best questions to ask a potential roommate?

[crystal6]

hey guys! I will be starting grad school in the fall, and I was wondering for those who are considering getting roommates or have had roommates before, what do you think are the best questions to ask a potential roommate? I want to get to know my potential roommates to make sure we are compatible. Thanks!  

[GandalfTheGrey]

1) Views on use of common space. Is the living room a quiet space for doing work? A social space where your roommate will want to listen to tv/talk to people/have friends over? Your roommate might describe herself as "quiet", but this actually means that she doesn't have loud parties but always listens to music. Or maybe your roommate spends all her time in her room with the door closed and you'll find this odd.

 

2) Common-ness of objects. Are your pots and pans separate? Are you combining all kitchen supplies? Will you share food? How will you divide cleaning duties? How often do you clean the apartment? Does your roommate let dishes pile up in the sink for a day or two at a time? For example, I refuse to live with anyone who has never owned a broom before.

 

3) Guests. how often do you/does your roommate have overnight guests? Do you care if your roommate's significant other sleeps over six nights a week?

 

4) Rent/credit. If you and your roommate are on the same lease, you need to make sure you trust each other to pay the rent on time. Are you going to split the rent 50/50, or by the size of your respective bedrooms? How will you decide who gets the better bedroom?

 

5) Schedules. I find it helpful to live with other grad students but from a different program. This way we are equally busy and unlikely to want to host loud parties on wednesday nights. We have a mutual understanding that the apartment gets messy during finals week and we clean up after. By being in different programs, we don't get sick of each other. I'm also nocturnal, and morning people generally don't like rooming with me because even as I sneak around like a mouse after they go to bed, it still wakes them up. So I'm very up front about this.

 

6) Drugs/alcohol. It's helpful to have roughly similar views (not necessarily similar habits).

 

6a) smoking.

 

I'm not advocating asking every single one of these questions verbatim, but it should help you think about what you want in a roommate. Sometimes the seemingly little things can become the most annoying when you are living with someone! I'll add more if I think of anything.

[crystal6]

thank you!!

[tango2]

Roomster.com has a great list of questions in a survey format. I have used it in the past!