I have always been content with the fact that I probably won’t get to pick my roommate. I knew that at some colleges I might request one, but it still freaked me out. I still felt like I wasn’t going to find someone, I thought that I would come across as weird to everyone, and I wouldn’t be able to tell if someone was a good person. It really stressed me out. But, ever since I have committed to Holy Cross I have thought about it a lot more. As a freshman, every student is involved with a seminar program. It’s called Montserrat. Long story short, you request what class you want and you are in a group of 20 other freshmen who are assigned to one professor who you work with throughout the year. From what I can tell, everyone loves it and it looks amazing. But, because of that, you don’t have a lot of flexibility when it comes to picking a roommate. From my understanding, your roommate is also in your Montserrat. Because you rank which Montserrat class you want to be in, you can’t really request a roommate because there is literally no guarantee that you will be in the same class as them, meaning you can’t really plan on rooming together.
A lot of people have been really freaked out about this idea, but I think I’m okay with it. I understand that this is only one year, and I don’t have to be best friends with my roommate. I know that it's going to be hard either way, even if I did talk to the person before over social media. I also think some of this stems from my own insecurity. I worry a lot about how people perceive me, and I feel like from how I look online, I am a weird person who is from Iowa and all of that stuff. While that's something different and more complex, the fact that everyone will be randomized is comforting to me. Everyone will feel the same way as me. I think the only way to handle this transition period in my life is to just go for it. I’ve accepted that I probably won’t be able to request someone, and I will most likely know who they are a month before decisions come out.
This is one of the rooms in Hanselman Hall, a freshmen dorm at Holy Cross.