URoomsurf.com Paves the Way for a New Type of Roommate Selection
NEIRAD enilno edition
After the dreaded, decision-demanding May 1st deadline has rolled around, the next item on a newly-enrolled college student’s agenda is the roommate process. There is the traditional route of random roommate, which has both its advantages and its disadvantages, but a new phenomenon in roommate selection is growing in popularity. URoomsurf.com was launched in 2009 by two University of Miami graduates. The co-founders and 2009 college grads, Dan Thibodeau and Justin Gaither, believe the relationship between roommates can play a big part in determining the college experience. The recent grads founded URoomsurf.com in hopes of alleviating roommate assignment anxiety.
This anxiety could be brought on by a multitude of nightmare scenarios. Many people have heard a roommate ‘horror story’ once or twice, and there is no doubt they produce fears. Imagine a roommate who is a slob, brings the unexpected loser boyfriend from home to hang out, or worse, steals your belongings. These horrendous situations are what prompted thousands of new students to join URoomsurf.com for the upcoming college year.
Although most colleges have a fairly extensive matching survey, there is still some possibility that roommates will not be compatible. That’s where URoomsurf.com comes in. Most students, like senior Michele Piccaro, find out about the free Web site when they joined the official Facebook group for their school, “People in the college Facebook group suggested that everyone check out the Web site. I signed up knowing little about the Web site except that it helps people find potential roommates,” Piccaro, a future Fairfield University student said.
After making an account on URoomsurf.com, one makes a profile, complete with a picture (optional), and a personal explanation.
Next, a survey is taken with general questions such as what time you go to bed at night and your level of cleanliness, and each question has a corresponding section where the user is asked how they would like their roommate to respond. Once both of these steps have been completed, URoomsurf matches the user with students from the corresponding college, and displays two percentages. The first is how well the other student matches you, and the second percentage shown is to what degree you match the other student. If you share a high percentage with a fellow member, often messaging occurs. For example, senior Bridget Reilly, who will be attending Miami University of Ohio, has had much success on the site, “I've talked to a lot of people at my school, about what they want to major in and what they want to do at Miami, I'd say I've talked to like 20 people,” Reilly said.
The site recently added a new service that allows its users to view their match’s surveys. This feature costs $4.95, and gives a better insight into the people in which the prospective college student has been matched.
However, there are many conflicting opinions on the subject of roommate selection. Future University of Southern California student Meredith Jordan felt no need to visit URoomsurf.com because her school already has a similar process, “My college has their own survey with similar questions followed by a list of people who match you, so I didn't think I needed to do the same thing elsewhere,” Jordan said. Despite her disinterest to find a roommate on the site, Jordan did state, on the other hand, that she would like to join the site to simply meet more students.
Even though Picarro made a profile and had been talking with classmates at Fairfield University, she decided to pursue the more conventional method of roommate selection, ‘random roommate’, “It was interesting to see potential roommates, but I think an important part of the college experience is rooming with someone you know little about and learning to get along with different types of people,” Picarro said. Although Picarro’s thinking is very respectable, other students wish to have more control over their roommate selection. Bridget Reilly exhibits the control route in her reasoning for using URoomsurf.com, “I think this site is a great idea and that everyone should use it because no one wants to get to college and have to worry about their roommate because your first year of college is hard,” Reilly said.
Reilly’s logic is being mirrored by thousands of prospective college students across the country, and with new features such as video chat and a campus discount card coming soon to the Web site, perhaps next year will yield even greater results.
