Roommates
You're moving away from home and you've got a lot of new experiences ahead. One of those new experiences might be living with a roommate. In fact, far more students arrive at college without having a roommate experience than those who did.
This page has a number of helpful tips for those of you living with a roommate in a double room or one of our suites where you could have multiple students in your living area. These suggestions help you navigate the new environment of community living in a residence hall.
Preferencing a Roommate
Most new students to NIU do not have a roommate preference but have a great experience when paired with someone they do not know.If you have someone you want to be paired as roommates with, log in to MyHousing.niu.edu, and select Roommates. There you can create a Group for you and your roommate choice, and the group leader may select the room for both students. Multiple group leaders can coordinate and try to select certain suites (Patterson and Stevenson) so that groups of roommates can select the same suite together. If you have any difficulties with your group, contact us at housing@niu.edu.
Contacting Your Roommate
Whether you sign up with someone you know or you are paired with someone you do not know, we always let you look up your roommate's name and email address. This gives you a chance to reach out to them and introduce yourself before move-in day!
Setting Expectations
It's important to set realistic and respectful expectations for living together. Your community advisor helps you start the conversation with your roommate or suitemate by having both of you complete a roommate agreement after you move in. It helps you set expectations about visitors, cleaning, quiet time, sharing, privacy and other situations that can cause tension between roommates. It works!
Here are some questions to ask when planning to room with someone:
- How late do both of you usually stay up?
- Do you plan to do homework in your room at a certain time?
- When are guests allowed into the room or suite or cluster?
- What are the expectations of each other in terms of personal hygiene and cleanliness (sleep habits and hand washing and showering and cleaning and wiping surfaces and managing clutter)?
- What are your expectations for yourself, other community members and suite mates for bathroom use and cleanliness?
- Do you have any allergies that I should know?
- Are you an early riser or night owl?
- How to share the space in the room and use of fridge and microwave?
The most common negative experiences among roommates as reported by our students stem mainly from disrespect, hygiene issues, and lack of conflict resolution. We understand that some of these topics might be a little awkward to talk about, but data suggests that having these open discussions at the beginning of the year helps to resolve conflict and prevent issues between roommates in the future. It really works!
All residence halls have community advisors that can help you start the conversation with your roommate or suitemate. By completing a roommate agreement after you move in, all roommates can set expectations with each other about visitors, cleaning, quiet time, sharing, privacy and other situations that can cause tension between roommates.
Getting to Know Each Other
Once you move in, get to know your roommate and others on your floor or in your cluster. It may be helpful to exchange additional contact information and set up a time to get to know them better.
There are many events happening at NIU that you may want to check out. Kick off your school year with fun activities during Week of Welcome in August.