Your Penn State Roommate

Living with Roommates

Put strangers in a room six or seven hours--or more--every day for a couple of months, and watch what happens.

What you see might surprise you. Sure, some people just choose to co-exist. They share space but not much else.

But more often than not, people become friends and sometimes even best friends. Living together, studying together, hanging out together will do that to people.

If you decide to live on or off campus, in a residence hall or an apartment, your roommate will become an important part of your life at Penn State.

There are three ways to identify who you'll be rooming with.

1. You can match yourself up with someone you already know. The key is that both of you will need to specify on your housing and food service contract that you wish to room together.
2. You can find someone who shares your interests. Increasingly, that's happening on social media sites where members of an incoming class are coming together and sharing information about what they are like and what they are looking for in a roommate.
3. You can go random and have the Housing Office match you up with someone (based on what students tell us, their success rate is actually surprisingly good).

No matter how you and your roommate end up together, you will be in for an experience that you will talk about and remember for the rest of your life. Just wait and see.

Additional Resources:

• A break-down on the benefits of living on campus
• HOUSING AND FOOD SERVICE (HFS) CONTRACT details
• General roommate information