Making the Most of College -- Get a Good Roommate

Follow me on this path for a bit:

• Your career is your most valuable asset.

• College is a key part of making the most of your career.

• To succeed in college, you need to have accomplishments in both academics and extracurricular activities.

• It's hard to have these accomplishments if your roommate is a bozo.

• Hence, having a good college roommate is key to a successful career and your entire financial future!

Ok, I went a bit overboard on that last one, but as I was reading a recent Ben Stein article on some college-related tips he had for his son, I ran into this suggestion:

If you're not happy with your roommate, switch. Having a good roommate makes all the difference in the world. Don't let yourself be sidetracked by having a disturbing person sharing your world. Go to the housing office and make an official switch, or just do it informally. But do it, and keep switching until you find a roommate you get along with.

This got me to thinking how part of my college success could be attributed to having a good roommate.

It started off badly. When I arrived at school, I soon realized my roommate was mentally unstable. I won't go into all the details about why I thought this, but let's just say that looking back I'm surprised I was able to sleep in the same room with him. I'm much more cautious today and I'm sure I'd leave immediately if assigned to room with him now.

Fortunately for me, a cool guy across the hall also had a psycho for a roommate. Within a month or so, we'd all traded around, and I was across the hall with the nice guy while the two Manson boys shacked up. You'd think we would have still had a problem with them -- after all they were just across the hall -- but they were always busy doing something else (torturing bugs, staring into space, listing to old speeches by Hitler, who knows?) so they were little trouble to us.

The new roommate I found that year remained my roommate throughout the rest of college. He and I just clicked and our room was always peaceful and quiet -- a sanctuary compared to most. It was one of the things that helped me do well in school which, in turn, got my career started off on the right foot. Thanks, Bill, for making it so easy.

By the way, when I went to grad school, I roomed alone. :-)

How about you? Any good (or nightmare) college roommate stories out there?

Comments

[reash]

When I was in college I never experienced to live in a boarding room or dormitory because our is just two rides away from the University that I was studying. But few of my friends encountered nightmares with their roommate and some were very lucky to have a heavenly sent roommate.

Having a roommate that you can get along pretty well is huge factor for doing good in school. Your roommate is like your family for four years or so. If you have a cool roommate, it's as if you are at home.

[mysticaltyger]

Too bad you're both not gay. Sounds like you guys could have been lovers, LOL (sorry, just a gay man's fantasy).

Tyger

[Anitra]

I never had a really good roommate in college. I ended up spending a lot of time away from my room, so the best ones were the ones who just didn't get in my way.

College life would have been easier if I had allowed myself to live with guy friends, instead of with girls I hardly knew.

[Susanna a.k.a. Cheap Like Me]

Great point. My sister had a roommate who was a wealthy girl from Asia. She was constantly on the phone with her family and friends in her home country ... on Asian time, which is to say 4 a.m. and 11 p.m. My sister's sleep loss probably did affect her performance in school!