Should You Have a Roommate in a College Dorm?

I have had a roommate throughout all four years of college, and based on both mine and my friend’s experiences, I can tell you about the pros and the cons to having a college roommate.

As a general rule, you should have a roommate in a college dorm if you get along with others easily, want help navigating college life, and want to save money on housing costs. You should not have a roommate if you want to keep your belongings very safe, you want more privacy and want more freedom.

Knowing the pros and cons to having a roommate in a college dorm will either save you the trouble of having to experience these situations yourself, or prepare you for the lifestyle you’re about to get into.

Notice: Make Your Place Livable LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

The Pros:

1. You Might Get Paired With Someone You Like

Usually, when signing up for  roommates, many schools will give each student a survey asking them about their living habits and personality to try and pair each person with someone they’ll at least be able to cordially live with. I’ve seen a few examples where this resulted in a friendship that lasted past graduation because they happened to room with someone they really get along with.

Not to mention, a lot of times, your roommate is the first person you really get to know on campus and, as a result, could end up being your first friend. Even if you don’t end up becoming friends, it’s still nice to have an acquaintance as soon as you get on campus.

2. They Can Help You Feel Safe

Living alone for the first time can make you a little anxious. Sharing that experience with someone else can help ease that anxiety. This can be especially comforting if you’d feel better walking home with someone after a late night class. Even if your roommate isn’t around to walk home with you, at least you know that you won’t be alone by the end of the day or during the day.

3. You Don’t Have To Be As Responsible

Since someone else has the key to your place, you can be a little at ease knowing that if you forget your key, there’s a backup plan before having to pay for another one. Not to mention, if one of you forgets your I.D and the staff at the cafeterias don’t care if you use a friend’s I.D to pay for food, then you also have a backup plan for getting a meal if your roommate is gracious enough to buy it (thank God mine was). Also, if you guys share a class or two, then you can share notes with each other beforehand to make sure you’re both on the right track.

4. You Can Help Each Other Navigate College Life

Going through college for the first time can be confusing and scary if you don’t know what to expect. Navigating that experience with someone who’s in the same boat is pretty comforting. Even if both of you have an idea of what’s to come, chances are you’ll both be knowledgeable in different areas.

If you fit your mental puzzle pieces together, you’ll both get a better understanding and feel more confident about your college careers. You can help each other with academics, social lives, fashion, job searching, or anything else that you both think you’ll need an extra hand with.

5. You Can Share With Each Other To Cut Costs

One great thing about having a roommate is not having to buy everything yourself. You guys can split the costs of appliances, furniture, decor, etc. You can either do this by going shopping together, if that’s an option, or by putting together a list of who’s buying what item.

For example, one of you could buy the mini fridge while the other buys the vacuum, one of you could buy a butterfly chair while the other buys a carpet, one of you could buy the fairy lights while the other buys the wall decor, etc. It’s just overall cheaper and easier when you don’t have to do all of the shopping yourself.

6. You Can Split Responsibilities

Since you both live in the dorm, neither of you will have to take care of it by yourself (hopefully).. This means you’ll either have to take turns cleaning it or make a joint effort to both clean it at the same time.

One of the best ways to make sure you both take care of your living space is to make a schedule detailing who cleans what and when they do it. This is an example of what that schedule could look like. You guys will also want to split the responsibility of buying supplies that you both share when you guys run out. Here’s an example of a schedule that you both could use for that.

7. It’s A Cheaper Living Situation

Paired with the advantage that you don’t have to buy everything for the dorm yourself, the fact that double, triple, and quad style dorms cost less than single dorms makes for a more affordable living situation. This is great if you want to get the full college experience without breaking your bank.

8. You Can Use The Buddy System

Having a roommate means you have a built-in buddy when you need at least one other person to go somewhere or do something. That is, if you get along. If you want your roommate to be your built-in buddy, but you don’t get along with them, check out this article to learn how to get along with them.

