Don’t turn to Facebook for your dream roommate

Just 15 years ago, it was a normal part of your college experience to head off to school with zero idea of who would share your miniscule college dorm, unsure whether you would get stuck with a total psycho roommate or meet your new BFF. 

Today, teens are bypassing what once was a tradition by going past university housing services and preselecting their roommates on social media.

Everything starts out on a given college’s “Class of 2018” page — for current freshmen — which is a Facebook group dedicated to the new class of incoming freshmen. Pitt isn’t the only school to have such a group, most universities now have either official or student-created Facebook pages for incoming freshmen to meet each other or find roommates. So, how does the process work? You compose a post describing yourself and what you like to do for fun, then finish with a sentence about how much you enjoy Chipotle and/or Netflix to make yourself seem down-to-earth and relatable. 

College officials from American University in Washington, D.C., say that giving incoming freshman the ability to choose their roommate will result in fewer conflicts and overall make the transition into college easier, according to a recent Washington Post article. However, other housing officials, such as Robert Castellucci, the CEO of RoomSync — a company empowering greater roommate choices — disagree.

Housing officials from American University said Facebook-chosen roommate relationships fail, as students focus on the wrong qualities in these searches — music bands instead of cleaning habits, funny prom stories instead of sleep schedules.

Castellucci, who works for a housing complex at the University of Florida, used to have a simple job, which consisted of mostly pairing smokers with smokers and nonsmokers with nonsmokers and night owls with other night owls. However, since the implementation of social media, his job became much more difficult. People weren’t getting the roommates they wanted from Facebook, and turned to Castellucci.

“We’d get 30-50 calls a day asking for a new roommate,” Castellucci said. 

I personally gave in and made a clichéd post on the Facebook group asking for a roommate. A couple of people messaged me, and I talked to one girl about the TV shows and music we liked, the sports we played and where we liked to shop. We seemed to get along perfectly and decided that was good enough to choose each other as roommates. Now that we actually live together, I’m realizing we have polar opposite sleep schedules, as well as completely different friend circles and interests. Basically, we didn’t have as much in common as I thought we did. I do wish I did random because at least if you’re living with a stranger, it’s much easier to confront him or her about any problems you’re having than someone who you hand-picked.

In order to get a more comprehensive opinion, I asked two of my friends about their roommate experiences. One of them went random and the other one found her roommate on Facebook, much the same way as I did. 

The friend who went random — Kristen— ended up having a great experience. She started out wanting to do random before she went to college because she thought it would help her branch out and make new friends. 

“You come into college not knowing anyone, including your roommate, so you’re forced to hang out with strangers,” she said. “I mean, I never really wanted to find a roommate on Facebook anyways because it takes too much effort to write a description, and I don’t think you can really meet people you’re compatible with through Facebook.” 

Her expectation for her random roommate was that they would act cordial but mostly stay out of each other’s way. However, she now gets along really well with her roommate and finds that they have a lot in common. They have the same friends and sense of humor, and they hang out all the time. She recommends for incoming freshmen to go random.

“If you have a bad experience it builds your character, and at least you can blame it on the system. You have to learn to live with circumstances that you don’t like sometimes,” she said. 

Kristen is clearly having a great roommate experience. However, a second friend — Sarah — found her roommate on Facebook and her situation didn’t go as well as she thought it would. 

‘Sarah knew she wanted to find her roommate online before heading off to college. 

“I thought you would be able to ensure you were compatible and have similar interests through chatting on social media,” she explained. She looked through tons of people’s profiles and chatted up multiple people until she thought she found her perfect roommate. They talked for hours about favorite clothing stores, potential majors, shared classes and their favorite bands. When it came time to move in though, their differences became clear. 

“We have completely different friend groups and do different things for fun and because of that we don’t have much to talk about. We actually have contrasting personalities, which I didn’t expect after talking to her on Facebook,” she said. “I expected that we were going to be super close — sharing clothes, staying up late and having deep talks. It’s a little awkward because we chose each other and thought we would be good friends but since we’re not, it’s just a weird situation. I guess you really can’t tell what someone’s like unless you meet them in person.” 

It may seem less risky to room with someone you think you know from social media, but once you figure out you’re not as similar to them as you thought, it gets awkward. If you end up with a random roommate you’re not friends with, it’s fine ­— it’s only freshman year, and you have the next three years to live with your friends. 

There are definitely people who have picked their roommates over Facebook and ended up loving them. If you’re looking for your new best friend solely through judging their Facebook pictures and online personality, best of luck to you. However, if you’re just looking for someone who you won’t have sleep or cleanliness conflicts with, let the university handle your roommate selection. 

Write to Cecile at @cet41@pitt.edu.

Editor’s Note: Some of the subjects of this article have omitted some personal information because of the personal nature of their stories.