Jackie Gannon and Rebecca Talkin are rooming together their first year at UCLA, and they have more than a Sproul Hall double in common. They both plan to rush sororities, participate in intramural sports and go to medical school.
Their overlapping interests are no fluke. Gannon, an anthropology student, and Talkin, a psychobiology student, requested each other as roommates after meeting through URoomSurf.com.
The website is one of several bucking the tradition of sharing space with a random stranger, instead letting students find matches in the tradition of eHarmony and Match.com.
UCLA freshmen are turning to these sites after hearing one too many roommate horror stories, or that Housing Services does not match students carefully. About 30 percent of freshmen requested a roommate this year, said Hilary Crocker, assistant director of assignment services for UCLA Housing Services.
Gannon said she was intimidated by UCLA’s large student body and wanted her roommate to also be a friend.
“I knew who my roommate was, knew that we would get along. I was talking to (another first year), and they have a roommate who’s a junior ““ that sucks,” Gannon said.
The emergence of roommate matching sites has sparked debate among universities ““ some have embraced the service and formed contracts with companies, while UCLA and other schools are sticking to the assignment processes they have used for years.
A few years ago, the UCLA Policy Review Board, which is composed of student representatives from all 13 dormitories, discussed forming a partnership between UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services and a roommate matching service, said Dana Pysz, assistant director for the Office of Residential Life. However, student interest in the idea was low, and it never gained momentum.
Additionally, the rigid, fast-paced timeline of the housing assignment process would leave freshmen little time to search for a roommate, Pysz said. Housing applications are due shortly after incoming freshmen submit their statement of intent to register.
As a result, students have only a few weeks to find and request a roommate.
Still, Facebook and other sites have become ingrained in the roommate assignment process ““ a roommate survey posted on the class of 2014 Facebook group has garnered five pages of student answers to the questionnaire. And each year, a handful of distraught parents and students ask to switch rooms because they disliked what was posted on an assigned roommate’s Facebook, Crocker said.
Robert Castellucci, co-founder of RoomBug, built his roommate matching service on this Facebook stalking reflex. The company reverses the process, providing a Facebook application that lets students connect through the social networking site. They see their roommate’s profile before, rather than after roommates are assigned.
“Here’s the fact: Facebook’s not going away. Everyone agrees it’s growing more popular rather than less. Why not embrace Facebook?” said Castellucci, whose company has partnered with five universities.
UCLA has shied away from the dominant social networking site.
When freshmen receive their roommate assignments in August, they can only see a roommate’s first name and last initial. This makes it harder for students to find each other on Facebook, and they are more likely to chat over the phone, Pysz said.
Figuring out how to communicate and compromise with a roommate who has a different background can be an important learning experience, Crocker said.
“In the professional world, you’re going to be in situations where you have to communicate face-to-face, you have to speak up for yourself, you have to listen,” Crocker said.
Dan Thibodeau, co-founder of URoomSurf, points out that students don’t get to choose the residents who live on their floor or in their building.
“It makes sense that the one space that’s your own, your dorm room, is a place you can retreat to whenever. If you have to go back to a roommate you can’t stand, you’re not going to have a good first year,” Thibodeau said.
But it can be difficult to tell if someone is a good match simply by reading through the information listed on their online profile or clicking through their pictures.
“A profile is an act of self-presentation, just like we put our clothes on in the morning and choose how we present ourselves to the world,” said Jean-François Blanchette, an assistant professor of information studies. “But the profile will give you more information than none.”
Gannon said she appreciated how detailed profiles on URoomSurf were.
Questions on the site’s survey range from “how close do you want to be with your roommate?” to “how often do you plan to be in the room?” UCLA’s survey asks questions about six areas of lifestyle preferences ““ smoking, drinking, sleeping habits, studying habits, neatness and guests. The survey also has a portion that covers personal interests, but only lifestyle preferences are considered when matching roommates.
After Gannon and Talkin connected through URoomSurf, they started talking on Facebook, chatting over the phone, and texting each other.
“We’ve been talking since May,” Gannon said. “Most people found out their roommates at the end of August, but we had all these months to talk and communicate.”