Not me as I commuted to school but this girl I was seeing sophomore year stayed in the dorms and her roommate never left so we could have the room to do what 20 year olds wanted to do

Army wise, I only lived in the barracks during basic, OCS and basic officer leadership course 2. Everything after that was housing on my own but I only had a roommate for a few months as he met a girl and ended up moving in with her. He felt bad about sticking me with the entire rent but we were splitting total expenses of $625/month while our housing allowance was double + that.

I really do prefer to live on my own. Just don’t tell my wife that.

I was on the train home this evening and it was full of freshmen who were on a trip back from the city. Most of them were chatting and having a good time with people they most likely met within the last week or so. It’s orientation week on campus. Just another reminder that your kid will be fine.

I was reminiscing with my wife last night about how I ended up at random upperclassmen’s apartments the first few weeks of freshman year because some guy down the hall in the dorm heard there was a keg or was told to drop by and invited me along or whatever.

Freshman and sophmore years I had pre-arranged to room with buddies, so I already knew them and it worked out great. Junior year I was an RA, so I got my own room. Got married over the summer, so senior year my wife and I lived in married housing. Pretty low drama housing experience overall.

Police Academy was a little different. Rooms were assigned alphabetically, so it was totally luck of the draw. We had 3 man rooms, and the first night roommate #3 spent all night crying and throwing up in the bathroom. He quit the next morning, so we had a 2 man room the rest of the time we were there. The two of us who were left were both older with families, and had been reserving for several years before going full-time, so we were just there to get through it with as little drama as possible. We went back to our room after class, knocked out our homework, worked out, and were in bed by 8:00. Up at 4:30, showered, room cleaned, beds made, and reporting in assembly by 06:00.

He was the perfect roommate, and also a gun guy. He took top shot in our class. Unfortunately, I found out that a year or so out of academy he got drunk, threatened somebody with a gun, and went to jail.

Lived off campus the whole of college.
Didn't have a roommate until my 4th [of 6] year.
Lived with my aunt in Austin 2 years, back home in Houston for 1, then a house/apt with roommates the last 3.

Roommates were friends from HS, small dramas here & there.

They say you don't know some people until you live with them, they weren't lying.

A roommate from after college told me what MAJOR things happened to him at that time period. It started with his dad escaping the Nazis from Czechoslovakia, while his dad's friends and relatives went to concentration camps where most perished. His father eventually settled in Los Angeles, became a well known orthopedic surgeon, but pushed the kids to always be the best you can because you never know what may happen in life.

My friend, William, was always rebelling due to the pressure from his dad to do well. After going to college he went to Europe at 22 and started importing hashish to Sweden. His friends that were in business with William got caught, and fingered William for a lighter sentence. William was able to escape the German jail, but was stuck in Germany and needed money to buy a quality fake passport from the German criminal network. However that passport was very expensive.

To raise money, he and a friend started shipping heroin to Sweden using a girl as a courier on an airplane. The first trip went well, and the second too. However on the third and final trip she was caught and immediately gave up all the info. The authorities went to the house and arrested his partner, but missed William.

Now William had even less money, and bought a super cheap phony German passport that looked nothing like him. His friend that was caught, was also 22 and had been on the track team in college. As the German police were walking his friend to the patrol car, his friend broke free and ran the fastest race of his life, and escaped.

Now William and his friend were wanted by Interpol, and were advertised as being one of the many far left gangs in Europe such as Baader-Mainhof. The police all over Europe were searching for these two. William ended up escaping by driving through Turkey and somehow ended up in India. He spent six months in India, but had very little money, got sick and lost tremendous weight.

He ended up getting another passport and flying to Canada. It was then easy to drive across the border and back into the US. He did not tell his parents, just said he ran out of money and got sick. William's story would make a great movie. Now 50 years later he still has PTSD and wakes up at the slightest sound at night.

Move in week, and the big move in weekend right now. (which is why I'm sitting at my desk waiting for the phone to ring)

I see some odd combinations all the time and wonder how it happens. But I suppose a lot of it comes down to "we've got to put them with someone!" Friday night I dealt with an African guy (international student) and a Chinese guy (though the based on all the family with him they live here) and it was really cool seeing how they were not only getting along, but the Chinese guy's friends or sisters(?) had taken to the roommate like they were old friends.

