It is often said that the most stressful time in a high school student’s life is the college process. The grueling hours spent writing Common App supplements, the frantic emails sent to college counselors at all hours of the day and night, panicking about whether or not to use the word “good” or “great” in your personal statement. But then, when the gloomy clouds fade, seniors reach the “best time of our lives:” senior spring. However, these sunny days come with their own challenges. Once you have actually decided where you want to go to college, you have to find who you’re going to jump into this new era of your life with, your freshman year roommate. 

“I met my roommate on Instagram after seeing her on the Class of 2030 page, ” said Azariah Charles ‘30. “I didn’t necessarily feel pressured to find one on Instagram, but I did prefer getting to know my roommate before choosing them. I’m really happy I did because my roommate has a lot of similar interests to me, and she seems really cool.”

Yet, it was not always like this. Many in Generation X and the Millennial generation recall a time when roommates were always random. 

Now, the second a student is accepted into a college, before they even commit, they must go through the agonizing process of making a post to their class Instagram page. Once making their post, students then have to surf through a never-ending wave of the same copy-and-paste posts to find a roommate. 

Senior M’kaela Riley spoke about her experience finding her roommate for college next year, “I first saw my roommate on the Meet Your Class page, then I followed her on Instagram, and she told me that she had two roommates and they were looking for a fourth roommate for a quad. I got added to a group chat and now my roommates and I are getting even closer.” 

She continued, speaking about the process of finding roommates, “Honestly, the whole process felt like a humiliation ritual. Right when I believed I was running out of time, I found my amazing roommates.”