Roomies’ choice

By Zhang Xinyuan Source:Global Times Published: 2014-9-28 19:03:01

Some Chinese universities are allowing students to select roommates based on their interests and habits. Photo: IC

In a college dorm of four people, 19-year-old Li Zheng rarely gets a good night sleep. Often he has to wear a blind fold to shield the light from his roommates' computers, and ear plugs to silence the constant noise and ongoing chatter. "They always play video games until 1 am, and then talk loudly while I am trying to sleep. They're so selfish," said Li bitterly. "Bad roommates can make your college life a living hell," he added.

Tension between roommates is common in college. The universities often allocate roommates at random, which can place students who are polar opposites in the same dorm. This can then result in personality clashes between roommates, which on occasion can cause serious conflicts.

In 2013, a student of Fudan University in Shanghai was poisoned to death by his roommate over ongoing disputes.

Cases such as this have led some universities such as Renmin University of China in Beijing and City College of Wenzhou University in Zhejiang Province, to allow students to select their own roommates, according to the Yangtze Evening News.

"We ask students to log onto our roommates-matching system, and then file information such as when they usually get up and go to bed, what interests they have, and even details such as in what weather will they use air conditioning," said Fan Maosheng, the head of the dormitory management department from City College of Wenzhou University. "Students can then choose their own roommates based on these details."

Other information that is taken into consideration when allocating roommates includes a student's hometown, and his or her characters. Fan emphasizes that placing the right students together is key to a happy college experience, because in a small confined space, a person's living habits and interests can have a great effect on their roommates.

The school has collected feedback from over 1,000 students about the new system. "In total, 90 percent of them were satisfied with their dorms. But only 40 percent were satisfied in the previous system which allocated students at random," said Fan. "[With the new system,] not even one of them has requested yet to change dorms on the grounds of not getting along with their roommate," he added.

Besides living habits, other factors the students should consider when choosing roommates include whether they share the same ambitions.

"I want to further my studies at a graduate school after graduation, so I spend a lot of time at the library. As my roommates don't care much about study, I am a nerd in their eyes," said Li with a sense of gloom. "I wish the people I spend most of my time with could understand me," he added.

Despite the common conception that students should choose roommates on how much similarities they share, some students prefer to go the other way.

"I like living with people who are different than me, because I can learn things from them," said Zhang Zhongchao from Renmin University, which now allows doctorate students to choose their own roommates regardless of their major.

"My roommate is a statistics major, while I am a social security major. When I need to use statistics software for my dissertation, he helps me a lot," said Zhang. "Before, I was kind of an indoorsy person, but my roommate is very athletic so I have been exercising more since I lived with him."

There are also some concerns that letting students choose their own roommates could hinder a student's development.

Some students believe that living with a variety of different roommates can prepare them more for the workplace, where they will interact and work with different kinds of people.

Others are concerned that it will result in polarization, with just students sticking to their cliques. "Students might also lose the chance of getting to know the culture of different places through their roommates," said Fan, adding that most students tend to choose roommates with similar interests and originally from the same area. "We are still evaluating the effects of allowing students choose their own roommates to see if it's good for their personal growth," said Fan.



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