David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Roommates Who Click
By LISA W. FODERARO, New York Times
August 20, 2010
MADDI GILJE, who will soon leave home in St. Louis to start at New York University, has chatted all summer with her new roommate, Amelia Dudley of Baltimore. She could be talking to her twin.
They share the same bedtime (between 10 p.m. and midnight) and a high tolerance for clutter. They both eat vegetarian food, advocate for animal rights, play guitar and favor the same indie rock acts, Bright Eyes and Regina Spektor. They have already agreed on a polka dot shower curtain.
This is not just great good luck — theirs was a match made on URoomSurf.com, a Web site that does for dormitory life what eHarmony and Match.com have long done for romance. Each filled out a questionnaire covering study habits, overnight guests, tidiness, politics, sexual orientation and religion, among other topics, then received a list of other soon-to-be freshmen who had registered on the site, ranked by compatibility. N.Y.U. blessed the match.
“I really didn’t want to leave it to chance,” said Ms. Gilje, 18. “My sister woke up her first night of college and drunk people were poking her, asking where her roommate was. That’s when I realized I’m not going through that.”
There was a time when every newcomer arrived on campus to find a perfect stranger — not a perfect clone — sharing her tiny space. But that annual rite is being upended as more colleges let incoming students take advantage of new technologies to find an ideal mate.
While many colleges still insist on pairing roommates themselves, either randomly or carefully, a growing number are turning the choice over to students. Some universities have contracted with matchmaking companies like Lifetopia and RoomBug, which offer secure Web-based services. Others are acceding to a wave of roommate requests from students who use unrestricted sites like URoomSurf, and others have created Facebook pages to help students share information.
Housing officials say that “roommate self-selection,” as the process is known, empowers students while cutting down on irksome appeals to switch later on. But some worry that it robs young adults of an increasingly rare opportunity for growth: exposure to someone with different experiences and opinions.
“Very quickly, college students are able to form self-selected cliques where their views are reinforced,” noted Dalton Conley, an N.Y.U. sociology professor who has studied the effects of technology on contemporary life. “Getting rid of the random assignment of freshmen roommates is going to impoverish the experience of the residential college.”
Hamilton College in upstate New York, for one, does not entertain roommate requests. “We want students to learn from this experience,” said Nancy R. Thompson, the dean of students. “And sometimes that involves negotiating differences.”
But Justin Gaither, a co-founder of URoomSurf, estimated that 80 percent of the nation’s major four-year colleges allow students to submit a roommate request “as long as it’s mutual.” Since his site started in February, more than 80,000 students from 700 colleges have signed up, paying $5 or $10 (depending on the level of access to information) for a list of classmates of their gender and a score on how well they mesh, from 1 percent to 100 percent. Jenny Jakubowski, who is to attend Syracuse University, said she was not looking for a mirror image of herself when she turned to URoomSurf. But Megan McNally of Montvale, N.J., was a close enough match at 95 percent. “We both bowled at the varsity level, which was kind of a fluke,” said Ms. Jakubowski, who lives in Clarence, N.Y., outside Buffalo.
They have since video chatted on Skype, giving each other virtual tours of their houses, and met at one of the university’s receptions. “I’m one of those very cautious people,” Ms. Jakubowski said. “You’re in very close quarters, and if I have to live with someone for a year, I want to make sure I know who they are beforehand.”
About 70 percent of URoomSurf users are women. Jonathan Talarico, another N.Y.U. freshman-to-be, signed up because he was “super nervous” about ending up with an incompatible roommate, but did not relish trolling the site.
“It felt like a dating site, so that was a little uncomfortable,” said Mr. Talarico, who lives in Erie, Pa., and eventually found a roommate from California on the site. “What most people were talking about in their introductions — their lifestyles — just felt kind of silly. What do you say? ‘I’m interested in you?’ Or ‘I find you neat?’ ”
To soothe parental concerns about privacy, other sites like RoomBug — which uses a Facebook application to help pair roommates — emphasize security. RoomBug is free for students, although the colleges pay the company an initial fee as well as annual fees.
“This is a closed network, and you need an access code,” Patricia Whiteman, associate director of residence life at William Paterson University in New Jersey, said of RoomBug. “We can monitor someone who doesn’t belong.”
Mrs. Whiteman said she was confident that the service would mean fewer mismatches, recalling the 250 pleas made for roommate changes last year. “The ones who choose their own roommate tend to stay together, at least through the first semester,” she said. “They take more ownership of the decision.”
