Praise the almighty technology gods for they may have made your fall roommate search humane again, thanks to an app called RoomSync.
Northwestern University is a test case and while their housing office isn’t completely bowing out of assigning incoming students blind dates in the form of dorm roommates, students do have the option to try another route. By using RoomSync, a Facebook pairing app according to the New York Times, freshmen can select their own dorm mates and try to weed out those who might become their mortal enemy in a few weeks.
In the pairing process, RoomSync asks its user a number of personality and preference questions like “neatness, music volume, noise tolerance and dorm-room guests” so it can formulate a group of possible candidates. The biggest positive for incoming freshmen however is RoomSync seems to offer control in a time where most things are up in the air and that’s comforting.
“It was one of the highlights of my freshman year, the fact that I had a choice in that,” Mr. Stompor, one student from the Chicago area, said.
From the Northwestern housing office’s perspective, the app gives them a clearer picture of the student’s they’re placing.
“A lot of times, the parents filled it out,” says Joe Lindwall, vice president for marketing at StarRez, a company that provides housing management software to about 250 campuses in North America. “Suddenly everyone is a nonsmoker, goes to bed by 10 p.m. and is very studious.”
Lies.
With RoomSync, students can communicate with each other before the school year starts, see if their personalities are a match and then request one another as roommate through Northwestern’s residential services. Staff hope the app can bypass serious student conflicts in the future because if students have chosen their roomie, they’ll work harder to maintain the peace.
Image via Facebook.