College roommate compatibility program 'like online dating'

Glossing over personality flaws?

San Jose State University uses another software program to match freshmen moving into university housing. Stanford University matches incoming freshmen in a similar way, but they won’t know who they’ll room with until they move on campus next month. Stanford also uses teams of staff and students to help match roommates.

But as with online dating, any Web-based profile is sure to gloss over personality flaws.

Maggie Saremi, 19, of the San Fernando Valley, felt her first roommate wasn’t the best fit. “I was my roommate’s third roommate,” Saremi said of her match last spring. “I’m more of a morning person, and she was up until the crack of dawn.”

She acknowledges that the way she answered the questionnaire could have skewed her profile.

“I don’t think I honestly answered all the questions because I didn’t want a psychopath,” she said. “So I was like, I never party, because I didn’t want to room with a big partyer.”

She didn’t have to worry. The roommate didn’t party. She stayed up all night on her laptop, often with a blanket pulled over her head.

This fall Saremi is rooming with two good friends.

Cal’s StarRez survey avoids things like hobbies, academic majors and musical taste.

“We do want students to be exposed to the diversity that is Berkeley,” Takimoto said.

Source: Pantagraph