Adjusting to living on campus can be quite an undertaking, especially for incoming college Freshmen. This adjustment can be even more challenging for students who are the only child in their family or who have never shared a room before. When roommates have difficulty cohabitating, it can add additional stress, making it harder to focus on academics. To avoid that, here are three things every college roommate needs to know to promote a healthy and happy living experience on campus.
Get To Know Your Roommate & Their Schedule
Make plans to get to know your roommate as soon as possible. It may take more for some people to open up then others, so don't take it personally if you aren't bestfriends out of the gate. Look up and suggest a few ice breaker conversation leads or games to help the flow of conversation. If it's possible, try doing these the first day. The longer it takes to start this process, the more difficult and awkward it can be. While you're talking, be sure to discuss each other's work and class schedule. This can help prevent potential issues that can arise from conflicts if your roommate has a 6am class and you planned to have friends over to the dorm late.
Establish Boundaries
Whether the dorm has two roommates, four roommates, or is an entire house, all of the students are coming from around the world with different backgrounds, experience, and expectations. Some roommates may have grown up in a home with many siblings or close friends and are accustomed to sharing food and hygiene products. For others, this can be a major no-no. Besides sharing, other boundaries include access to rooms, phone calls or text messages, and the way people like to be spoken to.
Share Responsibilities
One of the most common issues among college roommates arise from a single roommate feeling responsible for all of the chores. Creating a chore schedule avoids these issues and prevents tension from arising in the dorm. As an added deterent there can be consequences in place for not completing chores. This could be something as simple as buying pizza for all of the roommates (in addition to completing the chore). Must like schedules, responsibilities should be discussed as early on in the roommate situation as possible.
By covering these important aspects on the first day or as early on in the roommate experience as possible, you can make your college experience a more enjoyable one.
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