Adjusting to shared living with a roommate.
When I went to school, there was no way to find out who my roommate was until the day I got to school. The anticipation was high – would I like her? Would we be best friends? Would we both like to do the same things, join a sorority, stay up late? Would we be a roommate match? These days it’s soooo much different. There are websites, FB pages, group texting, and many more options for students to pick their roommates and get to know them.
It is very possible that your student will choose to live in a dorm with someone from high school. Whether they are friends or mere acquaintances, living with someone familiar can be comforting when everything else is so new and different. But a lot of friends that live with each other don’t end up staying friends. While such a statement may sound extreme, think about it. Going to college is the chance to reinvent yourself and to put yourself out there. Your student will be meeting new people and will probably find that their interests change. My daughter did not want to live with a high school friend and she is so thankful she didn’t, seeing as her random choice of a roommate has since become one of her best friends.
When my daughter got accepted to UGA, one of the first things she did was a search for UGA Class of 2023 (or your child would enter the year they will graduate UGA) Facebook group. Apparently, groups like this are something that high school seniors are aware of. This Facebook group is like any other FB group, filled with people who are searching for the same thing, in this case, a UGA dorm roommate. On this page, students typically choose to make a post about themselves, which is made up of biography (where they are from, what they want to major in, and what their interests are, etc), photos of themself, and social media usernames. There were a lot of students posting on the page and at first, she really didn’t find anyone that she connected with and was a bit discouraged. However, after a few weeks, she found a girl that she really liked and wanted to live with. They started texting, sending pictures of dorm decorating ideas, and just getting to know each other and eventually met up to get their nails done to see if they really clicked. It was after this manicure date that they decided to be roommates, and are so thankful they did.
Fortunately for my daughter, this process was easy and she wound up finding a roommate that she liked. They have similar interests, but belong to different groups, different sororities, and have different friends but they are respectful of each other and have a great relationship. If the Facebook page doesn’t work for your student, there are also some other ways to get help with the UGA roommate search: RoomSurf, Roomster, ULoop – UGA, and there are UGA Roommate Instagram pages as well.
Your student must have their roommate chosen in the Dawg House prior to room selection to guarantee to get to live with them, so make sure they pay attention to UGA housing requests and roommate sign-up dates! UGA Housing answers any questions you may have as well as providing additional information. Keep checking back for the semester dates that apply to your first-year student. If your student’s roommate is a match made in heaven, then great! But if it’s not, remember that a year of college goes by super-fast.
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