White girl in green jacket sitting on desk with two white guys in dormroom

4 Quick and Easy Tips to Break the Ice With Your New Roommate

A new college roommate can be a great opportunity for a new friend or a total nightmare. Here's how to go about getting to know your new college roommate.

So you just found out who your roommate is, and there’s not much communication going on. This is an understandable problem. How do you talk with your college roommate? Sometimes it takes people a while to open up. Just try your best to get to know your roommate. Here are a few tips to open up the communication.

1. Make the first move and introduce yourself

Sometimes the best way to get things going is to just introduce yourself. And you can do this even over the summer before college starts! It may take some of the pressure off (and even make it exciting) when you finally meet in person if you’ve been talking for a week before. Start off with a friendly hello and a little bit about who you are. Keep the introduction simple, and you’ll be chatting in no time.

2. Ask about their college plans

Asking about your roommate's life, interests, and goals is an easy way to find out if you two have anything in common, like sports, clubs, majors, or even future careers. You might already know some of this information, but it always helps getting to know who your roommate is. This information can clue you into how often they’ll be around your dorm room too.

Related: Strangers or Besties? Developing a Good Dynamic With Your College Roommates 

3. Talk about dorm room needs

You already have one big thing in common: where you’re living! So before the school year even starts, you can talk about your dorm needs, which can really get a conversation going. Who’s bringing the mini-fridge? Who’s bringing the microwave? Each college has a list of things you can and cannot bring to campus. Refer to that list when talking about this. I know one of my suitemates is bringing the mini fridge and the television for our suite, then another one is bringing the microwave, and I’m bringing a K-Cup coffeemaker. We have a text group chat going, and we post in it when we talk about new things someone is bringing.

4. Plan a meet-up

If your roommate lives locally, or if you both can find a way to meet in the middle, this is an excellent way to get a good grasp of who they are. You can tell a little bit about a person by how they act out in public too. This is often less true when it comes to how they act on social media. Anyone can put up a front and face online. You’ll learn a lot about your roommate by their body language, mannerisms, and social skills. Just as you will be studying them, don’t forget they will be studying you too.

Related: Living the Sweet Dorm Life: 8 Roommate Communication Tips

Everyone is a bit skeptical about college roommates, so don’t worry if you’re feeling nervous too. You're sharing a new living environment with someone you don’t even know. This can be difficult and maybe a bit challenging if you're not used to it. Just try to relax and take a deep breath. You both will be fine!

For more advice on getting to know other new students at school, check out our Student Life section.

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:

About Emily Barylske

Emily Barylske

First things first: I'm on the hunt currently to pay for my college in free money, and I'm a huge supporter of getting all of the college scholarships you can before taking out student loans. I love taking photos, reading, and writing in my free time. I am currently involved in school clubs such as FCA, choir, and yearbook. I hope to help you and encourage you in your college and scholarship search process.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information.
Swipe left if you're not interested.

Ouachita Baptist University

Arkadelphia, AR


Keydi Banegas

Keydi Banegas

Scholarship for Students of Color Winner, Class of 2022

CollegeXpress is a great application that helped me search for many different scholarships, and it narrows the scholarships depending on how you set your profile. Not only that, but it helps you choose different colleges to apply to by finding matches through the description of your profile. It was the best experience for me.

Maurice Whan

Maurice Whan

$2,000 Spring Scholarship Contest Winner, 2021

This year has been tough for my family and myself, so receiving this scholarship has been a blessing in disguise! CollegeXpress has been an excellent resource in helping me prepare financially for college. Thank you again for this amazing opportunity!

Michael

Michael

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress showed me that Western New England University was a great match for me both with curriculum and location. CollegeXpress is an excellent resource both future and current college students.

Elizabeth Stafford

Elizabeth Stafford

High School Class of 2021

As a UK student moving to California due to my dad's job in the military, when I first signed up for CollegeXpress a few months ago, the college process ahead seemed daunting and incredibly stressful. That all changed after I started to explore what this website had to offer. Not only was I helped by the vast array of resources available to me, but through being a CollegeXpress member, there have been so many more benefits. There have been emails with college tips—all of which I found incredibly helpful—as well as invitations to events and notifications of scholarships that'll make college possible for me. Overall, I'm very grateful to CollegeXpress for all of these things and more. Not only have they helped me grow my understanding of the college process, but they've also helped me to grow as a person, giving me new skills that I can take with me through life.

Katelyn

Katelyn

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress gave me options of schools with my major and from there I was able to pick what was most important to me in a school. Everything was so organized that I could see all the information I needed.