Dorm Life 101 -- Roommates and Friends

Well, now that Orientation's over and your schedule's set*, the next thing you're probably focusing on is what will happen July 31st: the posting of housing assignments.

The assignment will be posted to Hokie Spa in the afternoon (figure at about 5 PM) under the housing and dining menu. It will give you your room number, on-campus mailing address and phone number (though almost no one uses this anymore, since everyone has cell phones), and your roommate, along with his or her home contact information. If you're Facebook-obsessed like many incoming freshmen and more than a few returning students, go ahead and Facebook the person. You're going to be living with them in a little less than a month.

Anyway, the first thing you should do is contact your roommate, even if it means just sending a quick "Hi, I'm (your name) and I'm really looking forward to meeting you at move-in". Oh yeah, that message is copyrighted, so if you use it, send me royalties (joking). But seriously, contact your roommate, because you're going to have things to talk about before move-in, specifically who is bringing what in terms of the big items: TV, fridge + microwave, vacuum, etc. Things of which you're only going to need one. If you want to coordinate colors, go ahead and do that too, though honestly, it won't matter if you don't have a room that's all pink or green or orange or whatever.

Also on Facebook: start searching for Facebook groups for your dorm. I know one for Johnson already exists (the RAs set that one up) and others will be popping up as housing assignments are posted. It's a good way to find out who will be living near you.

You're probably already wondering how you're going to manage living with a roommate. You've probably never shared a room, or it's been a long time since you have. Well, know you're not alone in that. Like everything else, it's going to take some work and compromise.

Set up rules with your roommate once you're done moving in and getting settled. Write them down and tape them to the fridge or something if that makes it easier to commit them to memory. Rules for studying, sleeping, visitation, etc. Say one of you needs complete silence to fall asleep and the other cannot do so without having the TV on; obviously you're going to need to work that one out.

As for making friends in the dorm, the easiest way is simply to leave your door open the first few days (while you're home, of course--lock it the rest of the time). Say hi as you walk past open doors. Your RA will also have a meeting within the first week about procedures in the dorm, you'll meet your whole hall there (FYI -- hall meetings are never optional. Don't skip unless you're taking a test or have to be home for a court date or something). Also, many RAs will probably have some community-building program in the first week or so. Freshman year, the RAs in my dorm had volleyball games every night for a while, and sophomore year we had a bulletin board project. It might seem cheesy, but it's the best way to meet the people on your hall and get to know your RA.

I'll have more later. And I promise, as soon as the lottery information goes live on Hokie Tickets, I will post about football tickets.


* People, don't give out your password to anyone, not even your parents. Your PID and password accesses everything at VT and obviously needs to be secure. Also, we've had a few people call in already because they or their parents were messing with their schedule (did I not already tell you to not do that?) and they lost something crucial like Math 1205 or a lab.