In some ways, social networking sites like Facebook have pressured colleges to cede control of the roommate process. In the past few years, housing officers have been besieged by complaints from students and parents who looked up assigned roomates on the Internet and did not like what they saw, whether it was goth makeup or beer cans in the background.
“We had 20 to 30 calls like that,” recalled Brian W. Kuster, director of housing and residence life at Western Kentucky University, where 5,000 students live on campus.
Mr. Kuster contacted Lifetopia, a company in Short Hills, N.J., whose Web service RoommateClick made its debut in 2006. The company works with 27 colleges and universities, charging annual fees it would not disclose. Last year, Western Kentucky offered RoommateClick to students for the first time, and while Mr. Kuster worries about the potential for ever greater homogeneity in dorm rooms, his office has seen fewer conflicts. “I think they’re happier,” he said of students, “and that’s what it boils down to: Are they satisfied with the assignment process?”
This year, N.Y.U. unveiled a software product to assist in roommate searches, with a questionnaire and computer-generated compatibility suggestions. It is one component of a comprehensive housing management system from StarRez, a company that works with more than 130 American colleges, including Boston University and the University of California, Berkeley.
About a third of N.Y.U.’s 4,350 first-year students who are planning to live on campus have found roommates on their own, however, perhaps through Web sites like URoomSurf or the university’s orientation programs.
The housing staff at Drew University, in New Jersey, asks freshmen a half-dozen questions — about study and sleep habits and even musical tastes — then goes through the laborious process of sorting the responses to determine roommate pairs. Still, 34 students contacted the housing office this spring with roommate requests, up from 19 last year, and Drew granted them.
Adrianna Hardaway and Jordan Bader, for example, connected through Drew’s Class of 2014 Facebook page in April after Ms. Hardaway posted, “Need a roommate; add me.” Ms. Bader responded, and they started to chat online. “Within five minutes I knew I liked her,” Ms. Hardaway said.
“We like all the same movies, the same music and the same books,” she said. “I met her mother, and I thought, ‘Your mother is so much like mine,’ and her father too. I feel like I’m talking to myself sometimes.”
By LISA W. FODERARO, New York Times
August 20, 2010
MADDI GILJE, who will soon leave home in St. Louis to start at New York University, has chatted all summer with her new roommate, Amelia Dudley of Baltimore. She could be talking to her twin.
They share the same bedtime (between 10 p.m. and midnight) and a high tolerance for clutter. They both eat vegetarian food, advocate for animal rights, play guitar and favor the same indie rock acts, Bright Eyes and Regina Spektor. They have already agreed on a polka dot shower curtain.
This is not just great good luck — theirs was a match made on URoomSurf.com, a Web site that does for dormitory life what eHarmony and Match.com have long done for romance. Each filled out a questionnaire covering study habits, overnight guests, tidiness, politics, sexual orientation and religion, among other topics, then received a list of other soon-to-be freshmen who had registered on the site, ranked by compatibility. N.Y.U. blessed the match.
“I really didn’t want to leave it to chance,” said Ms. Gilje, 18. “My sister woke up her first night of college and drunk people were poking her, asking where her roommate was. That’s when I realized I’m not going through that.”
There was a time when every newcomer arrived on campus to find a perfect stranger — not a perfect clone — sharing her tiny space. But that annual rite is being upended as more colleges let incoming students take advantage of new technologies to find an ideal mate.
While many colleges still insist on pairing roommates themselves, either randomly or carefully, a growing number are turning the choice over to students. Some universities have contracted with matchmaking companies like Lifetopia and RoomBug, which offer secure Web-based services. Others are acceding to a wave of roommate requests from students who use unrestricted sites like URoomSurf, and others have created Facebook pages to help students share information.
Housing officials say that “roommate self-selection,” as the process is known, empowers students while cutting down on irksome appeals to switch later on. But some worry that it robs young adults of an increasingly rare opportunity for growth: exposure to someone with different experiences and opinions.
“Very quickly, college students are able to form self-selected cliques where their views are reinforced,” noted Dalton Conley, an N.Y.U. sociology professor who has studied the effects of technology on contemporary life. “Getting rid of the random assignment of freshmen roommates is going to impoverish the experience of the residential college.”