Conversely, yesterday black girl (from NYC) and Korean girl (I want to say "very Korean" if that makes sense) sharing the same tiny room, they both acted like the other one wasn't even there. I thought "ooh boy, who put these two together? This isn't going to go well."


"Very Korean"... we have a HUGE Asian population of students (percentage/average wise, mostly Chinese, followed by Korean, then a sprinkling of others) We also have a large percentage of Indian student, especially as graduate students. But since they both mostly live on campus it really skews your perception of how many there are, simply because you see them more.

Anyway, back to were I was going... it's always interesting that you can sort of tell what generation they are, by the way they act, they way they dress, the way they speak. (plus at move in you see and interact with the parents and often the grandparents. Sadly it's my experience that they don't become "better people" the longer they're here or as the generations increase. First and second generation are so much nicer to deal with. Nicer people, less assuming, less self important, less entitled.
A bit of a drift/rant, but it says a lot about our society.

quote:

We also have a large percentage of Indian student, especially as graduate students. But since they both mostly live on campus it really skews your perception of how many there are, simply because you see them more.

I saw that on my son’s move in day. A lot of people from India. And more generally, a lot of international students and students from out of state. We didn’t meet a single student from Florida.

That got me thinking about the numbers. There’s 40,000 students at the Tampa campus, but only 6,500 live on campus. Being in Tampa, there’s a lot of kids commuting from home. There’s also a lot of students living in apartments right next to the campus. There’s demand for on campus housing. My son knows 5 kids that didn’t get on campus housing. If my son didn’t get on campus housing, he would have gone to Florida State because they had housing available.

First, I think there’s a huge benefit to being in the dorms your first year. Second, we just didn’t have time to research off campus housing. I’m certain out of state and international students had the same constraint plus the travel expenses to research off campus housing.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
A few months ago, my son told me one the girls on the swim team got a 540 on the SAT. I asked, math or English. He said no 540 COMBINED. She’s got an athletic scholarship to some school somewhere though.

I don't believe that for a second. You get 400 just for filling in your name, address, and personal info. The cut-off for the 1st percentile is 660, i.e., the bottom 1% of test-takers.

If you were talking about a 5-star blue chip recruit for men's football or basketball, I'd believe some school would bend over backwards to admit an illiterate jock, as it has happened in the past, but not a female swimmer anywhere.

The first year in school my roommate wasn’t too good.

After the first year I was able to get a room with a friend on the rifle team. The only bad thing about that was he was a better shooter and always shot a higher score. He was very serious and I was still immature but we had good time especially traveling on trips. We stayed in contact until he passed away six years ago.

I miss seeing him.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
That got me thinking about the numbers.

As did your post, since I haven't really looked at them in decades. And the numbers say it's not my imagination. In fact it's more than double what I remember from... whenever ago.

Last year "Asian" students made up the largest group, 45% of the student body. Though there seems to be no differentiating between "East Asian" and "South Asian". (or if you're in the UK, Oriental and Asian)

And it's a good time to be a guy on campus lol, two years ago it was 53% female to 47% male, but living on campus, the numbers are MUCH more uneven towards the girls.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cas,

Since the campus is closed due to the hurricane, I had my son invite his roommate to weather the storm at our house.

The roommate joined a couple of clubs at USF: the Young Republicans and Young American's Foundation. We had a good discussion about the problems with illegal immigration in America and that neither Biden nor Harris are qualified to be President. I didn't expect a kid from France to be perfectly normal.

My roommate in college had major issues.Besides hanging out with priests, he never studied. The Dean made a point of emphasizing that if you did not study at least 35 hours per week you would be a grunt in Nam He seemed to think he could read Palmer's History of the Miodern World in one night. He wore the same pair of jeans and T shirt wwithout washing them. They went to class by themselves.

Was chatting with my neighbor, he was commenting about his daughter who's away to college and experiencing having to live-with others and share bathrooms for the first time in her life. One roommate is looking to drop-out already, feeling compelled to declare to the world (they're at religious-oriented school) that she's gay and plans to marry her lover who's at Marine Corps bootcamp. The other roommate isn't as fashionable or, concerned about her hygiene like his daughter and she thinks she's weird.

Welcome to the real-world sweetie, there's a lot of people out there that are different than you, maybe you'll learn something about them. Not sure about the gay roommate but, the other roommate perhaps you can be a bit more helpful and less judgy.