Introduction: In 2013, Penn State saw a 1.6% increase in student enrollment. This year, Penn State’s University Park gained 46,184 new incoming students. Our research looks into the incoming freshmen class and the options they are given in order to choose a roommate.
These options include random selection, in which the university will randomly assign people to live together; Facebook, where students can search on their own for roommates, or students may choose friends from home to live with. We wanted to study the effect of each of these options and see how each one affected the roommate’s friendship. Does living with someone from home automatically mean that the friendship will continue to grow, or does it cause more
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After re-sending out our survey we gained 40 more responses. Our survey consisted of 30 different questions, which were created to gauge many different factors in how freshmen chose their roommates. The questions that were asked on the survey included demographic questions, such as age and gender. The class standing of the responder determined which questions they were going to answer on the survey. If the participants were freshmen they answered a series of questions that allowed us to gather data on how they met their roommate, as well their current relationship with their roommate.
If the responder answered that they were an upperclassmen (sophomore, junior, senior) then they answered questions that allowed us to determine their current relationship with their freshman roommate. We also asked these participants how they met their roommate prior to freshmen year, and if they don’t live with this person than do they still communicate. If the participant answered that they do not speak to their freshman roommate at all, we used an open-ended question in order to ask why.
The questions on this survey were made up of open ended, and multiple-choice questions. The open-ended questions were used in order to gain responses on questions that could not be answered by multiple-choice, such as current feelings on their roommate.
The participants
Freshman year students are moving out, figuring out to be adult and trying to understand what career path they want. Since most colleges require freshmen to live in the dorms for their first year, getting to know their roommate and hall is really important. Their roommate could make or break the experience of living in the dorms and getting along since, they will be living with each other for about nine months. Their roommate could be their first friend that they make and miss homeless. Since homesick is common first year of college, finding friends and getting involved will make their campus a home for them. Another things are that college is way harder than high school, finding your study areas and time is important. The average studying done by a college student is fifteen hours per week but does not included class time (Nelson). According to Randall S. Hansen, there are 25 tips to survive and thrive first year of college, which are “go to all orientations, get organized, go to class, meet your professors, get to know your academic advisor, seek balance, keep track of your money and more.” These are good thing to live by the first year and through rest of college life. Freshman are knowing their responsibilities, how to have a successful year, and now needing a plan to incorporate all of
When a student chooses to dorm, they are forced into independency. They have more responsibilities, but they also have more freedom. Dormers are responsible for meals, laundry, money, and their well-being. In contrast, students that commute do not have to worry themselves with these responsibilities. With the parental aid, they always have a safety net to fall back on. However, living with parents often means living by their rules.
In Frank Bruni’s article “The Real Campus Scourge,” the main argument that many college freshmen are extremely lonely at the start of their college careers is supported by numerous testimonials and statistics, which add to the credibility of the argument and ultimately make the argument very believable.
Syracuse University has a two year on-campus living requirement. This makes the housing lottery so critical for many rising sophomores, who are often dead set on a dorm before they receive that seemingly premature email in January.
The main problem for students at MTSU is that there simply is not enough on-campus housing available. Although the student population has grown steadily over the past several years, the university has not added on-campus housing options for those students. Because of that, students are forced into seeking other options. In fact, 83% of students live off-campus (Niche) One option for students is to go to apartments that have been designed for college students. However, in these types of apartments, students pay an all-inclusive fee for their rent and utilities. They may choose their own roommates, however, if they do not know anyone to live with, the apartment office staff will choose roommates for them. There are many allegations of discrimination in these types of situations. In an
In these dorms, the initial interactions that socially code us throughout college are initiated. These social interactions create and solidify bonds between students that can continue for the rest of their lives. A change to the demographics of the freshman dorms doesn’t just create an immediate effect, but also affects every current and future resident of UC Davis. A freshmen social group that is initially less diverse will lead to a less diverse group of friends throughout the remaining years of their undergraduate studies. This reduces their social group to a less diverse group of individuals, which reduces the chance for them to interact with other cultures and overcome any form of culture shock that they are affected by, whether it be here in UC Davis or later in their careers. Freshmen dorms are the only place that nurtures cultural interaction to create a UC Davis community that is ultimately more unified, accepting, and respectful of all people and their different cultures.
When asked about her time so far at UM she stated, “I don’t like it here. I just don’t like school and I think the people here are too different then back home.” Further expressing a concern that she feels very isolated while at UM, a contribution to Sarah’s poor grades may derive from the fact that she was too preoccupied with adjusting to an environment that is so new to her that it is a shock. The oddity of Sarah’s comment though is that she has already built strong relationships with many people at the university, including her roommate. Sarah states her roommate is most influential in making her feel as if she is not alone as she is always there to talk to and comfort her. This scenario is not uncommon among many college students, but it is especially prevalent among first generation college students because of the strong ties to family that are often seen with these type of students.
