How does SMU pair up roommates and suitemates? I’ve seen that some schools use computer matching, like a dating service: morning person or night owl, heavy metal or hip hop, and what about race, sexual orientation, religion? But how important is it to be compatible with your roommate?
In my freshman year, I had two roommates, one from Boston, and after she transferred mid-year, one from Philadelphia. To my conservative and middle-class West-side Cleveland view of the world, these girls gave me my first introduction to a real-live Democrat, a Jew, a non-virgin, classical music, and the sultry pop singer Ketty Lester.
The Boston roomie drove me a little crazy when she brought her drum set back after Thanksgiving and set it up in the room. We were opposites but became friends; I visited her the next summer and we drove all the way from Boston to Provincetown and back in one day, just talking.
I have to admit that roommates can be stressful; ultimately I wound up living with my twin sister by the junior and senior year, but I still have to agree with this column by Maureen Dowd about why it’s good to have a roommate who is NOT like you because college should be a time to get out of the confines of your familiar world.
I personally disagree with the concept of involuntary roommates in general. We can whine all we want about college being a place to experience new things that will prepare us for life, but I doubt that in "life" we will be put in a situation where we have to live in the same cubicle as another human being. College rooms are dismally small and most structures are shamelessly made on the tightest budget possible, that they impart a feeling of being "storage" as apposed to being "home" and then having to share the room on top of that? Personally I foam at the mouth in terror at the prospect.
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