Help! I Have Roommate Problems!

Unfortunately, roommate problems are something that can happen in college. I hope it doesn’t, but it may. After all, you’re living in a small space with someone you may not have known before college and you’re going to be living with them for almost a year, maybe longer.

First, don’t go straight to your RA or Director of Residence Life and plead with them for a new roommate. This should only be done in extreme situations. The first thing you should do (as awkward as it is for both of you) is talk with your roommate. Especially if you two have been the best of friends up until this point and then out of nowhere something went wrong. Who knows- it may not be something that happened with you, it could be that your roommate has some personal things at home that are bothering them or they are really stressed from class.

If this is the case, be supportive of your roommate. Don’t push them to talk if they don’t want to. However, do let them know you’re there for them. If you find out that it was not something between you two that happened, you will be relieved that you didn’t go straight to the RA!

If it is something that happened between you and your roommate, try to work it out and find if there is a way to fix it. For example, maybe your roommate has been up really late for the past week studying for an important exam and you get up really early and make a lot of noise and wake them up. If you talk with your roommate, you can find a way to work through this.

I hope it doesn’t get to this point, but if things are really bad between you two, you may have to go to your RA and see what your options are- maybe your RA can mediate the discussion between you two. Again, don’t jump right to the Director of Residence Life and tell him or her that you want a new roommate- it may be impossible due to how full the dorm is and with this move you may have hurt things even more with you and your roommate. Try to talk things through first. If things are really, truly bad then you can talk with the Director.

Most importantly, handle every situation kindly and with class. Don’t slam doors or items around and definitely don’t talk meanly to your roommate! It may be hard when you’re upset, but take a deep breath and handle the situation kindly. You don’t want to make the situation worse, especially if you are unable to switch rooms. Plus, moving in once is hard, you don’t want to do it again in the same year or semester!