“The internet is forever.”
That’s the mantra that kids are now told with the rising popularity and integration of social media. Facebook, from its creation, has been targeted towards college campuses and as the acceptance letters begin to arrive, so does the popularity of college class Facebook groups.
As soon as the early action letters were sent out on Dec 15, the frenzy of college acceptance hit at full force. Posts of congratulations and declarations of acceptance into ivy leagues littered news feeds and will continue to do so until the fast-approaching May 1 acceptance deadline. The statuses have died down for now though, and have instead moved into private class groups.
These groups are closed to the public and usually titled with the university name and year of graduation with member numbers ranging from 500 to 8,000 students. These groups aren’t exclusive and some students use them to get an inside look at the personalities of possible students attending.
“I would read through all the roommate posts and think about if I wanted to be on campus with these people, and anyone who I think I could get along with,” said Annabel Edwards, a senior at Northwestern University.
Edwards committed to Northwestern and, after, went through all the roommate responses and eventually added her own in an effort to find the perfect match.
“I answered it because I was curious to see what would happen and if anybody would message me.”
Edwards received several requests for roommates, and accepted one girl she had been messaging for several months and someone she thought she could get along with.
“In the end it worked out. It’s easy to think that you can select your roommate based on the qualities they appear to have when answering a survey in person. But in reality what makes people good roommates are qualities that cannot be measured over the internet,” said Edwards.
Using social media to find a roommate is continually discouraged due to the nature of social networks. Bob Zigmund, a post-high school counselor at New Trier and former member of college admissions, advises kids against basing their roommate solely on an online profile.
“It’s a double-edged sword in some ways because it’s a curiosity and convenience factor. But if you think of anyone’s online profile, they only put their best stuff out their best picture, the most clever status and it’s not the really you out there” said Zigmund.
Posting in these groups leads to a sort of infamy around campus. According to many students, there will always be that one person who posts often and randomly in the group.
Jessie Geoffrey, a senior at Northwestern still recalls the girl who posted the most in her college Facebook group.
“I can’t remember her name but even now I see and recognize her all the time around campus. Freshman year, during our orientation, people would take pictures with her because of how well she was known through Facebook,” said Geoffrey.
Most colleges and universities allow the option to request roommates, but some colleges will forgo the survey altogether and use a randomizer to pair roommates.
Other colleges have incoming freshman answer a multiple-choice survey with questions ranging from: “Are you a morning or night person?” to “Do you smoke?” They then sort through the surveys and pick pairs based on the answers.
“They have roughly the same success rate after figuring out all the roommate switches and complaints so sometimes the survey doesn’t always work” said Zigmund.
There are also benefits to knowing a roommate previously before walking into the dorm. There’s a built-in best friend for the hard first two weeks.
“It was definitely nice having friends before that could help me get through the hard first two weeks. It’s a scary time being away from your family,” said Edwards.
In the end, college Facebook groups provide a way for high school seniors to ease their anxiety and help with the transition. It depends on the person.
“It’s a hard thing to avoid because of the curiosity and it’s a nice glimpse at the great unknown of going off to college.” said Zigmund.