A good roommate can turn into a BFF and future maid-of-honor. A bad one can make freshman year more dramatic than the Bristol/Levi saga and more horrifying than Heidi Montag’s cosmetic surgery.
Our intrepid Thrive Research interns (pictured here) were kind enough to share their take on the roommate experience. All are students at Stanford, where having a roommate is required for freshman year.
Students are encouraged to sign a roommate contract that can include everything from who buys food to lights out to rules for visitors. All had horror stories of roommates “borrowing” dresses, credit cards, and the thin walls that amplify noises after midnight. These were all things that with good communication and more than a little patience, could be handled.
The problem, according to our foursome, is that incoming students (even the best and brightest) don’t always have a great deal of self-knowledge about themselves with regard to what’s important. Most people, regardless of their age, haven’t developed negotiating skills that stress the importance of ongoing dialogue in getting (and maintaining) a win-win for everyone.
One intern, who spent four years at boarding school and was more than familiar with the drill, put it best, “Some people just didn’t know how to cope. When things got stressful or needed to be discussed, they just shut down.”
Another intern described an experience where one roommate broke the contract early in the year, by having a friend stay over. The two didn’t speak for the rest of the year.
Managing difficult emotions isn’t a skill that’s covered in SAT prep or AP classes, yet it’s essential for college success…especially freshman year. Fortunately, Thrive Research (in conjunction with Stanford University’s Behavioral Sciences Department) has developed a program to teach students these core skills. College Success can be taken as a standalone online program or as one of ten programs in the PeakPerformance College suite.
Get more details here and set your student up for success today!
Thanks to our entire team of interns for their hard work, smarts, and great humor...we've enjoyed your smiling faces and wish you all the best!!
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