Getting flatmates like you .....

I've come up with an idea.

On the application form for halls there should be a tick box with the following:


Please tick the box that resembles you the most and how you like to socialise.

Tiger - completely wild party animal 24/7

Cheers!!! - you like to party and love going out, want to live with an outgoing mob

Inbetweener - sometimes like to party and sometimes like to stay in

Mines a latte! - love movies, love going out for coffee, nights in

Don't talk to me - I am a quiet person who enjoys solace.

Then you could be put into halls with students who want to live in a similar way. This would make for happier times and better friendships. Also you would make more suitable friends to move into a house with.

Simple idea, can't think why it wouldn't work?

Some uni's already have questionnaires about personality etc when applying for halls

Some universities do ask you if you would prefer a quiet or a less quiet flat, and try to match flats by personality this way. I do think this is a good idea, although it's no guarantee of getting on with your flat mates- just because two people enjoy a party lifestyle doesn't automatically mean they're going to be friends, and people who don't enjoy going out can still have very different interests and views. Sometimes, having a mix of personalities can actually make a flat work better as a community.

It would make a lot of extra work for universities when allocating flats and probably have little benefit for students.

Most people do manage to at least be civil with their flat mates, and those that really can't usually ask for a flat transfer.

I've come up with an idea.

On the application form for halls there should be a tick box with the following:


Please tick the box that resembles you the most and how you like to socialise.

Tiger - completely wild party animal 24/7

Cheers!!! - you like to party and love going out, want to live with an outgoing mob

Inbetweener - sometimes like to party and sometimes like to stay in

Mines a latte! - love movies, love going out for coffee, nights in

Don't talk to me - I am a quiet person who enjoys solace.

Then you could be put into halls with students who want to live in a similar way. This would make for happier times and better friendships. Also you would make more suitable friends to move into a house with.

Simple idea, can't think why it wouldn't work?

You'll inevitably end up disappointing some people and imagine having to consider that and preferences for accomodation type

Yeah it would make things a bit more complex but not impossible just a tick box and fed through a computer.

It wouldn't be possible to guarantee, just like universities can't guarantee getting your first choice halls. Even with the relatively simple "quiet/not quiet choice" you do get people complaining, because a) they have different definitions of quiet or b) the number of people who chose each choice isn't exactly divisible by the size of the flats, so you end up with some mixed flats anyway.

The vast majority of people do manage to live civilly with their flat mates and make friends, so there's no real benefit to this system for universities. Equally, if someone can't cope with living with people with different lifestyles, then perhaps living in halls isn't for them. It's not compulsory at the vast majority of universities.

Yes, I'm beginning to see that, cheers

For the record, I don't mean this as a criticism of people- not everyone is suited to communal living with strangers for all sorts of reasons. Despite this, a lot of people build up living in halls to be this really amazing social experience, which for a lot of people, it's not. Just throwing 4-10 people together in a flat, even if they are supposed to have some common interests/lifestyle choices, won't automatically make them friends.

That said, I do think living in halls has lots of benefits, and it provides a good transition between living at home and living away from home, and most people do have a reasonable time.

However, to get the most out of living in halls, you do have to be able to compromise and sometimes let stuff slide that you don't like, or do things that you don't see the benefit in just because it makes others happy.

Actually, if I was going to allocate people to halls based on personality traits, I would probably include "level of cleanliness" and "how much you are willing to share your stuff with others" as I think this contributes to a lot of difficulties in student flat shares.

Yeah agree that a mix of personalities can be beneficial but not so sure about a mix of lifestyles, cheers though

there was something like that at my uni (nottingham)

worked out horribly tho, at least in my halls. i put down stuff like video gaming as my interests, and ended in a corridor full of really antisocial people, just b/c we supposedly had interests in common

I think you are right, having heard of stories of a 'bagel thief' (ie someone who kept taking someone else's last bagel in the bag) lol, annoying but yeah you have to let learn to let some things slide.