<p>The odds of that happening are so miniscule that they’re not even worth considering. </p>
<p>lmkh- I would hope that was a one in a million situation. That would be very offensive to me, personally (being presented with a bill). Yes, if a roommate wants to coordinate that badly and gets irritated by not being able to, other problems would be sure to follow.</p>
<p>From what I have seen, room mates who meet on a college room mate board tend to “talk” on line for a while to decide if they are compatible. This sort of thing can be brought up in a casual manner- for instance it would be considerate to ask before bringing a room size rug or something like that. If one room mate is very concerned about everything matching, and the other isn’t comfortable, they would move on to talk to different people on the board. The situation you described seems extreme. On the other hand, I would not rule out a room mate who wanted to coordinate some things, like a large rug or futon that would take up a large part of the room and be shared, or just talk about what they are bringing so that there aren’t huge areas of clashing decor.</p>
<p>My D didn’t communicate with her new roomie til they met on campus. Her roomie was an international student who needed to shop when she got to school. They agreed to split the “must haves” like the TV and refrigerator. No coordinating of anything else.</p>
<p>Is a tv really a must have? I have the impression that hardly anyone had them at S’s school. Kids either watched shows on their computers or got together in the dorm common room for a few select things, such as The Office.</p>
<p>My baby kiddo’s roomie sent her a message about anti-coordinating their stuff. D’s side was supposed to be pink (I think), the roomie’s - blue or green or something like that. D got some stuff at Target that sort of fit the theme, but her relationship with the roomie soured out (especially after D’s iPhone mysteriously disappeared), so the next year D roomed with someone else who was not much into coordination. After that, D got singles and never bothered to decorate her room other than with her own artwork. </p>
<p>Consolation, after two years, the TV is off the “must have” list. It was in her freshman year. As it turned out, her roomie ended up leaving for another school mid year (this year) and left their “shared” items. D was willing to give up the TV at that point and so was her roomie, apparently.</p>
<p>None of the dorms I lived in had tvs in the common rooms, and no wifi either so unless you wanted to sit at your desk a tv was nice–not a must have, but very nice. Especially since I couldn’t afford to go to the movies, I could invite people to watch in my room for free instead.</p>
<p>The year I had a roommate, she actually brought her own fridge and hid it since we were only allowed to have one. Talk about weird. I had a GIANT fridge, and we agreed I would bring it, and then she showed up with one anyway. She actually lugged it home on breaks so they wouldn’t see it when they did room inspections.</p>
<p>This is thread is making me chuckle as I look back at my freshman roommate, whose style was Utter Chaos, and my D’s freshman roommate, whose style was Soviet army barracks. Not much opportunity to coordinate in either case! </p>
<p>If she already has stuff and a roommate asks about coordinating, she can simply say “I have some things already but I can send you a picture of them so you know what it looks like”</p>
<p>Eons ago I politely told a roommate I did not want to use the purple bedspread she brought for me- I actually liked the one provided. I noticed walking through the women’s floors of son’s freshman dorm that their rooms seem much more decorated than any of the men’s were- this was about a week after move in and just before classes started. Guys ideas of decorating seemed to be electronics.</p>
<p>Agree that “guys ideas of decorating seemed to be electronics.”</p>
<p>In DS’s freshman suite, it appears that they were happy as long as they had the game gear and the TV.</p>
<p>Also, in the first month, the common (living) room was clean and they would come out of their bedroom and used it. After a month, it became too dirty (attracted flies), nobody wanted to stay there. DS’s single is closest to the common room. He had no choice but cleaned it. Otherwise, the flies would get into his bedroom. He’s not a happy camper. Another suitemate often did not flush the toilet after use. Gross! Also heard that some student outright refuses to clean the bathroom, on the ground that “He does not do this thing at home.” - They need to bring a maid to the school!)</p>
<p>One of my previous coworkers told me that his wife would buy something (e.g., furniture) that just stays there and does not do anything for anybody, but his wife complains that he always buys something that only he would use it (e.g., he would buy some expensive electronic gear and turn it into another kind of electronic gear. After he’s done with it, the transformed electronic gear stays in the living room (an eye sore from his wife’s point of view) for a while and then is put into garage.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Depends on the individual student and to some extent, campus culture. </p>
<p>I personally didn’t want a TV and even argued vehemently with an aunt who insisted I needed to have on in my dormroom. I was also dreading having a roommate who wanted to have a TV in our shared dormroom or worse, turn our room into “TV central”. </p>
<p>Thankfully, it turned out only a handful of people in my dorm brought a TV and since the dorms had much communal activities in the lounge/quad areas, those TVs ended up being rarely used.</p>
<p>There were also so many interesting people, campus activities, and places to explore on campus and in town that watching TV was the last thing on my mind. And if I felt the urge, the dorm lounge TV was always available. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No decorating here. Just wanted a room to store my stuff, do late studying after libraries close if needed, and to crash. Otherwise, I’m almost always out of my room for academics, ECs, and hanging out. </p>
<p>No real need for much decoration in that case and most roommates agreed. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Boys/men are often socialized to not be as caring about aesthetics or decoration as it’s considered “un-masculine” in some quarters and “too high maintenance” in others. </p>
<p>I will grant you some of us took it to extremes. </p>
<p>For instance, several younger male friends had no problems leaving plates filled with half-eaten kielbasa sausages, eggs, and ketchup for several days which even I felt was going too far on the “no maintenance” angle. </p>
<p>As for electronics and poor aesthetics, that is definitely a matter of taste. For instance, a former roommate and I thought nothing of having two Color Classic Macs and two Color Imacs(Bondi Blue and Tangerine) set up in our living room as both usable computers and decoration.* </p>
<p>Unfortunately, both of our set of more aesthetically sensitive friends…especially females had serious issues with our “aesthetic sense”. </p>
<ul>
<li>Paid nothing for them as we found them abandoned by previous tenants/neighbors.<br></li>
</ul>