My font of wisdom spilleth over with more of the advice.
Roommates: Unless you've shared a room with a sibling your whole life, having a roommate is going to feel a bit strange at first. And even if you have lived with a sibling, living with a complete stranger still requires some adjustment. Here's a few things to keep in mind, all based on my experiences:
-Above all else, remember that the room is both of yours. You will HAVE to make comprimises at some point. You can't have everything you want, and neither can he.
-Most large universities send out personality surveys before they assign rooms. This helps them to avoid rooming a binge-drinking football player with a quiet honor student. For the most part, this type of system works fine, but of course its not perfect. It's unlikely that you'll get your dream roommate, but you should be able to work around your differences.
-Before you move in, call your roommate. This will help break the ice later when you actually meet face-to-face. It will also let your roommate know that you're excited to meet them and live with them. Also, at this point you and your roommate can figure out what to bring. There is no sense in both of you bringing a TV, microwave, PS2, stereo, or refrigerator. Agree on who is going to bring what (the biggest TV usually wins
), and if there is something that neither of you has, but both will need (like a telephone), agree who is going to buy it and if you're going to split the cost.
-For room decor, make sure that your roommate is okay with your posters. In most cases, there will be no problem, but I've seem some pretty offensive stuff in people's rooms that I would not want to have to stare at all year long. Car posters are always a good, safe bet
-Make sure that the music in the room is a balance between both of your tastes. Give your roommate ample opportunity to play his music, even if you really hate it. Dominating the room with your music is unfair and disrespectful. Again, it is not your room.
-DO NOT HIT THE SNOOZE BAR ON YOUR ALARM CLOCK. Hitting the snooze five times is incredibly rude and disrespectful to your roommate, who probably doesn't have to get up at the same time as you. Remember, every time your alarm goes off, your roommate is woken up, too. And if your roommate is like me, it will piss them off to no end. If you can't get up on the first alarm, put your clock out of arm's reach so that you HAVE to get out of bed to turn it off. To that end, turn off your alarm as soon as you can. Don't let it ring for 20 seconds; it's annoying.
-Remember that your room is where you both have to sleep. A good rule to follow is that if you come into the room at night, and your roommate is already in bed, let him be. Don't turn on lights or make a lot of noise. If you were planning to do some homework or read, be polite and take it out to the floor lounge, or go to a library. After all, you would probably appreciate the same. Also, DO NOT bring friends into the room when your roommate is trying to sleep. No matter how quiet you all think you are, you aren't. Again, take it outside. With that in mind, realize that most college kids have roughly the same sleeping hours, but your roommate's might not quite line up with yours. So, don't plan to do anything in your room after a certain hour, even if you think that 11PM is early, and that everyone in their right mind should still be up.
-Don't turn your dorm room into a library. If you need absolute quiet to study, be ready to do it elsewhere. There are going to be a lot of distractions in the dorms, so get used to it. If you're trying to do homework, and your roommate wants to watch TV, ask him to keep the volume down, and if it still bothers you, take your work somewhere else. Your room is a living space, not a private study. Again, it's a comprimise, and one that you might not like, but you CAN do your studying somewhere else. It's much harder for your roommate to relocate the TV.
-It's better to get things out in the open, rather than to harbor resent. If your roommate does something that bugs you, let him know (but be nice about it). He might not know that what he was doing is bothersome to you. Doing this also lets him know that it's okay for him to let YOU know what is bothering
him.
-Lastly, you might want to put off the girlfriend thing until you can move into a single or an apartment
. Roommates are the ultimate game-killer. It's best to wait until you can have some, uh, privacy
. When someone else is in the room, how far will you and your girl be willing to go? Exactly
.
Okay, that's it for my roommate advice. Hopefully its helpful, because it would have helped me if I had known it beforehand.
Here's some more little tidbits:
-This one seems obvious, but almost nobody does it. Before classes start, do a dry run to find where all of your classes are, and how to get there from different places. You'd be surprised how many freshman I saw at the beginning of each year who were frantically running around with maps in their hands, not knowing where to go. It was funny and sad at the same time. This will also help you to know if you're going to have to hurry every day to make it between classes in 10 minutes.
-If you can help it, be on time to class. Not for your own benefit, but for the benefit of everyone else. No matter how much you want to deny it, people who come in late ARE VERY distracting. And usually, they have very lame reasons for being late.
-I hesitate with this advice, because it's kind of bad... You CAN skip classes now and again with no recourse. If the sun is out, and you don't want to go to that 2:30 class on Friday afternoon, then don't (as long as it's not an exam day
). Just don't make a habit of this; it's a slipperly slope. But if you work hard, you deserve an occasional day off
.
<-- Don't do lots of this until after your homework is done 
