Author Spotlight
Caroline Wood
After joining a Facebook group for incoming college freshmen, senior Caroline Kuhlman meticulously scans through the profiles for potential candidates to be her roommate next year. She reaches out to them and their relationship gradually grows from Snapchat to texting to phone calls — leading to some popping the question: “Would you like to be my roommate?”
Kuhlman lets them know that she’d love to, but she hasn’t decided on a college.
Between belated admission letters and the inability to visit colleges, countless seniors have hit speedbumps in the roommate search, adding more pressure to the already stressful process.
Kuhlman hasn’t decided which college she’d like to attend in the fall, making these unfortunate turndowns a common occurrence in her search for someone to live with during her freshman year of college.
“[The slow admissions process has] been kind of a damper,” Kuhlman said. “I [could’ve gotten] more of a feel for the environment way earlier on, because now I feel like time’s running out, [I’ve] got to make a decision, I’ve got to introduce myself to as many people as possible and possibly find a roommate. Not being able to visit the campuses is really hard because…I can’t commit to going to a school for four years without even being there firsthand.”
Similar to Kuhlman, senior Zoe Hartman also hasn’t been able to choose a roommate or even start looking. Although acceptance letters come throughout the spring, COVID-19 has made the roommate process less proficient, causing seniors to start searching earlier — despite not knowing their college.
Hartman is in a similar position, unable to decide between her top colleges since she’s never visited them. She joined Facebook groups and followed Instagram accounts for the colleges she’s considering, but is hesitant to post or reach out to people because she doesn’t want to get too attached to a possible roommate only to end up at a different school.
“I’ve talked to a couple people, but never have actually been like, ‘Do you want to room together?’ because I just don’t know where I’m going for sure yet,” Hartman said. “But I’ve talked about like, ‘Are you rushing?,’ ‘What are you looking forward to?’ and stuff like that just to see if we are compatible.”
On the social media groups, seniors post bios about themselves along with a few pictures, and include their Snapchat and Instagram so they can reach out to each other. Given the surface-level information these posts offer, Kuhlman finds herself quick to judge people based on their photos, thinking they’re too pretty or intimidating to ever be her roommate. But with various COVID-19 expectations, there’s another level of criticism added to the to the mix: how seriously they’re taking the pandemic.
“I feel like it’s kind of made me a judgy person and like, ‘Oh, you’re going out, that’s kind of not good,’ but also at the same time, I get it,” Kuhlman said. “Immediately in my mind it’s like, ‘Oh, you don’t care about other people,’ but I know that that’s not the case. I know that [COVID] doesn’t affect us that bad and maybe they’ve already had it or maybe they’ve gotten the vaccine and they’re immune. It just makes me so quick to judge.”
Once they’ve combed through the posts, they pull out a few that they could possibly see as their roommate and reach out to them. Kuhlman compared the process to online dating — choosing who you’re interested in based on photos and bios, steadily getting in contact with them, then having casual conversations about each others’ lives. It’s typically not until roommates are decided that an in-person meetup is arranged.
Since Kuhlman is looking at colleges that are out of state, a lot of her possible roommates are from across the country, so meeting a roommate in person is more difficult as it would have to be a trip.
“If I could meet the people in person that would be so ideal, but I can’t — travel is so spotty right now,” Kuhlman said. “Like my friend from Long Island, I can’t just like fly up there, and I don’t know what she’s been doing…[or if] she has COVID.”
After committing to a college in the early decision process, senior Meredith McGannon was able to find a roommate without these complications. McGannon didn’t have to deal with the searching process because she’s rooming with a family friend.
“I haven’t had trouble and just because I kind of was handed my roommate and I made an early decision so I had a head start looking for people,” McGannon said.
Whether seniors are struggling to decide on a college and find a roommate, or if the whole process was quite simple for them, next year’s roommates have potential to spend more time in close quarters than most year — quarantining together.
To Kuhlman, the possibility of having to be quarantined with her future roommate adds more pressure to the decision, as it intensifies the need for a roommate that she’ll get along with.
“You can find a roommate and completely jive with them really well, but if we are in the fall, and…our dorm has been locked down,” Kuhlman said. “We can’t leave our room besides to go to the bathroom, and so I’m like, ‘Oh my god what if I’m spending, literally, hours a day with this person, am I not going to get sick of them?’”
With all of the unknowns of the upcoming year, seniors like Kuhlman and Hartman are anxiously awaiting the search for a roommate that will help them navigate their freshman year. Even though this year’s conditions may push off their process, they’re hoping they make the right judgments through the screen.
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