools, the substance free floor were just the opposite (filled with kids whose parents were trying to get them to stop)! Hope that is not the case where ever my son goes to college (he is a hs junior). He really dosen’t drink (not even at our dinner table) or smoke or do drugs. I think he took the 5th grade GRADE (gang resistance and drug education) class to heart!</p>
<p>re: substance-free housing, I am laughing here because you guys think of everything! D and I just imagined it meant non-partying, quieter types! Fortunately for her, that has been her experience. BTW, she lives on a substance-free hall within a regular dorm; I know that in other schools there are specific SF dorms.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom: Too funny that your D is the neater one!</p>