5 Questions to Ask Your Potential Roommate

1. How late do you stay up?

Sleep is extremely valuable in college so this is a very important question. Obviously, you don’t have to go to sleep at the same time as your roommate every night, but you’ll probably want to establish a semi-regular routine. If you’re early to bed and early to rise, try to find someone who matches your schedule!

2. How clean are you?

Asking and answering this question as honestly as possible is the best option for a good roommate dynamic. If you have clothes on the floor all the time and don’t like to keep your room spick and span, it’d probably be better to find someone else who’s a tad bit on the messy side.

3. What temperature do you like the room to be?

This one is surprisingly important! My roommate and I both like to keep our room pretty frigid so we’re lucky to agree on that. If you’re more prone to like one extreme or the other, confer with your potential roommate, see what they think, and be open to a compromise.

4. How often will you have guests over?

This one is hard to gauge before you’re actually at school, but is still very important to consider. If you don’t necessarily want frequent guests late at night, make that known to your potential roommate. However, if you know you want people over frequently talk to your potential roommate and see if they’re okay with that. This is definitely an important question to revisit once you’re both settled in at Mercer

5. What are your interests outside of school?

While it isn’t a huge deal if you and your roommate don’t share many interests, it’s nice to be able to come back to your dorm and trade stories with your roommate after a long day. As for extracurriculars, you could find time to be on an intramural team, a club, or even participate in a Mercer On Mission together. It’s really cool to share parts of your Mercer experience with your roommate, so ask about their interests in advance!