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By Sadler Wilson
Although college decisions have rolled through, there are still more steps to the college process. Where will you live on campus? Who will be your roommate? How will you design your dorm? These are all questions that seniors are currently working to answer. Different colleges have different living arrangements and different policies regarding roommates. Seniors must consider how their college experience will feel as they work to find roommates.
McLeod Scott ‘24 is planning to attend the University of South Carolina in the fall of 2024. Like many other seniors, she posted a picture and a bio on her college’s instagram page for the upcoming class. She then began the search to find her perfect roommate.
“I posted myself on the ‘futures page’ for South Carolina, and then I was looking at all of the other people that posted,” McLeod said. “And I was looking for cute girls and I found my roommate, Grayson, and I reached out to her by DMing her.”
Nearly every senior has posted on their college’s “futures page,” and it is really interesting to see how social media has assisted so many students in finding a roommate. Julia Bender ‘24 will be attending University of California, Santa Barbara in the Fall. She did the same as McLeod, and after connecting with her roommate through Instagram DMs, she has already formed a friendship with her.
“[My roommate and I] send vlogs to each other and text about stuff that’s not related to rooming but just about life in general,” Julia said.
After finding a roommate, the next step is to register for housing. The battle to find housing is a struggle for students, especially those who are late to register due to different release dates of college decisions.
“The registration doesn’t come out until May 15th, but I put my money down and everything for it so far,” McLeod said. “It’s gonna be very difficult because I just registered a month ago, so the people that got in ‘Early Action’ have a better choice of housing… but I have two other suitemates who applied ‘Early Action’ so we will probably get a good room because of them.”
Samantha Duncan ‘24 plans to attend Ole Miss in the Fall and was very quick to register for housing as well as to find a roommate.
“I registered for housing as soon as I got into my school,” Samantha said. “It was the first thing I did once I got in because the sooner you register for housing, the sooner you can pick your dorm.”
Carter Caldwell’s ‘24 experience differs from many students’, seeing that he will be going abroad to London during his first semester at the University of Tennessee.
“I have registered for the housing, but since it’s abroad and you have students coming from all over the world, you don’t really know who your roommates are until you get there,” Carter said.
The next course of action is planning for dorm decorations. While Carter will be going abroad, Samantha has already begun planning out her room.
“As soon as we decided that we would be rooming together, we started talking about what we wanted our room to look like and the vibe and energy we wanted to bring to our room,” Samantha said. “We wanted our room to feel very homey and calm so we went with neutral colors and pastel colors.”
Like other seniors, Samatha and her roommate are preparing to buy dorm supplies and decorations – all of the exciting parts of moving in. Carter will not have an identical experience when planning for his dorm, but he has begun thinking about the most efficient ways to pack for London.
“The roomie situation abroad is three other roommates with a shared bathroom, kitchen, and living space,” Carter said. “There are definitely certain things that I’m gonna bring over there to London, but you can’t bring too much because obviously you’re flying over there, and I think for a lot of it, I’ll get it as I need it.”