Unless you’re going to be living with someone you already know (which may or may not be recommendable), you’ll probably have a roommate randomly assigned to you by your college. This is a great opportunity to meet someone new and start making connections into social groups that you aren’t currently a part of.
It can be a little weird at first, moving in with someone that you’ve never met before, but this slight awkwardness can be avoided by meeting up with your roommate before school starts to introduce yourselves and get a few things hammered out.
Contact Your Future Roommate
Most colleges will provide you with the email address or phone number of your future roommate so that you can speak before the year starts. Use this contact information to call or email them at least a couple times so that you have some idea of what living with them is going to be like. This is a good time to talk about things like sleep schedule, homework habits, significant others, and various other issues related to your day-to-day life.
Another useful thing to do is to take an inventory of what each of you plans on bringing to the dorm. It doesn’t make sense to have two TV’s, two stereos, or multiple video game systems. Make a list of the items that you’ll be bringing, and ask your roommate to do the same.
Don’t skip out on this step—it’ll save you a trip or two back home to bring back some things you don’t need two of.
Meet Up
As well as calling and emailing, it’s good to meet up with you roommate once or twice before you move in (if you’re not from different parts of the state or country, that is).
Suggest meeting up at a local restaurant or some other place that you’ll be able to talk. This is a good time to just get to know each other. Talk about what you plan on studying, what you like to do, what kind of music you like, and other things like that.
You’re going to be seeing (and probably spending a significant amount of time with) your roommate every day, so it’s good to start establishing a friendship early.
Conclusion
Although you won’t really get a complete picture of what your roommate is like until you’ve spent a lot of time with them, it’s good to meet up with them before the semester starts to coordinate and to get to know each other. While it can be slightly awkward at first, it usually ends up being a lot of fun and will help your relationship get off on the right foot.