A perfect match
University officials examine potential roommate-matching option for freshmen
The days of incoming freshmen rooming with someone completely opposite might be over, if MSU implements a new Facebook application that allows students to take a sliding-scale survey and choose their roommate based on the results. MSU will be running tests this summer and hopes to implement the system by September.
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For accounting sophomore Brian Perry, going in blind has had its ups and downs.
Perry, a transfer student from Central Michigan University, said in his freshman year at CMU, he met some of his best friends after filling out a roommate matching survey and getting placed with three other freshmen.
He said they got along well, but his habits changed because of the people he lived with, and that wasn’t necessarily beneficial for his college career.
“They went to bed at 5 a.m., and because of that, it made me fit more into their patterns and it negatively affected me,” Perry said.
Although he roomed with a student he knew from high school when he arrived at MSU, Perry said he thought a more extensive process for matching roommates would be beneficial for all incoming freshman.
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And for students such as Perry, a new program implemented at MSU this fall could help him — and other students going in blind — to have a little foresight.
Changing tides
In response to student interest of improving the roommate matching system, university officials recently worked on a way to match students better.
Director of Campus Living Services Sherri Margaves said the process of blind roommate matching at MSU currently consists of a brief questionnaire for students to fill out, indicating their study habits, typical bedtime, smoking preferences and other criteria.
Margaves said the current plan for the university is to implement RoomBug, a Facebook application designed to allow students to choose their own roommates based on slightly more detailed compatibility questions.
“(With the application), the university doesn’t do the matching — it’s actually the students themselves,” she said. “It’s just another tool to have more people get a little more input into that process.”
Margaves said the program likely would be in place by September 2011 if preliminary tests of the application scheduled to be held during the summer go smoothly.
“This is a service toward the students — it’s something the students have asked for for a couple years,” Margaves said.
For testing, MSU officials plan to do trial runs during the summer and input data from those trials to see whether or not it was successful.
Included in the trials will be a five-question survey offered to students. Margaves said administrators have run the idea past several students, including student workers in Campus Living Services and the Residence Hall Association.
She said once officials see if the program works well and links up correctly with the data inputted, they will consider using the program in the future.
Reaching results
The RoomBug application already has been implemented at the University of Florida with positive feedback, said T.J. Logan, associate director of housing for administrative services at the University of Florida.
For fall 2011, more than 2,700 students of an incoming class of about 5,000 use the program, Logan said. He said students have used the application not only to search for a potential roommate, but to find potential friends based on similar interests and lifestyles.
Logan said the program is unique and integrates students of this generation better than the system they had in the past and gives them more opportunities to make their college experience what they want it to be.
“We think we’re now starting to fulfill a student need a little better than we ever have,” Logan said.
A mixed bag
In the eyes of some students, the process of going in blind while picking a roommate can work just as well as choosing a roommate beforehand or having a detailed personality profile.
This was the case for hospitality business freshman Alexandra Risher, who said she first met her roommate, education freshman Lydia Macklin-Camel, the day she moved in and since has become close friends with her.
“We pretty much do everything together — we’re basically sisters,” Risher said.
Risher said the process doesn’t work necessarily in every roommate situation but said she was glad she had the opportunity to meet someone new.
Personality profiling
At Calvin College, university officials have taken the roommate matching process a step further by implementing a survey program with basic roommate questions along with inquiries about music tastes, interests, activities and other aspects of the applicant’s personality, said Emily Nagy, Calvin College’s housing assistant.
Nagy said each of the surveys are checked by hand to ensure optimal roommate matching and accommodation for needs of students that might not be recognized by a computer.
“We’re actually taking in not just their age or gender — we really care about what they’re looking for,” Nagy said.
The process might work at Calvin because of the smaller size of the incoming freshman classes, but it’s possible the process could work in the context of a larger campus if more staff were available, she said.
Different strokes
Many Michigan colleges implement similar roommate matching processes to that of MSU’s current program, including Grand Valley State University, or GVSU, Director of Housing and Resident Life
at GVSU Andy Beachnau said.
Beachnau said he doesn’t see many problems with the roommate matching policy for people going in blind at GVSU because of the nature of many incoming students but said opportunities for betterment in the process are commendable.
“Sometimes you’re nicer to a stranger than a best friend,” Beachnau said.
“(However), I do think MSU is going in the right direction by trying to enhance or approve matching — if you’ve ever had a bad roommate, you applaud the universities for trying to do that.”
Alese Garstick, an exercise science freshman at GVSU, said she and the roommate she received after going in blind get along well enough but said their schedules don’t mesh well and the two have different personalities.
She said her college experience wasn’t affected negatively by their differences, but they both might have benefited from a more extensive roommate matching survey and a roommate who better matched their habits.
“Coming in, we were pretty similar, but after going into college, our schedules and lifestyles changed,” Garstick said.
Perry said he thought it was possible for students to meet great people and get along with roommates even with the most basic survey, but said good friends and good roommates weren’t necessarily the same thing.
