By Sophie Li (CAS’23)
1. What time do you wake up?
Although this will change each semester depending on when everyone has their first class, this is super helpful to know. Are they the kind of person who takes an hour to get ready in the morning, or do they roll out of bed and go straight to class? Since you will be sharing a suite in Kilachand, it’s important to discuss before any issues arise. There’s not that much space to get ready in the morning, and if one of you is a light sleeper, you’ll want to know so you can prepare your eye masks or ear plugs!
2. What time do you go to bed?
This falls in the same category as the first question but is just as important to discuss! If one of you plans on sleeping early but the other plans to stay up late, when do you guys turn the light off? Is the early sleeper fine with the roommate using their desk light, or should they plan to go up to the study floor?
3. Are you neat or messy?
This seems like one of the first questions that might pop into your mind, and there’s a reason for that! While you can definitely live well with one messy and one neat roommate, it’s nice to know what to expect, especially if this is a deal-breaker for you!
4. What is your least favorite chore?
A lot of the chores/cleaning tasks you’ll have to do are for yourself and not the whole suite, this is a good thing to ask. You might end up in a situation where you hate vacuuming, but your roommate loves it, and you can trade off on housekeeping tasks. Or, if you both hate doing laundry, you can remind each other and get those tasks out of the way together.
5. How do you feel about guests?
Although this question has become less relevant with COVID-19, it looks like the guest policy might be back by Fall 2021. Pre-COVID this was an important question to ask, especially if you had a really busy week coming up and didn’t want your roommate to have any guests over. But if the guest policies come back, this question will be more important than ever, because the number one priority is still staying safe!
There are so many more questions you can ask your potential roommate, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a good way to get the conversation started about living together so that you can both determine if you would be compatible. And as a quick tip: you can live perfectly with someone you aren’t best friends with, and sometimes you can’t live with your friends at all, and that’s totally fine!