One of high school seniors’ biggest fears when going away for college is whether or not they’ll like the person they’re living with. While many students opt to find their roommate via Facebook or other social media sites or decide to room with high school friends, others fearfully play the odds by going the blind roommate route.

Today, college students are fortunate in having many options when it comes to meeting or interacting with their future roommate. In a Niche survey of more than 800 users, 31 percent reported Facebook being the top way to reach out to a new roommate, while 28 percent admitted they already knew their roomie before starting school.

After posting on the Dayton University Facebook page about needing a roomate, Victoria Kratt ‘18 was able to find someone perfect for her. Kratt made the decision to find a roommate on her own because she liked the idea of knowing who she is going to be sharing a room with and being able to build a relationship with the girl before going to college to make sure they would be compatible. Just like many other people, she chose to not go in blind.

“I didn’t want to go blind because I didn’t want to risk being with someone who I wouldn’t get along with or wouldn’t be friends with,” Kratt ‘18 said.

Even before having to go through the roommate search, Kratt had to make the decision of where to go for the next four years. Kratt is going to Dayton University which is an American private Roman Catholic national research university in Ohio’s sixth-largest city, Dayton.

Kratt has lots of positive things to say about Dayton, including the over-friendly students, midsize campus that is easy to get around, and abundant amount of programs. Once you become an upperclassmen at Dayton you can live in the so called, “University of Dayton Ghetto” which is an on-campus neighborhood which has houses with front porches where everyone hangs out on the weekends.

Many who choose to find their roomate prior to going to college believe that college is hard enough and already a big enough adjustment, so why should they add a bad living situation to the mix?

Because of this, the University of Florida added RoomSync to its roommate process. RoomSync is a matching experience that assists students in finding their roommates and help build connections before they even step on campus.

According to a 2012 RoomSync case study on the University of Florida, 97 percent of surveyed UF students discovered their roommate on the app and became best friends and/or engaged in a mutually respectful relationship with their roommate.

More and more schools are opting for roommate matching like this, and companies like RoomSync and RoomSurf are building entire business platforms around helping students have the best residential experience possible.

Some believe that deciding to go the blind roommate route certainly has its risks,  but that going to college without really knowing your roommate could be one of the best decisions to make in your college career. When going in blind you are assigned a roommate and aren’t able to decide.

Although she hasn’t made the final decision on where she plans to attend next year, Katherine Donnelly ‘18 is interested in going in blind for a roommate no matter where she goes.

“I am planning on going to either the University of Michigan or the University of Washington,” Donnelly ‘18 said. “I want to go to Michigan because it’s a great school with a strong community and Washington is cool because it’s similar to Michigan, just in Seattle, which is a place that I’d love too.”

After finding schools that she was interested, she started to weigh in the different routes to go down for finding a roommate.

 “I’m interested in going in blind because a lot of my friends that are already in college did and had a better friendship than some of my friends who found someone prior to going to school,” Donnelly ‘18 said. “It’s definitely a risk, but I think it will be a fun experience.”

Those who decide to be randomly assigned a residential partner are opening themselves up to an entirely new experience, and that’s what some people believe college is supposed to be all about.

Since the advent of Facebook and other social media networks, some schools haven’t relented when it comes to room assignment traditions. At Stanford, you don’t get your roommate assignment until move-in day. While you may encounter the worst possible roommate ever, you have the same chance of finding the absolute best one, too.

Either way, you’ll learn a lot about living with someone and maybe even more about yourself in the process.