College is a life changing experience for students. College is a new environment for most students and comes with lots of challenges. Things such as the increased difficulty of academic work and not being around the same social groups as a student was before college can make the transition very difficult. One of the best things a student can do to help with this transition is to live in a campus residence hall. Students should live in dorms because of the community that this creates. Students will gain many beneficial social interactions, will be able to better complete academic work, and will ease the adjustment to college life.
In Nathan’s article, she keeps her principal focus on how foreign students interact with American students and the distinctive type of relationships that they build. It is quite strange to some of the foreign student’s that Nathan has interviewed about how non-committed American students are to the foreign students because American 's students do not socialize as much, and tends to spend more time alone. Furthermore, they will make small talk rather than being close friends or let it evolve into more. At that point, Nathan turns her center towards the difference between a relationship and a friendship between American and foreign students. She also discusses with different foreign students with different background and how they interact with their American roommates, and the relationship that they bond. In addition, American student’s family is a distinct subject from school but for international students, it is something naturally integrated into their social lives, which is why they care so much about their parents (Nathan 73). Furthermore, she discusses how many foreign students make comments about how different students look and the lack of attention that they give their professor compared to in their home country. Nevertheless, the social life and making companions in American can be quite troublesome for any foreign students. However, once you become acquainted with American students and get to be
Most of us begin our early adult hood years by moving out of our home and trying to branch out from our parents; become independent strong members of society. We get our first apartment or rent our first house, and unless you’re fortunate enough to pay for all of that alone you will be needing a roommate, or maybe a few. Don’t get me wrong I am a firm believer in surrounding yourself with new people, so getting a few roommates could be the best decision of your young adulthood life. Or, it could be the worst. Sometimes in life we have those awkward moments that you don’t even know where to begin to solve the problem. This essay will not only inform you how to get rid of those roommates who just won’t catch the hint and leave, but how to do
More than 98 percent of understudies live on grounds in residences. Rookies and sophomores should live in private universities, while youngsters and seniors regularly live in assigned upperclassman residences. The real quarters are tantamount, however just private universities have eating corridors. In any case, any undergrad may buy a supper arrange and eat in a private school eating corridor. As of late, upperclassmen have been given the choice of staying in their school for every one of the four years. Youngsters and seniors likewise have the choice of living off-grounds, yet high lease in the Princeton region urges all understudies to live in college lodging. Undergrad social life spins around the private schools and various coeducational eating clubs, which understudies may participate in the spring of their sophomore year. Eating clubs, which are not authoritatively partnered with the college, serve as eating lobbies and collective spaces for their individuals furthermore have get-togethers all through the scholarly
It is about the situation in which a person has repeated contact with other people in order to lead to a friendship: “you have more friends if there are more people you meet on a regular basis” (Stauder 2014). Repetition of contact with humans is more significant than the number of people met. Contact opportunities are influenced not only by social structure but a person’s opportunity for contact and association. This idea of interaction structures starts to acutely explain empirical research: “young people in higher education are likely to have friends covering a broad spread of backgrounds, working-class are likely to be limited” (Pahl 2000: 108). This is not due to personal attitude or prejudices, but the situations and opportunities in which contact with people leads to friendship. University is increasingly mixed in terms of students' class and ethnicity, whereas a local community may tend to have less variation regardless of whether it is middle- or working-class. A person needs to be willing and open to friendship, and which people one chooses to become friends with depends on who one meets, so friendship necessarily occurs within the confines of social structures. This echoes Giddens' theory of structuration, wherein “human agency and social structure are in a relationship with each other” (Gauntlett 2002). It is the application of macro and
4. Roommate conflict is almost the first one that comes as starting life on campus. College students are forced to live with people who may have different values, beliefs, schedules, and habits than they do. There’s nothing worse than having to sleep in the same room as someone you’d normally hate or never talk to.
The transition into college can be one of the most exciting times in a young adult’s life. They are starting a new chapter in their lives that may have a lasting effect on their future. Many new friendships will be made, along with countless amounts of changes in their life including new habitat, change in income, workload amounts, and
A famous study by Leon Festinger, Stanley Schacter, and Kurtt Back (1950) in a student housing development revealed that the development of friendships was influenced by the distance between the units in which the people lived. The closer the students' rooms were to each other, the better the chances that they would become friends. The people who became friends were those who had the greatest opportunity to interact with each other.