Face-to-Face is a feature that allows two members of the Redwood community to grill each other, argue, or simply converse about a relevant issue or event. We provide the topic, and they do the rest. This month’s participants are senior Reyna Clow and senior Regan Kelly. The issue: Do you think you should pick a roommate?
Should you be able to choose your own roommates or have it be random?
Reyna Clow: I would want to choose my roommate because I wouldn’t want to get stuck with somebody who has some really weird qualities, like somebody who gets drunk every night and throws up all over your stuff. I don’t want my roommate to have an alarm set for five o’clock in the morning or to room with someone who just doesn’t get you and doesn’t want to be friends with your friends. The best part of having a dorm mate is making friends together and then having a synchronized schedule together.
Regan Kelly: The whole point of going to college is to have an entirely new experience. Obviously it’s to get an education, but I feel like you miss out on an intricate part of college if you choose your roommate because you already have someone you’re friends with going there. You’re kind of living in the past. It’s important to get a whole new experience, and having a roommate that you don’t know is a big part of that.
How useful are the question sheets that are used to pair together people as roommates that have similar interests?
RK: Right, those are to help you get along, but if you have somebody who you already know everything about them, then during the first week of going out with your roommate and putting yourself out there, you only stay with your friend and act less socially. Your whole mindset of going into college is then, “Oh me and my one friend are going to have a good time,” versus, ”Oh I’m going to meet so many new people.”
RC: Or you could just build relationships with that one friend and then you and that friend are really close. Then you both make friends outside of each other, bringing them all together, and then you have a giant group of friends. A lot of people choose to go their college just because their best friend is going there, and they both love the school because they have such similar personalities. Why would you want to live in a different room from your best friend? Wouldn’t you want to rather just live with your best friend to split the cost of stuff, share everything, and have your families really close so it’s easy to move around?
How do you believe that your roommate affects your overall college experience?
RC: I think that if your roommate were somebody that you don’t really get along with you would force yourself to leave your room more often. For example, my mom didn’t like her freshman year roommate, so she would leave the room, and she met new people because she didn’t want to spend any time in her dorm room studying or being around that person. By randomly selecting your roommate, you leave way to big of a risk of rooming with somebody you don’t get along with, which would result in a far worse college experience. I don’t want to have to force myself out of my own room just because I’m not comfortable around my roommate.
RK: I don’t see that there’s any risk of randomly getting a roommate for my overall college experience because you either are best friends with the guy or…
RC: What happens if it’s your worst enemy?
RK: Well if it’s your worst enemy, then you leave and go out and do things. Also you have your bed and your own space. When you leave college you’re not going to have any money. You’re going to room with people until you’re much older. If you get a job in San Francisco and you’re from Texas you’re going to go there and just try to find a random roommate. If anything, randomly choosing roommates in college enhances your college experience because it gives you a real world experience to take with you.
