College roommate tips

By Catalogs Editorial Staff

College roommate tips in five valuable pointers for happily co-existing

Leaving home and heading to college is one of life’s biggest transitions. In addition to managing a heavy academic workload and experiencing homesickness, adjusting to a new lifestyle and living environment of a shared college dorm room can be a tremendous stressor.

Even in the best of circumstances, getting along with a roommate can be challenging and college roommate tips can be a lifesaver. Sharing a room with a new person, in the midst of adapting to an entirely new college lifestyle, can truly become a nightmare for some students, particularly if they have never had to share a room, compromise, or negotiate with siblings.

More than likely, college roommates will have different interests and habits, a different academic schedules, different friends, different tastes in music, food, movies, clothing, etc. Nonetheless, incredible lifelong friendships have grown between college roommates.

Some of the wisest college roommate tips to consider include; treating your roommate experience as a cross-cultural adventure, and an exercise in human relations, all while keeping an open mind. Some additional valuable college roommate tips, listed below, may prove particularly helpful to college freshmen, and even the parents of new college students.

Make a point of reading through these tips, sharing them, or even consider posting them somewhere in your college dorm room, where they can be re-read and reflected upon over time. You may also feel inspired to write your own list of college roommate tips and suggestions to post in your freshman dorm hallway, where resident advisers and other students may also be able to learn from them.

Five Valuable Tips to Get Along with a College Roommate

1. Enter into the college roommate experience with an open mind, and a positive attitude. Positive energy invites more of the same. Having a roommate isn?t a problem. It?s an opportunity to learn about yourself and, perhaps, to make a friend.

2. Strive to communicate regularly, clearly and effectively. Your college roommate is not a mind reader. Don’t borrow things without asking. If you are upset about a particular issue, discuss it, rather than simmering on it. Engage your roommate in conversations about things that interest you, and ask them to share information about themselves.

3. Make it a point to learn about your roommate’s skills and interests, and find characteristics, talents and qualities that you admire about this person. Friendships will be more likely to blossom when individuals feel appreciated, admired and respected for who they are.

4. Be willing to negotiate and compromise. At some point, its eventually going to happen – you will encounter a problem, issue or argument where you simply can not agree. Instead, learn to appreciate the other persons point of view, then communicate, brainstorm and work together to come up with a solution or alternative.

5. Relax and have fun. Make a point of spending quality time with your roommate. Go to a movie, go mini golfing, or plan an entertaining outing. Sometimes just getting out of the dorm room, away from the college campus, and learning about a person in a different situation or circumstance can help you to appreciate the individual from an entirely different perspective.