With the variety and amount of incoming students, randomly matching them with roommates seems like an easy option. In go the names, out come the assignments. Yet, this is not actually a two step process. What happens when the matches aren't a good fit?

• Do you field the phone calls?
• Do you try to mediate?
• Do you find some way to accomodate transfer requests.

If you are matching roommates randomly, it might be safe to expect that you will encounter roommate harmony only randomly. But when students had an opportunity to make a decision in their room selection process, they were empowered and invested in their roommate relationship. If some issue did arise, a roommate change was not always the first option. Conversely, students who were randomly assigned a roommate were significantly more likely to change roommates, according to a 2005 Study by Colemand and Cooper.

To learn more about random roommate selection vs. self-selection, download RoomSync's Empowering Roommate Self-Selection Whitepaper now!

Win one in under 2 minutes:
1. Grab your roommate and record a quick video with your names, university and how RoomSync helped you find each other
2. Post the video to YouTube
3. Share the video link with us on our Facebook

Our stopwatch has begun and ends Sunday, May 11, at midnight!

Details for Entry:

Eligibility: This Sweepstakes is only open to residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. Employees and agents of Sponsor and their respective affiliates, officers, distributors, agencies, and prize suppliers, and their immediate family members and persons residing in the same household of such employees are not eligible to enter or win.

Grant of Title.  By submitting an entry to this contest, you agree to allow U-Match, LLC to use the content uploaded or submitted by you, in whole or in part, at the sole discretion of U-Match, LLC.  You further grant U-Match, LLC full title to any content that you upload.  U-Match, LLC may use this content in any way and also distrbute content to current or new third party clients.  You may revoke this this grant at any time by sending notice of your intention to revoke the grant to U-Match, LLC., 201 SE 2nd Place, Suite 108, Gainesville, Florida 32601.

It may seem obvious, but no matter who your roommate is or where you live, two factors will either make the living situation a success or a complete failure: respect and freedom.

One UNC student details how he managed to successfully live with his best friend in cramped quarters in Roommate Series II: The Friend Roommate. It is not uncommon for friend-mates to overstep their boundaries, be overly clingy and evenually ruin the friendship. But this blog suscinctly lays out the best practices to make any living situation work:

For more details on experiences related to the above, read the original blog post.

Hi Friends,

I am Tracy Shank, your newest RoomSync team member and resource for roommate matching software knowledge. My official title is Director of Marketology, and I am working on some pretty exciting things right now. Here’s what’s coming up.

1. RoomSync is about to hit 10,000 fans on Facebook, so if you haven’t liked us yet, please help out now!

This occasion is cause for celebration, so we want to get there as soon as possible. In our office celebration means free ShirtSync, CakeSync or Dry-Erase-Boards-We-Can-Use-In-The-ShowerSync. Yes, we may be a bit peculiar here, and sure that last one could use a name tweak, but our celebrations are about achievement and team spirit, so like us and tell your friends, too!

2. RoomSync employees now take part in a weekly ThinkSync brainstorming session.

If you have an idea of new features or changes you’d like to see, let us know and we will talk about it at length – maybe in pirate voices – but with our one un-patched eye still on our mission of empowering roommate choice.

3. RoomSync is attending more conferences this year than ever before.

We want to be the roommate matching software at your university or apartment complex, so keep an eye out for us. Not only will we have some awesome research to support the efficacy of our products, but we also have a few tricks up our sleeve to catch your attention and make sure you want to tell everyone about our product.

4. Finally, for this list anyway, we are redecorating our office.

We are getting back to our roots and reconnecting with our college-aged young users by putting a bit more school spirit on our walls. If you’ve got a pendant, send it in and we will honor our current and future customers by looking at it every day and rubbing it for good luck during football season.

I am happy to be joining the team and am looking forward to connecting with our customers a bit more over the year. So, please reach out if there is anything I can help you with or follow us on twitter for our frequent updates around roommate assignments and your organization.

Thanks,

Tracy

Your organization knows that roommate matching is a valuable tool for staff and residents, but whatever you do, you feel that having a totally self-branded software is the best to receive the most credit and credibility for adding such an offering. But wanting this does not mean that you have to suffer the pains of developing a homegrown system. Use RoomSync’s new White Label option to showcase your brand while still getting the following benefits:

1. Low Development Cost: Rather than devote internal resources to developing a product from scratch or hire and manage external programmers, use a product that is already developed and well-tested by RoomSync. This strategy will give your company access to regular updates would not be possible without having a full-time team supporting your product’s development.
2. Availability: Building something from scratch takes time not only to develop, but also to test and execute a smooth release. A RoomSync White Label takes just a few weeks to build…often less time than the hiring process for a from-scratch application programmer.
3. Support: The responsibility of support is on the company that makes an application. RoomSync is here to help you every step of the way as you learn how to use the admin site or as any user issues arise. A roommate matching system can effectively decrease conflict calls, but that is only valuable if you do not feel the burden of support as you might with a homegrown system. Our experts support you so you can focus on your residents.