If you and your roommate normally get along, but you’re having a bit of a spat right now, then check out this article to find out how to resolve it. Having a solid buddy system with your roommate will not only make dorm life a whole lot easier, like when you need someone to tag along to the grocery store, it’ll make it a whole lot safer, like when you need to walk back home after a late night class but don’t want to do it alone. 

9. You Could Room With Someone You Already Know

Another great part about having a roommate is that they could be someone you’re already friends with, are acquainted with, are related to, etc. What’s better than navigating college life with someone you already know and like? This is a somewhat rare case, but if you happen to go to the same school as someone you know and like, you might as well room with them if you’re both up for it!

The Cons:

1. You’ll Move In With A Stranger

It’s not all that likely that you’ll be moving in with someone that you already know, so you can expect to move in with a total stranger. This can easily be an uncomfortable and awkward situation since you’ve likely only ever lived with people that you know and are close to. When living with someone you’ve never met before, you don’t know what to expect right off the bat.

When meeting new people, chances are, you only have to be around them for a couple hours at most and then it’s back to normal life. Not here. You’re sharing a space with this person for at least a couple months. If you want to make the most of this situation, check out this article to learn how to bond with your roommate right away!

2. You Might Get Paired With Someone You Don’t Like

Just like there’s a chance that you might get paired with a new friend, you might end up paired with an absolute nightmare of a roommate. Someone who has poor hygiene, leaves the door unlocked or open when they leave, spills stuff on the floor without cleaning it up, borrows your things without asking or just downright steals them, someone who insists on arguing with you about everything. Yeah. That kind of roommate.

If you end up in this unfortunate situation, you could try and resolve it by following this guide on how to get past roommate drama, or you could ask your R.A to help you exchange roommates entirely.

3. Your Belongings are Less Safe

Most of our important things are kept at home, and this is your new home now. Whether or not your new roommate is trustworthy, you’ll have to be more careful with where you put your valuables since they are easily accessible to the other person that lives there. This is especially true if your roommate has their friends over, because you don’t know how trustworthy they are.

You may want to purchase a mini safe or a trunk that you can lock to keep your bank info, any written passwords, extra money, etc. out of the hands of someone you don’t know that well.

4. You Have Less Privacy

Now that you live in a small space with someone else, you’ll have less time to be by yourself. That means that you won’t be able to break out into a random wacky dance to shake the stress off (unless you don’t care who sees), you can’t answer important phone calls where you need to talk about super personal information until your roommate’s not there, etc. You need to be more aware of when it’s safe to handle private business since your alone time will be cut in half.

5. You’ll Have Less Freedom

Now that you’re sharing a living space, you’ll have to be a courteous roommate. This means you won’t be able to blast music whenever you want, play your favorite shows out loud in the middle of the night, etc. You’ll have to put all that behavior away when living with someone else. You both will have to compromise on when quiet time is, when it’s lights-out for bedtime, who you guys can and can’t bring over, etc. 

6. You Might Have Different Standards Of Living

When moving in with a complete stranger, chances are that you’ll both have different standards of living from one another. You might be a little more lax with your hygiene while your roommate is a clean-freak. You might like to come home to a nice, quiet home at the end of the day while your roommate likes to relax with a gut-busting comedy to laugh off the stress of the day. You’ll have to try and find a groove that you can both fit into in order to make college life a little easier for yourselves.

7. Your Roommate Could Have Unwelcome Guests

Since both you and your roommate will, hopefully, be making friends with more than just each other, you both might end up getting along with people that the other doesn’t like and certainly doesn’t want in their home. To ask your roommate to never have people over might be a little much, but it makes it hard not to ask for that when they tend to bring over people that have no manners.

Additionally, when you ask them not to bring over those people, your roommate might get offended and that could start drama between you two. It’s a tough situation to deal with that, unfortunately, comes with the roommate lifestyle.