Current College Student Shares Her Best Tips For Getting Along With Roommates

This post will give you the best advice for picking your roommate, making a good first impression, and getting along with roommates in college. 

Moving in with someone you found on Instagram and have known for a month? What could go wrong? 

The whole idea of college roommates is kind of crazy. You go from living in the comfort of your own home to living in a tiny room with multiple other people, all while adjusting to living somewhere new and starting a whole new chapter of your life. WOW. But without them, college would not be the same. 

There are different ways you find your roommates. You could go in completely random and just hope for the best. You can find tons of people in instagram and facebook groups looking for roommates. Or you may have a friend from home that you are planning to live with. All of those scenarios have their own pros and cons.

What it really comes down to is no matter how much you like someone, living in such close proximity with ANYONE will test you in ways you never expected. 

FINDING YOUR ROOMMATE:

I’m Hannah, one of the BSL gals, and I go to San Diego State University. I lived in a suite with 5 other girls my freshman year and I am going to give you my best tips and tricks for getting along with your college roommates. 

I want to start off with my most important advice that has to do with finding a roommate. Of course, everyone is looking for someone who they think they have a better chance of getting along with, but that can be really hard when you only know them through social media. I can’t stress this next point enough. Do not pick out a college roommate just because they have a cute instagram aesthetic. ???? We all know instagram is not real life and we showcase a very specific version of ourselves. 

Dig a little deeper in your conversations with them, ask about their values, their insecurities, what their most proud of in their life. Obviously, you should share your answers to these questions with them too. I did this with a couple of my potential roommates and it was a game changer. Girls who I thought I would be besties with after scrolling their Instagram for 5 minutes ended up not being who I thought they were. 

Don’t get me wrong, even if you have these conversations and love your roommate, you will still have your differences. I’m not saying this to scare you, just to prepare you! 

MAKING A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION:

Okay, now it’s time for first impressions. I was SO nervous to meet my roommates. I knew that I was going to be living with these girls for a while and I really wanted to make a good impression. My best advice to you (and I know it’s cliche, but seriously) is be yourself and just be comfortable. Make yourself at home, be completely honest about yourself, and don’t try to be just like them to fit in. They will appreciate you and like you even more for being who YOU are. 

This is slightly embarrassing to share, but I feel like I definitely put on a different persona in that first week of meeting my roommates. ? But get this (I seriously am not making this up) as soon as I let loose and was my normal, goofy self, one of my roommates actually said to me, “I love this Hannah”. In that moment I literally was so embarrassed that I acted differently to try and seem “cooler” in their eyes. 

Just be yourself. 

GETTING ALONG WITH YOUR ROOMMATE:

Now, once you have lived with your roommates for a little while, maybe you’re a little more relaxed, had some memorable nights with your girls, and have really gotten to know them. This is when you may start to notice some little things your roommates may do that bother you. 

Maybe your roommates leave laundry everywhere, or don’t take out the trash, or watch loud videos on their phones late at night. Of course, all of those are minor things but when it’s interrupting your personal space, it’s easy to get frustrated. 

What I do in this situation is just deal with the mess myself the first time. If there’s garbage that needs to be taken out, just take it out. If there is dishes stacked up in your sink, just wash them. Your roommate WILL notice that you did that and hopefully that will make them change their behavior really quick. 

If it’s something that’s harder to deal with on your own, you may have to confront your roommate, but not in a mean way. Just casually approach the situation. Even if you send a text message like, “hey would you mind turning down your music a little bit :)” it will not be a big deal. They will probably be apologetic, turn down their music, and be respectful from there on out.

These are all things that I’m sure you could work out on your own. It’s when it becomes a pattern and you have asked them to stop before that you may start to get worried. It can be sooo uncomfortable to bring up these things (especially if you’re afraid of confrontation like me). 

This can be super annoying for you to do, but I’m going to tell you what worked for me. When my roommate would NEVER take out her trash, I would purposely take it out in front of her. And I literally did this at least 5 times before she caught on. It sucked. 

But then she started taking out her trash, and all was right with the world. ?

At the end of the day, my best advice is to approach these awkward situations in a discreet, polite way and not make a big stink out of it. The last thing you want is to start an uncomfortable disagreement and then be forced to live with this person for the rest of the year. Handle these tough conversations in a mature way, and trust me your roommate will get the hint.

This post was all about getting along with roommates.