College Tidbits Blog

Guest Blogger: Aundrea Rogers

Roommate from Heaven or Hell?

On a college campus, single rooms are a luxury that only a select few get to partake of. For everyone else, a double room is the norm and with a double room comes a roommate. If you do not have a person in mind to live with prior to arriving at your school then chances are, you will be paired with a random person whom you have never met before.

You may have heard the roommate horror stories of a person who is messy, uses your laundry detergent, or is loud at the most inopportune times, but your roommate experience does not have to be like this. If you are fortunate, your roommate can end up as your closest friend throughout your college years.

Get to Know Your Roommate Ahead of Time

If your school offers a resource that allows you to see your roommate before move-in day, take advantage of social networking sites. They are not just for posting daily statuses and pictures from your spring break. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter are ways you can communicate with your future roommate. Look them up and send them a quick message telling them telling them you will be living together and get to know a little bit about them before August rolls around.

Once you and your new roommate have moved in together, to avoid any future conflict, you both should sit down and have a talk to lay down some ground rules. If you set boundaries early, it will help keep things together in the long run.

Some Survival Tips

Here are some tips on guidelines to set so that your first year with a roommate goes smoothly:

• Set up Rules for Outside Visitors: If your dorms allow visitors and/or overnight guests, check with your roommate first to see if it is okay. Talk about a time that all visitors need to leave the room as a courtesy to the other person.

• Set up Rules for Food and Other Personal Items: Many people are very particular about things such as their snacks, laundry detergent and even clothing. Talk to your roommate about what is off limits and what is there to share. Once rules like this are set, they MUST be respected.

• Set up Rules for Study Time: You are in school first and foremost for an education so studying is a must. If you do not want to walk to the library or a study room, you and your roommate need to know that when one of you is studying, the other needs to respect this at all times. To take this a step further, you can set up a specific study time where both you and your roommate take an hour or two out of the day to have a period of quiet study.

• Set up Rules for Cleaning: A college dorm room is your home away from home so keeping it nice and tidy is a must. You and your roommate should make a list as to who will do what whether that be sweeping, dusting, vacuuming or whatever cleaning your room entails. Be sure to equally divide up the work so one person is not doing more work than the other. If it helps, switch chores every week or two weeks to keep everything fair.

If there are any other rules you feel need to be put in place, bring them up in your talk with your roommate. Rules and regulations will make your first year away from home an easy transition and a positive experience in your college career.

About the Guest Blogger: Aundrea is college student at a major U.S. university. Listed below are other articles she has written for this blog:

How Many Hours of Sleep Do I Need?

College Help: The Benefits of Using a Tutor

How I Beat the Freshman 15

Did You know?

StudentOfFortune.com has been giving away a Nintendo Wii Every Day of April.

You can find out some more details about the contest here: http://studentoffortune.com/wii-a-day.

Okay What Do I Have to Do?

All you have to do is go to their website www.studentoffortune.com and post a homework question. Each day you post a question during the month of April. You are then entered into the contest. Then all you do is sit back and wait – if you’re a winner, they’ll contact you by end of the day!

How Does it Work, What’s the Catch?

No Catch, No Gimmicks… Since the beginning of April 2nd, one lucky user a day has been winning A NINTENDO Wii!

All they did, was just asked a homework question! There’s still Time, But Don’t Wait any Longer!  Type your question here…

Who’s Student of Fortune?

Where have you been? SOF is only one of the best known on-line homework help-lines on the Internet.

Student of Fortune was founded in 2005 by two college friends, who were really frustrated with the lack of friendly homework help available on the Internet.So they decided to build a website to help students get the homework help they need and also earn some money by providing tutoring.

College is a very exciting time where you move away from home for the first time, meet new people, explore your interests and move into a college dorm or apartment.

While living in a dorm is a great way for you to meet new people and take part in a variety of social activities, there are also some dangers of living in a dorm that you need to understand.

Because there are so many young people living in such close proximity, there will obviously be some security issues to deal with when living in a dorm. Crimes such as burglary are common in college dorms and are often exacerbated by the fact that students are nonchalant about safety.

Students often leave their dorm rooms unlocked, let people that they do not know into the building or even leave their valuable possessions out in the open for everyone to see.

However, burglary is not the only criminal offense that you need to be aware of. You also need to recognize crimes including vandalism, assault and identity theft. But you don’t need to be paranoid about your security, you simply need to be aware of your surroundings and practice safe behaviors.

Follow these tips to stay as safe as possible while living in a college dorm:

1. Most burglaries occur when someone leaves a door unlocked. Simply locking your doors (and windows) EVERY time you leave will help prevent theft. You will also want to make sure you lock your doors when you are asleep.
2. You should engrave your computer and electronics with your name. This will make it harder for thieves to sell the merchandise later.
3. Keep valuable merchandise out of plain sight. Don’t tempt burglars.
4. At most universities, you will need an ID card to enter a dorm. Never let someone into your dorm building that does not have one. Even if they say they have a friend in the dorm, do not believe them. Make them call their friend to let them in.
5. Report any suspicious people to campus police.
6. Even though it is customary in a lot of dorms, never leave your door open. This is just asking for trouble.
7. Make sure that your dorm room has a working smoke detector. Check the batteries regularly.

This post was written by guest author Edwin who blogs over at Yourlocalsecurity. You can also order an ADT home security system from his site to help keep your family safe.