“People can be completely different in those surveys and still be good friends, but as far as being a good roommate, the survey (would help) a lot,” Perry said.
Commentary
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sternmyl
(04/26/11 10:07am)Report
My freshman year roommate experience was one of the worst experiences of my life. They stuck me with a guy that had had 4 roommates before the end of the fall semester and yet they stuck me with this kid. I made it two months and then I couldn’t take it anymore. The guy never showered or changed his clothes in those two months and he would always demand that the blinds be shut and the windows shut. I went to my RA after the first month and he said he would check with his higher-ups to get a transfer. Well, another month went by and there was a fight between one of my friends on the floor and my roommate. When spring break started I told him that I was going home and packed up and took all my stuff to my new single room. I had to go to the housing department in person and threaten to file a lawsuit for negligence. Long story short, MSU housing sucks.
money lost
(04/26/11 1:23pm)Report
And you wonder why MSU housing isn’t making great strides in retention, which is money lost to the university. The matching process of asking about sleeping, and socialbility wasn’t used at all my freshman year. The roomie was close to being the opposite. When I went to housing, they made it sound like my options if transferring could be worse. And it was a long process (unlike the MSU basketball guys that could move out in an hours notice with approval…hmm…) The lack of a good match and lack of helpfulness in housing switches was a direct reason why I am loving my off campus housing! Oh, and by the way, the freshman orientation that let me go under in credits the first year without pointing out you it could prevent you from going off campus for housing wasn’t helpful either! Hope improvements are made.
roommate
(04/26/11 4:04pm)Report
I had a HORRIBLE freshman experience as well. Coming into college I was 18. My roommate? 28. Her boyfriend? 53. We couldn’t relate to each other at all.
They don’t even look at the roommate matches. Even though that was 4 years ago, it still pisses me off to no end that someone thought “Hey, there’s a huge age difference here…eh, oh well” or didn’t notice at all.
I tell everyone about my bad experience at MSU and they’re definitely making a bad name for themselves by making such ridiculous matches. MSU Housing can suck it.
Rachel
(04/26/11 5:59pm)Report
I think this idea is all wrong. The reason going in blind is good is not because you are going to meet somebody who’s just like you, but rather because by working out your differences you grow as a person. If I had been matched with my roommate based on political beliefs or music tastes like this idea proposes, I would never have found a respect or appreciation for conservatives or country music like I did living with her. It wasn’t easy, but we both had to work to figure it out and we’re better people for it.
This is one more “tool” we have that is crippling us as a society. At this rate, someday we’ll never have to talk to someone different than us. Does that make us better off?
Max
(04/26/11 6:08pm)Report
Finally, MSU housing is beginning to improve. Now if only they could eliminate the worthless mentor position or at least make them do something for a change.
And to answer your Rachel, yes, it would make us ALOT better off.
MSUGRAD
(04/26/11 7:49pm)Report
First semester of Freshman year was a nightmare. I went in blind, hoping to meet new people. Well, my roommate was a hermit crab and kept the blinds closed all the time, (I think I can relate to you, sternmyl, lol). Her boyfriend came to visit every weekend and they would just stay in bed the entire weekend…awkward.
I agree with Rachel
(04/26/11 11:36pm)Report
Rachel makes a really good above: polarization is a real problem. A society that continues to section itself off — isn’t a society. Thanks to technology, and because there is less face-to-face contact than ever before, people are able to avoid contact with those who are not like us. The effects are obvious. In Congress, liberals and conservatives don’t even speak to each other any more. Christians and Muslims are increasingly being sent to different schools. The rich live away in gated communities, while visiting the poor in their native environment can be positively dangerous. How are we ever going to be able to live in the same world if we spend the first 20 years of our lives kept caged off and compartmentalized from each other?
If all this talk about college broadening the mind has any meaning at all, it should mean something like the random selection of roommates.
P.S. For those saying “I hated my roommate” — all those nightmare roommates have to go somewhere. That guy who doesn’t shower, if he isn’t your problem, he’s someone else’s problem. Unlike some people’s unrealistic expectations above, a compatibility survey is not a magic wand to make people like this disappear. How is this test a practical solution to people [not showering/getting in fights/having at it in the bed]? No one is going to write down that they want a roommate like this, and yet hundreds will still get one. Merry Christmas.
sternmyl
(04/27/11 2:31pm)Report
I never said I hated my roommate. He was actually a pretty nice guy but his habits were totally intolerable. I mean the guy plays Starcraft till 7 AM and is yelling/crying at the computer when he wins/loses or whatever. The argument of “if he isn’t your problem, he’s someone else’s problem” should pin the “someone” as MSU housing. THE GUY HAD HAD FOUR ROOMMATES BEFORE ME, IN ONE SEMESTER! It is obvious that he needed to be in his own room by himself inside of putting a naive freshman in the room thinking that this will be what college will be for four years. I was friends with every other person on that floor and when I transferred rooms/halls, I met my whole floor within 15 minutes and those people are my lifelong friends now. All I’m saying is that MSU housing (during my time as a freshman) was either completely oblivious or completely negligent to the situation.