TurnTo23.com, CA
08-09-07
Students Get Online Scoop On Dorm Roomies
Checks Prompt Requests For Roommate Change
AMES, Iowa -- Many college-bound students are not happy with what they're learning about their future roommates.
In addition, parents are going online to do a background check of sorts on their children's roommates, reported KCCI-TV in Des Moines.
"You can just learn a lot about a person depending on what they put on their profile," said Kari Hancock of Iowa State University Residence Life.
ISU students will start moving into their dorms next week.
Before many even step foot on the Ames campus, they will have already swapped rooms or at least roommates.
Already this summer, ISU has seen a jump in the number of students going online to request a new room.
"Concerned parents or students who maybe have viewed their roommates' Facebook (Web) page and for one reason or another have just decided that maybe that roommate's not the right person for them," Hancock said.
Party pictures and bizarre profiles posted on Facebook.com or MySpace.com can create a first impression that prompts red flags.
Rather than waiting to meet their roommate in person, some students are looking for a way out.
"One of my friends was telling me how they looked to see what their roommate was going to be like, and they're like, 'They seem totally weird.' ... They're trying to switch and get out of it," said student Lindsey Douglas.
Douglas knows two of the people she will be living with this fall, but has never met her third roommate.
She expects to know a little bit more about her by the time she moves in.
"Two of my roommates are probably going to go on and see what our other roommate is like because you can kind of get a feel on there for what people are like," Douglas said.
Hancock said she still tries to encourage students to take the time to get to know their roommate before looking for a new one.
"We don't know why they have moved themselves. They don't have to tell us that information, but there has been about 1,000 students that have actually gone online and actually changed their assignments," Hancock said.
Hancock said that before Facebook and MySpace Web sites existed, students would call or write to their future roommate, and based on those conversations, they would decide whether to request a new roommate.
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