Finding a roommate as a graduate student

People go to grad school for a multitude of reasons, and many people choose to take a break between their undergraduate and graduate education. If you decide to pursue a master’s or doctorate, know that your age should not affect your choice.

There’s a ton of things to consider when it comes to the process of looking for a roommate as a graduate student.

Where to live and who to live with are easily the two biggest factors to solving that situation, so here are a few tips that should be able to help make that decision.

Location

First off, where you choose to live will play a big part in the roommate finding process.

Living off campus increases the chances of finding other grad students who are in the same boat as you are, whereas living in on-campus housing increases the chances of living with or close to undergraduate students.

Universities all over the country offer and advertise apartments and housing options right off campus, and normally students who can afford to pay for their own housing along with their own personal needs will go for these options. Living on campus has its pros and cons, but undergraduates make up the vast majority of occupants in dorms, therefore leaving less space to move in and chances of finding another grad student to room within dorms.

Therefore, looking off campus would probably be the best bet to finding a good location for a grad school home.

Classifcation

The classification of your roommate

By Armando Yanez

is more likely to influence the decision of who to room with in numerous aspects.

Rooming with another grad student likely means they will be in the same boat, looking for similar preferences across the board as well as meeting similar requirements and responsibilities.

However, rooming with an undergraduate student may not allow for the same situation. Each person’s preferences depend on the actual personality more than anything, but usually differ through classification alone.

Looking out for this can be a big help in determining what you are looking for in a roommate, and if that doesn’t contribute to much, then maybe some of these tips will.

Scheduling

How often you are in your apartment contributes to how much time you spend around your roommate and the relationship between the two. If you hardly see your roommate, chances are you won’t bond as much with them.

Maturity

As college students, we have to be mature when making tons of decisions, and finding a roommate is one of them.

One of the best ways to do this is to lay out where your priorities are at, ask questions about where theirs are, and find out whether you two are a good match. At the end of the day, you aren’t living with your parents or family anymore. You are living in your own space.

No one is going to clean up after you, nor should you have to clean up after them, so you have to manage your living space accordingly.

Responsibility

Every college student has their own life to live, and with that comes the responsibilities that need to be met. Whether it be in the apartment or not, finding common ground on meeting responsibilities is a big deal for the purpose of finding and being good roommates.

Without responsibilities, not much can go right long-term.

Consideration

One of the more crucial elements of finding a roommate is being considerate of one another’s space and privacy, values, beliefs, rules, belongings, time, emotions and more. Without those, it is very likely the roommate relationship won’t work out.

Ultimately, finding a good roommate as a grad student isn’t as simple as finding one as an undergraduate. However, most of the process is the same regardless of what circumstance you are living in with someone else.

Taking the time to figure this out will almost always make the roommate search easier.