“Froomies”

Students should room with their high school friends 

With senior year coming to a close very shortly and college just upon the horizon, many seniors are beginning to consider the details of where they will be attending college, what they are interested in studying, and the most important decision: who they live with.

For people going out of state, it is an easy decision: find a roommate online with the class of 2021 Facebook page or make the daring move of going random.

For the people staying in state, however, there is the difficult decision of rooming with someone they don’t know or choosing someone from the tight knit society of South Tampa that we live in currently.

The choice is obvious: room with someone you know. This doesn’t mean rooming with a best friend, since this will inhibit the students’ ability to branch out and meet new people, but having a good acquaintance or friend is a good way to start off the new school.

The reasons for this are simple: you have someone going home to the same area of the state that you are (this is great for students who are not bringing a car to campus because it gives them an automatic ride home), you know their habits, and you have a friend to start college with: an automatic strength when it comes to finding someone to go out with, rushing a sorority, or walking to class.

Knowing your roommate before going to college also makes the already difficult transition of moving away a whole lot easier for the student because of the familiarity already existing.

Students should choose a friend to room with from their hometown for the best college adjustment possible.

College freshmen benefit from unknown roommates 

As college decisions are released and high school seniors begin to make plans for next year, the question of who they will room with becomes relevant. This is the first time most of these students will ever be living on their own, so the person they share this experience with is a very important decision.

No matter what school a student is attending, it’s extremely beneficial for them to room with a person who they did not know in high school. While this can seem scary, many websites and programs have been developed to ensure that incoming college students can find their perfect match.

A completely “random” roommate is much too risky for some. One method to avoid a potentially horrific situation is using Facebook groups. Students join their school’s class page once they’ve been accepted, and can read posts from other students their age that will attending the same school. While the posts are brief, a quick look through a person’s profile can give them a decent idea of how compatible they would be.

College is a fresh start. Students are entering a new place, new school and new organizations in order to discover who they are and what they want to do with their life. In order to undergo this immense transformation, it’s important that they break the ties which are holding them onto their childhood.

Many students want to go to an out of state school, but finances make this too difficult. For those students who wanted to break out but find themselves in a school with many people they knew in high school, a roommate who they do not know is a great option. This would allow the student to very easily meet new people and experience their first year with someone who has a completely different perspective from them.

Additionally, finding a roommate from a different place forces students to make new friends and branch out. The option to go into college with your best friends and spend every day with them is tempting, but will make it too easy to never branch out from the people you’ve known for years. Staying friends with people you knew in high school can be a great thing, but in order to grow and change, it’s also essential to meet new people and broaden your social circles.

Some people would argue that the transition into college is too big to go through without a close friend, but this justification is what holds many students back from experiencing all that college has to offer them. Every university has a wide variety of programs and organizations to help students find their place and discover who they are, and it’s important for students to make the decisions of what to be involved with without the influence of their long-time friends.