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Hello again. If you don't recognize me by now, you must have missed my previous two
videos about Mizzou's Housing Process. Go check those out first and then come back to join me here to learn about roommates.
Today, I'm going to introduce you to my first roommate at Mizzou as well as
several other cool people. We'll share what it's really like to be paired with a roommate
or how to prepare for ROAR if you already have a roommate in mind. By now, you may have
heard that almost every freshman student will have a roommate and if that's got you a little
nervous, know this: I came to Mizzou from several states away. I only knew one person
here and she was several years older than me. But when I came to Mizzou, I found that
it was so much easier to make friends than I expected, because everyone's really in
the same boat. And as for my freshman roommate? We roomed blind and she's still one of my
best friends. Here she is now. Everyone, meet Taylor. Taylor, meet everyone.
The best upside of rooming blind is that you might meet your best friend. We roomed completely blind, I
had no idea who this girl was before freshman year, and I don't know what I would do without
her. I think with rooming blind, you are more willing to be more open and honest right off
the bat. We had already had a couple of skype dates so we knew each others faces and knew
who each other were, and of course just from stalking each other on facebook that first
day we found out we both do musical theater, and we have very similar tastes in music.
I wanted to make new friends and meet new people, and it ended up working out perfect.
So here's the thing about roommates and getting "randomly" paired: Since those
smart folks at ResLife have discovered that learning communities with people of shared
interests leads to academic success, they set this whole thing up so your roommate is
in the same Learning community or FIG and so they will automatically have similar academic
goals and interests. When I went through ROAR and selected my FIG, Taylor and I got paired
together because she had the same interest in journalism also wanted to be in that community.
(an Honors Journalism FIG) It's easy these days to start chatting even before you get
here, so you'll likely become friends way before move-in day. However, sometimes students
reserve a space and then change their room assignment later, so it's possible your
new roommate will not contact you right away, but you can always find your roommate's
contact information via the Residential Life pages in myZou and contact them yourself!
We found out each others names and information through myzou and contacted each other that way
I was really concerned about a random roommate, but we talked to each other on facebook, and got to know each other, and realized we were a lot alike.
I actually went through a couple different rooms based on our compatibility. I would find them on facebook and say "ehh", and then I found Ali and I was like "yes!"
We were texting and snapchating, all the things friends do, we had just never met up face-to-face
For those of you who already know you want to request to live with a specific person, make sure
the two of you talk things through. In addition to talking about compatibility and what it
would be like to live together, you need to talk about your academic goals and interests.
There are a limited number of spaces in each LC and FIG, so the less you have in common
-- especially academically -- the fewer options will be available to you both. For
example, if you're really good at math and are planning to be an engineer, but your roommate
doesn't have a high enough score on the Aleks exam to get into the FIG you picked,
you both might want to decide what's best for you individually. You and your bestie
may choose not to live together, and that's okay! You can jump start friendships in the
FIG or Learning Community that fits each of you best, which means double the friends -- your
new friends and theirs. Also, the roommate that has the first day to ROAR picks the LC
or FIG and room, if a full room is available. They reserve a bed for their roommate.
We planned to go to Mizzou since our junior year of high school, and I got accepted, he got accepted,
So we said hey, let's room together.
We got to choose our rooms the first day it opened up because I applied in July of the year before, and I got accepted into Mizzou
So I got the first choice on rooms, and when I did that, I was able to save a room for my roommate.
In order to save a bed for your roommate, you will need to know: their last name and how
to spell it and their pawprint. The bed is saved until midnight the day after the first
day the requested roommate is allowed to ROAR. If your preferred roommate logs in to ROAR
and decides to choose a DIFFERENT room than the one you SAVED for them, the space in your
room will be released immediately. If they don't go in and accept the space you saved
for them ON TIME, it will get released for someone else to choose after the midnight
deadline has passed. AND remember both roommates must meet any eligibility requirements for
the LC or FIG chosen. As you might imagine, finding a room that is completely empty with
two beds is a lot harder than finding a single open space. Some students have found that
by the time they login to ROAR, there are no completely open rooms left for themselves
and their preferred roommate.
I was the first one to ROAR, so I could have Rachel as my roommate.
So I get on with my mom and say "OK, let's look at the floor plan"
There was around 30 rooms in College Avenue available
So we were looking at the floor plan, and then I go back, and none of them were left, and it had only been about 3 minutes
She said "its ok, just get a room anywhere." So I got a room in Mark Twain.
And then I just kept refreshing the page, and one room showed up in college avenue, and I NABBED it
And that's how we ended up here!
Some of you may decide to use social networking sites to find a roommate, but keep in mind that ROAR is setup so you select Learning Community
first, so you'll want to make sure you look for someone with similar academic goals and
interests. This will open up more options for you both in TLCs and FIGs. We want your
We want your living and learning experience to be a great fit for both of you. I hope you got a lot
of insight from all of us here. Be sure to check out the next video in this series if
you have concerns about sharing bathrooms. My friend Coleman and I will bust some myths
and give you a good look at both community and suite-style bathrooms in the res halls.
Also, subscribe to our channel to get updates because our next video will take you through
the process of using ROAR -- which can be tricky! If you have questions, be sure to
send us a message on Facebook or Twitter. We'll answer it within a day!