As the school year comes to an end, many Terra Linda seniors have already made one of the biggest decisions of their lives by choosing a college to attend for the next four years. Though one may think these seniors can relax now that their decision has been made, this is not the case. For many students planning on attending college at a larger university, these seniors have one final obstacle to overcome: finding a college roommate. 

Though private colleges typically assign students their roommates through a questionnaire, larger public colleges, including colleges within the University of California system, require students to decide between finding a roommate on their own or being randomly assigned. 

Many choose to find a roommate on their own, a choice with a deadline of May 1st for the UCs. For some, this deadline comes with its own set of problems. “I committed to UC Berkeley [on April 23rd,] and our housing deadline was May 1st, so I had eight days to find a roommate,” said senior Allie Marovich. “I do not recommend that.” Committing late required A. Marovich to speed through the process of finding a roommate, creating a stressful situation. 

But even for students who committed far earlier than the deadline, the process of finding a roommate was difficult. “It’s really hard,” senior Brynn Marovich said. “Everyone that you’re talking to is talking to a hundred other people at the same time, and it’s really hard to find someone that you want to be roommates with where you’re also their first choice.” Many people use Instagram to find their roommates by reaching out to people based on their post on the college’s “Class of 2030” account. While there are other apps on the market to help people find roommates—Bunky, Zeemee, Mingo—not enough people use these softwares for them to be a viable option for most, making Instagram the favorite. But the fact that these “Class of 2030” Instagram accounts are posting hundreds of posts per week often creates a lot of competition to find a roommate. “You’re probably going to get ghosted at least five times, if you’re actually trying,” said B. Marovich. Meadow McPherson ‘26 agreed, adding “It’s cutthroat.” 

McPherson believes that there is a “sweet spot” to post on these accounts to find a roommate. “You should start around mid-April,” she says. “Because you don’t want to be at the bottom where everyone is just getting absolutely buried, but you don’t want to be at the top where there are just too many people that are scrambling for roommates and it’s really competitive.” As time moves closer to the housing deadline, “Class of 2030” pages begin to get filled up, with many having to pay a fee to get posted in a timely manner. Typically, large university pages either require a small fee ($5-15)to get posted on a page, a monthly subscription cost, or an optional payment to move the student further up in the posting queue. 

The content of the post is also important, with students aiming to showcase their personality in order to attract a roommate. “Write an interesting bio, because the ones that stuck out to me were the people I reached out to,” advised A. Marovich. “If you write something that really shows who you are, that will make people excited to reach out.” Highlighting personality in these bios allows students to find roommates who will truly connect with them. “The hardest people to talk to are the people who are really bland or won’t give you any personality,” McPherson says. “It’s better to show who you are authentically than to pretend to be someone you’re not and end up in a situation that you are not going to be happy in for the next year.”

At the end of the day, authenticity is key. The stress of moving away from home is enough; there is no need for the stress that comes with pretending to be someone else. “Your room is an extension of your home,” B. Marovich said, “so you want to be able to be whoever you are in your own home.”