Room Selections are coming up! What next?
With the housing lotto coming up, a lot of you on campus have already decided where you might want to live, and who you’re rooming with. And if you haven’t, you still have time!! While I might not be able to make the actual experience less stressful than it might be, I can still offer some tips:
Don’t stress about your lotto number. Even if your’s is lower than you were hoping, your roommate with the highest number can still make the decision on where you all end up, and grabbing you (and your roommate(s) if you’re aiming for a triple, quad or a quint) with.
It’s okay if you don’t get your top choice. Me and my roommates last year didn’t get our top choice, but we still lucked out if not did even better than where we were hoping. Every residence hall that Loyola has amazing amenities for every student, even if you might not get a room with a kitchen. And even still, every floor in upperclassmen residence halls has a kitchen open to students.
It doesn’t hurt to make your own roommate agreement. While it may have been long, in depth, and tedious to sit down with your RA at the beginning of the school year, it’s good to get into the habit of doing this for the future, even if you’ll be doing a roommate with your RA in your new dorm. Especially with having to worry about taking care of your own bathroom, and potentially your own kitchen, it’s important to know who cleans when and what specifically, especially if you have a kitchen. Setting strict deadlines for when people should have their dishes done by, or when they should throw out their leftovers may seem a little intense, but it pays off in the long run. It’s much better to have a strong idea of the cleanliness of the room, so no one starts to hate one another.
Also, if you’re all cereal eaters and all use milk, it’s a good idea to figure out a rotation for community resources, or similar things you’ll all be using.
It’s good to have friends outside of your potential roommates. While you may be considering living with your friends this semester, it’s also great to have other commitments, whether it be clubs, organizations, or just other people to chill with. Living with a close friend is a different experience, as you’ll be sleeping in the same room as them, and seeing them much more often than you might see them now.
This is all just from my own personal experience, but to those who might be stressing out about room selections, hopefully these tips can help those relax just a little bit, and figure things out so they can get the most out of next school year!