Part of knowing how to survive college and make the most out of your dorm life experience is having a good or at least a working relationship with your roommate. You are likely spending a good deal of time thinking about college, and may even be wondering how to find a college roommate. If you are living in the dorms, then your roommate will be selected for you. Yet, it is important that you don’t just live with the bad results of a random matching process. If you are feeling as though you just can’t live with your roommate, realize that there are steps you can take. Now, let’s take a look at a few of the ways that you can deal with your bad roommate situation.
Few things can be quite as painful as having a bad roommate whether you are in college or are living in your first apartment or even your tenth apartment. In short, a bad roommate can sour your entire life! Step one in dealing with a problematic roommate is to see if your problems can be resolved. If you pause to think about the problems and the conflict at the heart of those problems you may find a solution. Sometimes good communication can smooth over poor relationships and start things heading in another direction, yet this doesn’t always work. If you first make attempts to resolve your conflict points with your roommate and are met with no success then you may have to consider getting the university involved.
Before you begin discussing your issues with university or college officials, it is usually prudent that you’ve first discussed your problems with your roommate. The reason for this is that the officials are likely to ask, perhaps even as their first question, “Have you discussed this with Roommate X?” If you answer “no,” they may conclude that you haven’t tried hard enough to resolve the conflict, and this could put you in a bad light. However, if you are able to detail and outline your attempts to resolve the situation, you look mature, capable and reasonable.
Are there exceptions to this rule? In short, most definitely. If you fear that your roommate is dangerous or may lash out at you in some damaging way, then you are better off going straight to your university or college officials.
Visiting your college advisor so that he or she can help guide you towards your next step may ultimately be your only move. Once this process begins, it is best that you work with college officials to resolve the situation quickly and find you another room or roommate if at all possible. No matter how the situation works out, try and stay calm and keep from making an enemy for life! Situations of this kind can be heated. Remember that your goal is to get a new room or a new roommate and not to teach your roommate a life lesson or to change his or her personality. The important thing in this situation is to quickly get the roommate issue resolved so you can get back to focusing on academics.
Much goes into having a great college experience. Getting stuck with a bad college roommate is something that you want to avoid. College dorm life can, of course, be tricky, and you might not have too much say over what kind of roommate that you might have. However, if you are living off campus, then you may need to find a college roommate. There is another question you need to ask first and that is, “Do I definitely need a roommate or even want a roommate?” Whether or not you have a roommate during college is largely a matter of finances for most people. Of course, if you are a freshmen living in the dorms, most schools will automatically assign a roommate to you. In this case, you will most likely be living with someone you have never met before.
