Choosing a college roommate is like a game of Roomie Roulette. The great, big wheel is spun around and around. As it slows, you cross your fingers. Will it land on complete incompatibility or instant soul mate?
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Moving away from home and living with someone new is a big, and sometimes scary, part of the college experience. Each apartment complex will allow you to live with friends (provided that each of you apply, are approved, and request to live together), and the complexes will also match roommates together.
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Welcome to round one of the roommate game! In some cases, you choose the roommate. In other cases, the roommate is chosen for you. Either way, you're going to have to adjust to a whole new way of life with this person. One way to make this transition easier is to work out some issues with your roommate before school even begins.
Contact your roommate online: 
Our group "Kirkwood Roommate Finder" for Cedar Rapids Main Campus students and "Kirkwood Roommate Finder, Iowa City Area."
At Kirkwood, each housing complex does their roommate matching differently. Some will have only a few questions and others will have more. Contact the complex that you applied to if you have questions on how they match up students and when you will be notified.
- Don't lie. If you are messy, admit it. If you like to wake up at three o'clock in the afternoon on weekends, admit it. No matter what you desire to be, your true self will soon be apparent to your new roomie. Don't think that a roommate who is clean will get you to be a cleaner person, because all it will get you is a roommate who is resentful of your messy ways.
- Fill out the form yourself. Face it--if your parents fill out the form, they would never write down that you like to party or plan on pulling all-nighters. Is your goal really to end up with a roommate that's a perfect match for mom and dad?
- Be honest with yourself. College is a wonderful opportunity to meet students from completely different backgrounds. But while an obsessive-compulsive neat-freak and a slob who never changes his sheets can easily get along as friends, would they make the best roommates? How willing are you to live with a lifestyle so different from your own?
