Anna Dorsey | Staff Illustrator

Walking into your first semester of college can be an unnerving, yet extremely exciting experience. With a new campus, new teachers, and new friends, anything can happen! For some, a major component that determines your experience at WashU is the person you spend a large portion of your time with: your roommate. Roommates: you either love them or you don’t. Everyone has a different experience. But if you’re a current freshman on the fence about living with a roommate in a double versus living in a single next year, here are some pros and cons to consider. 

Having a go-to person during your first week of college is one of the biggest pros of having a roommate. After meeting hundreds of people during orientation week and only managing to remember a select few names, a constant familiar face feels like a breath of fresh air after a long, busy day. 

For first-year Camille Johnson, one of the best perks of having a roommate was having a built-in friend.

“At the beginning of the school year, [my roommate] was just an easy person to know and to be able to do stuff with,” Johnson said. “I feel pretty close with my roommate, even though we’ve only known each other for a little bit.”

As the school year goes on, classes pick up and there is less time to talk to your friends and family. Seeing your family spend time together and your high school friends enjoying a weekend out can be a really lonely experience, which is why having a roommate can help dispel some of those lonely thoughts and the homesickness that many students experience. 

“It’s a lot of fun because there’s always someone to talk to, and it’s never lonely in the room,” first-year Eddie Zhao said. 

And as a bonus pro, Zhao added, “You can eat their food sometimes.”

There’s no denying, though, that living with a roommate isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Sharing a living space for months at a time can be difficult, especially as midterms and finals roll around. Spending too much time with the same person can also become overwhelming, and the desire for your own space can influence how you behave around each other. 

“I think sometimes, scheduling can be difficult,” first-year Rami Antoine said. “Things like bathroom schedules or when people are showering … things get messy like that.”

Hearing your roommate talking on the phone too loudly at unruly hours, lying awake while they sleep through three alarms, finding their hair on your clothes, tripping on their unwashed laundry on the floor, and getting into petty disagreements are just a few potential cons of sharing a living space with another individual. 

It can also be challenging if you’ve never had to share a room before. However, if this is you, don’t eliminate the idea of a roommate completely. You never know what they’ll teach you during your time together. 

“It’s a learning experience, just how to live with another person,” Antoine said. “Finding out ways to work around each other and how to cohabitate with someone is a good skill to have.” 

Another thing that may not necessarily be a con is that you might just not vibe with your roommate — and that’s okay. You might not become the best of friends, and maybe you won’t even hang out or talk much, but there’s nothing wrong with simply coexisting in a neutral environment. As long as they aren’t causing you any issues, there isn’t anything wrong with not being friends with your roommate. 

As someone who lived with a roommate their first year and opted for a single in a suite of four the following year, sophomore Kira Larner had nothing but good things to say about her living arrangement. 

“I feel like freshman year, being in a double is super important,” Larner said. “It really made me become best friends with [my roommate] within a week and a half, which is crazy. It made me be more social, … brought me out of my shell, and it really made college a fun experience.”

If you’re still not sold on the idea of living with a roommate, that’s okay. Living in a single is pretty great, too. 

“You can do things at your own pace,” Larner said. “I always went to bed later than my roommate, so [this year], I didn’t have to bother [anyone] at all with that.” 

The downside: “It’s lonelier. It’s still nice though, because you can be in a suite with your friends, so we still have the common room and everything, which is perfect,” Larner said. 

Regardless of what you choose, your rooming experience will more than likely be a major learning experience. Even though there will always be the inevitable “roommate horror stories” floating around, many agree with Larner’s conclusion: “I wouldn’t have changed my freshman-year situation.”