Pros
1. Friendship
It’s not uncommon for your roommate to become a close friend – or at least someone you can count on to commiserate over classes with and complain to about the people down the hall who won’t quiet down at midnight on a Tuesday.
2. Extended friendship
It may seem like your roommate is way ahead of you in the friends department, but let his or her robust social life inspire you to meet new people – or get connected to your roommate’s friends. Sometimes the best thing to have in common with someone is other people.
3. New beginnings
Random roommates don’t know who you were before you came to GW. They don’t know about that awkward phase when you only wore T-shirts from Hot Topic, unless you have pictures on Facebook (which can be great talking points, but you may just want to go ahead and clean up your page). Shake off your high school persona and start fresh.
4. Eye openers
Your roommate can introduce you to a different culture or way of thinking that you won’t experience if you hand-pick someone with the exact same interests as you.
5. The option to blame the system
If it doesn’t work out, you can always say it wasn’t your fault because you didn’t choose to live with a sleep-talker or snorer.
Cons
1. Mystery habits
You don’t know their worst habits, like nail-biting, humming or incessant foot-tapping, which can quickly become tiresome. It might be funny to hear your roommate talk in his sleep the first few times, but it’s bound to become more of a bother than a story to tell at parties. Or he could be the type to eat your food, but demand that you don’t eat his.
2. No common ground
You both may have said on your housing applications that you use headphones while studying, but that doesn’t mean you are destined to live together. Roommates may seem compatible on paper, but that one TV show you both love can quickly become a stale conversation.
3. Different upbringings
Not everyone grew up doing their own laundry, washing the dishes after dinner or making their bed every morning. While some of these might be old habits for you, your random roommate might not have the same standards when it comes to housekeeping.
