<p>My son is currently debating between the large & very well-respected UCLA and several smaller Christian-based schools. While in my mind, there’s no comparison as to which university will best serve his long term interests, I also know that his opinions will ultimately lead to the decision itself. </p>
<p>He’s not a partier and also would like to surround himself with other individuals of strong faith. Do common interests & beliefs come into consideration when UCLA makes its dorm assignments? </p>
<p>UCLA (along with all of the UC’s and probably just about all of the public colleges and elite private colleges in the country) does not assign students to dorm settings based on their faiths. </p>
<p>Given how hard it is to get into UCLA, I don’t think it would be terribly difficult to find others who are also not partiers. </p>
<p>College is intended to be a broadening experience; I’d be very surprised if they tried to match roommates based on picking kids who were like each other in most respects.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at UCLA. At College Day last year they said that you can make a big school small but you can’t make a small school big. My son is not a partier but has easily found a great group of friends. He says that at UCLA every type of person is there so likely it will be easy for him to find friends with like interests/beliefs.</p>
They do try to match but can’t guarantee it. The other issue is that sometimes the parent is looking over the kid’s shoulder when filling out the preferences so the kid puts down what the parent tells them to. This is a bad idea since when the kid gets to the college they’ll do what they want. In addition, some kids may fill it out the way they feel at that time but 6 months into college they may have changed their lifestyle (i.e. became a partier). If the kid gets unlucky and gets stuck with a completely incompatible roomie as far as lifestyle, they can appeal to be switched after a few weeks or so although I don’t know how successful they always are.</p>
<p>Both of my non-partier type kids had compatible roommates throughout at both UCLA and UCSD. There are partiers at both schools but maybe the partiers tend to find one another. Also, the tolerance level for partying on campus is pretty low so kids who want to drink, etc. tend to go off campus (at UCLA the walking distance to the frats from what I’ve heard).</p>
<p>I don’t know that going to a Christian school is any guarantee of not encountering partiers. The school itself may have a low tolerance level of partying on campus, like UCLA, but that doesn’t mean they can’t walk across the street or something and party there.</p>
<p>There are also people of all kinds of faiths on campus as well as clubs for many of them. People tend to find people they’re compatible with and since UCLA is large, they’ll usually be able to find some similar minded people yet they’ll still have the educational/social experience of seeing people with other mind sets.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t skip heading to UCLA because of fears/anxiety of partiers.</p>