FIND YOUR OWN ROOMMATE

story by mia vogel

MEETING PEOPLE ONLINE has always seemed sketchy to me, but after spending the past few months browsing through Class of 2027 Instagram pages for potential roommates and friends, I think I may have a knack for it.

With everything from scholarships to the number of Starbucks on campus swirling around my brain when making my final college decisions, housing ranks high on the priorities list.

talk and get to know each other much more thoroughly.

When Alloted

Call me picky, but my future roommate needs to have good taste in music, a healthy dose of clean freak in her and impeccable style — so we can share clothes, obviously. There’s no chance that a randomly assigned roommate could check all my endless niche boxes.

Without fail, every time I scroll through the endless feed of lively photos and voicey captions I find at least a handful of girls who I can see myself rooming with — and just as many who I’d never, which is why I can’t risk a random assignment.

I’ve been assured by older friends that as long as I go in with an optimistic outlook I’ll thrive in any living arrangement, no matter the roommate. After all, it’s only for a year.

However, when allotted the luxury of choice, why pass it up?

How could a 20-question form possibly match me to someone I have to live in a 200-square foot room with for nine months? Through social media, you can actually

By this point in the year, almost every school has an Instagram account for their incoming freshman class. These accounts serve as a platform for future and potential students to get an idea of their class’s energy, make friends and, most importantly — find roommates.

The only downside is that it’s tough to find a roommate when you haven’t fully decided on a school — no one wants to commit to room with someone who’s still 50/50 on whether they’ll even be attending the school.

The reality is that for every random roommate success story I’ve heard, there’s a slew of horror stories to level it. Everything from obnoxious 4 a.m. gym wake-up alarms to semesters gone without washing sheets and — in my mom’s case — a roommate who left a week into freshman year to go follow the Grateful Dead on tour, has convinced me that the folks at the university housing departments are by no means matchmakers.

I’ll be choosing my own roomate, thank you very much.

I THINK TAKING time to fnd the right person is super important, it’s defnitely hard choosing someone who you think would be good, but I am super thankful I found someone similar to me.