The Soul Roommate

The University of Central Florida (UCF) currently has a population of 42,568 students, 4,200 of which live on campus. Out of the 2,400 students who live on campus with roommates, around 1 in 24 room reassignments are requested each semester due to reported roommate conflicts. To facilitate the compatibility of roommate assignments, I propose that a comprehensive personality test replace the standard ten-question preference survey. This will promote a harmonious on-campus living experience as well as alleviate some unnecessary burden that UCF’s Housing and Residence Life has to undertake.

“I was excited when I moved into my dorm for the first time,” says Rachel Kindergan, a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University. “When I first met my roommate, things were fine. But, after awhile, we just didn’t click. She had a teddy bear that she’d talk to. Like, when she was hungry, she’d tell the teddy bear to get her some food, and then she’d throw the bear at the refrigerator. There wasn’t anything on my housing application to prevent me from getting a crazy person for a roommate.” However, Rachel is not alone. Many college students aren’t happy with their roommates. Bianca Webb, a freshmen at Southeastern College in Florida says, “I deal with my roommate. Things are okay, but they could be a lot better. It’s not like online dating. I type in what I like, and matches come up. I’d be happier living with anyone I met online than [my roommate].”

Bianca is one of almost twenty-nine million Americans who participate in online dating websites (Funny Odds). One of the most popular dating services, eHarmony.com, claims that the secret to finding your soul mate is by comparing compatibility in twenty-nine various dimensions of relationships. "Jason and I are getting married next month,” says Emily Boulder, an eHarmony.com member. “We were both skeptics at first, but after spending some time on the site, we knew eHarmony would work." A very similar personality profiling and matchmaking service can be conducted for on-campus residents at UCF.

This project will be called “Soul Roommate Matchmaking,” and will be maintained by the same people in UCF’s Housing and Residence Life that currently handle roommate assignments. The matchmaking test itself will be named the “Soul Roommate Matchmaker,” or SAM. The test will be created by a team of selected psychology majors, and approved by a psychology professor as well as Housing and Residence Life. The SAM will consist of one-hundred wide-ranging questions focusing on personality, preferences, interests, hobbies, and abstract thought processes. All sections will be automatically calculated incorporating the twenty-nine various dimensions of relationships that previous matchmaking tests have used. Roommate matching will no longer be an afterthought and settling factor on campus, but rather a reasonable accommodation for all college students.

The personality section will focus on the individual’s self-image. Scale systems, such as a 1-10 scale (one being “Strongly Disagree,” and ten being “Strongly Agree”), will be implemented with descriptive adjectives such as, “Warm,” “Clever,” “Lazy,” and “Arrogant.” Students will have the ability to rate themselves on each quality. They will also be able to answer other questions on the scale system, such as, “I view myself as a hard worker,” and “I typically enjoy eating out.”
“Do you smoke?” “Do you go to bed early?” and “Do you study with or without music?” are all fine questions. The SAM will contain many questions like this in the preferences section, as well as a multitude of additional matchmaking questions to better coordinate roommates. Such questions may include, “Do you like to watch television at night before you go to bed?” or “Do you prefer colder or warmer room temperatures?”

The interests and hobbies sections will include special “Free-response questions.” Free-response questions throughout these sections will allow students to input their own values instead of picking from two simple choices. In the interests section, some free-response questions may be “What’s your favorite movie?” or “What’s your favorite sport?” The hobbies section will allow people to type in all of their hobbies, as well as view a huge list of additional hobbies. With the additional list, students will mark each hobby with one of the following options: “I’d Like to Do It,” “I Wouldn’t Like to Do It,” or “I Have Already Done It.”

The abstract section will contain random questions such as, “What number?” “What would you buy right now if you had to spend $10?” and “What’s the one thing you lose the most?” By having totally random questions on the SAM, an entirely new aspect of one’s personality is measured.

All of these results will be matched with others to compare and contrast multifarious aspects of personality and interests. The evaluation will take place entirely online by a computer. The “choice” questions (those that allow you to choose from set answers) will be evaluated much like any normal multiple choice test. Results will be matched based on the highest number of same answers. The free-response sections will also be matched by computer. This will be done by locating each answer and matching it with other similar answers. For example, if the question was, “What’s your favorite movie?” and the answer on one person’s test was “Fight Club,” a second person’s test had, “The Matrix,” and the third person’s test was also “Fight Club,” person one and three would have a positive match.

Another aspect of the Soul Roommate Matchmaking service will be the ability to allow coed dorm rooms, i.e., men and women will be able to share a single room. Carnegie Mellon University has long been experimenting with coed rooms (Schackner). According to an article published in the Pittsburg Post Gazette, Wahr Hall at Indiana University of Pennsylvania has coed dorms, floors, and rooms. "It allows more interaction,” says Betsy Joseph, interim assistant vice president for student affairs. “…Students develop relationships, and I'm not talking about dating relationships, but friendships that men and women develop.” This aspect will be optional, however. On the SAM, students will have the choice to select “Male,” “Female” or “No Preference” as their Soul Roommate.

Hidden criteria will also be calculated into the matchmaking. How much time each student took for the test will be saved and compared, as well as spelling and grammar in the free response sections. Other hidden criteria will include aspects such as changing of answers. More hidden criteria may be considered as the test is designed.
Although this test is designed to create stronger roommate friendships, it may not work out as students think it will. Even if a student is compatible with another student, that doesn’t mean that conflicts will not arise. However, these methods will help to prevent most roommate misunderstandings. Even if the SAM creates a match between two students, they will still be different in some aspects. Difference, however, is vital for the growth and development of human social interaction. Everyone needs to be around people that aren’t exactly like them – this is to ensure that students learn diverse values. After all, college is designed to educate.

There are countless articles, both online and in print, detailing tips and tricks to surviving with a college roommate. With Soul Roommates, these antediluvian articles will finally be able to be put to rest. College students have enough stress dealing with classes, jobs, financial aid, and parents – not to mention their social life. There is no need to add to the daily stress of college life by having a roommate that doesn’t coincide with your values. The SAM will help to eliminate the barrage of problems that roommates encounter throughout the year. This service could easily be applied to university systems around the country, and possibly around the world. College Matchmaking is the wave of the future; soon, university students will be able to live in harmony with their Soul Roommates.