Maybe I should be a little careful with this one, as I’m pretty sure my roommate is one of the few of my friends who actually reads these…
Having a roommate in college is already not an ideal situation. For one, living in the dorms is not exactly living the life of luxury. While LC’s dorms aren’t quite as bad as horror stories you may hear from across the country, they also aren’t particularly lavish. The dormitories that are the nicest, notably Holmes, Hartzfeld, and Juniper, are reserved for upperclassmen. If you are a freshman at LC, odds are you might end up in Copeland, where roughly half of all freshmen live and notoriously the liveliest, albeit least cleanly, dorm on campus.
Most dorm rooms are just large enough to house two extra-long twin beds, two desks, and two wardrobes. Lucky SOA residents have walk in closets for the exchange of the oldest residential buildings. There is access to a communal kitchen and communal common room, where students can cook and socialize.
In most dorms, LC offers the standard double room: two people crammed together in a shoebox. There are a few quads in every dorm, where there is a common room and a smaller bedroom with two sets of bunk beds. I haven’t experienced life in a quad, but I’m sure it’s rather the same as life in a double, only with more roommates to juggle.
In my first year at LC, the campus wasn’t nearly as full as it is now. Our record breaking class of 2025 has set our campus to bursting, with lots of freshmen in forced triple rooms, where an extra bed is added to a double. Again, I cannot comment on this situation, but to me it does seem a bit cramped. I’m not sure if our housing shortage will last in coming years, though with LC’s four-semester on campus requirement, next year will probably be the same in terms of the number of beds available.
But for me, the thing that makes or breaks a living situation is the people you end up living with. My first semester, I had a roommate who I was completely at odds with. My second, I ended up living by myself. My third semester at LC, I’m living with my best friend. All have had their ups and downs, all have had there challenges and rewards, and I want to give a little advice for those of you who may have never had to share a room or space with anyone before (looking at you only children).
Lewis and Clark uses a housing survey to match roommates. It contains questions about your sleeping habits, study habits, how clean you like your room, how hot or cold, etc. All of these things are useful information when it comes to pairing people to live together, which is why I was completely confused when I got paired with a roommate who seemed to be my exact opposite.
I hold no animosity towards my former roommate, but had completely different tendencies. I went to bed earlier and got up earlier, she went to bed late and got up late. We had different priorities for cleanliness, study habits, social habits, everything. While it was difficult to navigate, the roommate agreement our RA had us fill out was good for being able to set clear boundaries with the person I was living with. It’s always important to be mindful of your roommate, but also important to advocate for yourself. Living with someone who was so different than I was was I good learning experience for me. It taught me how to deal with others, how to stick up for myself, how to compromise.
My second semester at LC, I was living by myself. This too had its own challenges. While I no longer had to manage living with another person, I was also alone most of the time. This was the age of COVID, of zoom University. Most of my classes were online, campus activities were too, and the halls were quiet. A fraction of the student body was on campus, even fewer staying in the dorms, and all too often I felt extremely isolated. I learned how to enjoy my own company, learned also how and when to reach out to the people I knew and loved for support. Even if you have a roommate, it can be important to learn these skills. Living away from home, whether it’s 20 minutes or 200 miles, can be daunting. It was essential for me to build new relationships in my new environment and to lean on my old support system.
My third semester living on campus, I was fortunate enough to be able to live with a very close friend of mine. Living with a friend isn’t necessarily easier than living with someone who you may not like. In fact, many people will advise against it. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, and dorm life is notorious for putting people in extremely close quarters. I’m not saying you shouldn’t live with your best friend, I’m just saying make sure you are compatible enough to not only be friendly with each other, but also live together. You have to consider the same kinds of things you would with any stranger, but it can honestly be harder to set boundaries with someone you’re friends with. How do you tell your good friend that you need space from them? How do you bring up uncomfortable conversations about your living situation without damaging your relationship as friends? Will the constant exposure to this person make you sick of them, or will it make you even closer?
The things you have to navigate with roommates are different than the things you have to navigate with friends, and where that space overlaps can be hard to deal with. I’m lucky in that my relationship with my roommate has only been strengthened by our time living together. I feel like I’ve gotten much closer to her, much more comfortable. But that isn’t the case for everyone, and it’s so important to give your living situation a lot of thought if you decide to choose your roommate.
This was a lot longer than expected! Living in the dorms can be so very fun or so very stressful, and not everyone is in the position to choose their roommates. No matter who you live with, it’s always important to take care of yourself and set boundaries.