Hamilton College in upstate New York, for one, does not entertain roommate requests. “We want students to learn from this experience,” said Nancy R. Thompson, the dean of students. “And sometimes that involves negotiating differences.”
But Justin Gaither, a co-founder of URoomSurf, estimated that 80 percent of the nation’s major four-year colleges allow students to submit a roommate request “as long as it’s mutual.” Since his site started in February, more than 80,000 students from 700 colleges have signed up, paying $5 or $10 (depending on the level of access to information) for a list of classmates of their gender and a score on how well they mesh, from 1 percent to 100 percent. Jenny Jakubowski, who is to attend Syracuse University, said she was not looking for a mirror image of herself when she turned to URoomSurf. But Megan McNally of Montvale, N.J., was a close enough match at 95 percent. “We both bowled at the varsity level, which was kind of a fluke,” said Ms. Jakubowski, who lives in Clarence, N.Y., outside Buffalo.
They have since video chatted on Skype, giving each other virtual tours of their houses, and met at one of the university’s receptions. “I’m one of those very cautious people,” Ms. Jakubowski said. “You’re in very close quarters, and if I have to live with someone for a year, I want to make sure I know who they are beforehand.”
About 70 percent of URoomSurf users are women. Jonathan Talarico, another N.Y.U. freshman-to-be, signed up because he was “super nervous” about ending up with an incompatible roommate, but did not relish trolling the site.
“It felt like a dating site, so that was a little uncomfortable,” said Mr. Talarico, who lives in Erie, Pa., and eventually found a roommate from California on the site. “What most people were talking about in their introductions — their lifestyles — just felt kind of silly. What do you say? ‘I’m interested in you?’ Or ‘I find you neat?’ ”
To soothe parental concerns about privacy, other sites like RoomBug — which uses a Facebook application to help pair roommates — emphasize security. RoomBug is free for students, although the colleges pay the company an initial fee as well as annual fees.
“This is a closed network, and you need an access code,” Patricia Whiteman, associate director of residence life at William Paterson University in New Jersey, said of RoomBug. “We can monitor someone who doesn’t belong.”
Mrs. Whiteman said she was confident that the service would mean fewer mismatches, recalling the 250 pleas made for roommate changes last year. “The ones who choose their own roommate tend to stay together, at least through the first semester,” she said. “They take more ownership of the decision.”
In some ways, social networking sites like Facebook have pressured colleges to cede control of the roommate process. In the past few years, housing officers have been besieged by complaints from students and parents who looked up assigned roomates on the Internet and did not like what they saw, whether it was goth makeup or beer cans in the background.
“We had 20 to 30 calls like that,” recalled Brian W. Kuster, director of housing and residence life at Western Kentucky University, where 5,000 students live on campus.
Mr. Kuster contacted Lifetopia, a company in Short Hills, N.J., whose Web service RoommateClick made its debut in 2006. The company works with 27 colleges and universities, charging annual fees it would not disclose. Last year, Western Kentucky offered RoommateClick to students for the first time, and while Mr. Kuster worries about the potential for ever greater homogeneity in dorm rooms, his office has seen fewer conflicts. “I think they’re happier,” he said of students, “and that’s what it boils down to: Are they satisfied with the assignment process?”
This year, N.Y.U. unveiled a software product to assist in roommate searches, with a questionnaire and computer-generated compatibility suggestions. It is one component of a comprehensive housing management system from StarRez, a company that works with more than 130 American colleges, including Boston University and the University of California, Berkeley.
About a third of N.Y.U.’s 4,350 first-year students who are planning to live on campus have found roommates on their own, however, perhaps through Web sites like URoomSurf or the university’s orientation programs.
The housing staff at Drew University, in New Jersey, asks freshmen a half-dozen questions — about study and sleep habits and even musical tastes — then goes through the laborious process of sorting the responses to determine roommate pairs. Still, 34 students contacted the housing office this spring with roommate requests, up from 19 last year, and Drew granted them.
Adrianna Hardaway and Jordan Bader, for example, connected through Drew’s Class of 2014 Facebook page in April after Ms. Hardaway posted, “Need a roommate; add me.” Ms. Bader responded, and they started to chat online. “Within five minutes I knew I liked her,” Ms. Hardaway said.
“We like all the same movies, the same music and the same books,” she said. “I met her mother, and I thought, ‘Your mother is so much like mine,’ and her father too. I feel like I’m talking to myself sometimes.”
