Roommate Assignments? Check!

It’s this week’s biggest news on campus. The most anticipated info of the summer. But the wait is over, dorm assignments are here!

If you haven’t already done so, you can check your room assignment by going to your Washburn student email through Microsoft Outlook. You have likely received an email that will list your roommate and suitemates for the coming semester, as well as your specific dorm room assignment.

My roommate from freshman year, one of our friends, and I planned to live in the Washburn Village this year. We were lucky enough to be placed in the exact building we wanted! And in our emails, we received another surprise – we will be having an exchange student living with us! Although we have yet to hear back from our new friend, we are excited to get to know her better over the course of the year. We are very excited to see what new adventures await us this year at Washburn!

Some of you may already be acquainted with your roommates. You know them from previous semesters and understand how they function in their daily lives. You have already found commonalities and made the accommodations necessary to survive living with each other – or at least make it through the year without killing each other (or taking over each other’s lives, e.g. the “The Roommate.”)

But for some of you, this may be the part of college preparation you've been dreading all summer long. This is the awkward part – the getting to know new people part.

For a moment, let me stress just how important it is to actually get in touch with your roommates. You cannot avoid each other forever. In fact, you will be living together in less than two months. 

There are two major discussions you need to have with your future roommates before the summer is over: Decide who is contributing what to the dorm amenities and have the icebreaker chat.

Last year, my roommates and I met up face-to-face to do our dorm shopping.  We purchased items like towels, curtains, rugs and storage together. We also made a mental list of who would bring bigger items that could be used by all four members of our little herd. For example, my roommate brought a television and I brought a microwave. You’ll also need to remember to bring those things not typically thought of, including medicine, Band-Aids, cleaning supplies and toilet paper.

And please, for goodness sake, get to know each other! Make an effort to learn about each other ahead of time and I promise you will have a much better roommate experience. It will be awkward at first, but you can start small. Talk about your families and pets. Check each other’s schedules and see if you have any classes together. Then work your way up! Explain why you chose your major and what activities you want to get involved in on campus. Discuss your fears and aspirations for the coming year. It’s also very important to get a feel for each other’s sleep schedules, habits, tidiness ideals, noise tolerations, etc.

Now allow me to finish with a frank word of assurance. You will have roommates you bond with and love. You will also have roommates that you absolutely detest. Yet somehow, by the end of the year, you will have learned to at least live civilly with these people and maybe…with enough patience and effort…even become friends. That’s the entire purpose of the roommate experience, anyway. It expands your vision of life through learning to live with people you never would have expected to come to appreciate. (And it never would have happened if you hadn't let your mom fill out the personality preference form.)