Roommates: Find Your Perfect Match

By Liz Wassman

Few issues become personal as quickly as deciding on housing. Location, price and size of the place are all important, but choosing roommates is the most sensitive factor. Here are a few tips to help you decide on the perfect housemates for next year.

Degree of Friendship

Everyone wants to live with their best friends because then you get to see each other all the time without having to make plans. Consider, however, that a close friend could also be a terror to live with. Although you may think you are the best of friends, some people are simply too much to handle all the time. Those little habits that annoy you when you are hanging out suddenly surround you all the time, causing you to resent your "bestie." Don't let your decision to room with your best friend be the end of your friendship. Breaks are a good and healthy thing!

Amount of Partying

An ideal situation is one where you and your housemates go out for roughly the same amount of time each week. If your friend is constantly going out while you are trying to sleep or study, or he or she is constantly pressuring you to come out too, the relationship will struggle. On the other hand, if you are the one going out all the time, you will be frustrated by a quieter roommate who never lets you have fun in your own room.

Level of Cleanliness

The amount of mess that two people can tolerate must be roughly equal in order to achieve a successful pairing. If your roommate gets anxious when things are not in their places, and you are fine with some clutter, this situation can ruin even the best of friendships. In the end, mutual respect and politeness matter more when choosing a roommate.

In the competitive Santa Clara housing scene, students begin signing leases in November the school year before they are planning to move in, which means it is never too early to start thinking about these issues. Remember: you are going to live with someone for one school year, and thirty weeks is a very long time.

Contact Liz Wassmann at ewassmann@scu.edu.