P4S, the leading provider of off-campus housing listing solutions for universities and colleges globally, has partnered with RoomSync to deliver Facebook interaction for students wishing to browse and search for other roommates with similar interests.

This partnership will allow P4S’s more than 100 university and college campuses to integrate with RoomSync through Facebook Platform, empowering their students to search and engage potential roommates online. Places4Students has decided to use the RoomSync application as a means to ensure students have a convenient and user-friendly way to find roommates.

RoomSync users can browse through Facebook Profiles of potential roommates, finding common friends and searching for users with common interests like favorite books and movies. Users are able to engage in normal Facebook interaction with others, messaging them in order to get a better sense of the potential roommate.

Michael Hacker, CEO, expressed the core essence of RoomSync as ldquo;empowering students to make their roommate decision on Facebook, a place where they visit on a daily basis. RoomSync allows students looking for roommates at off-campus housing locations to easily connect with one another in a friendly and trusted environment. Places4Students will offer RoomSync to universities as an integrated solution to successfully facilitate effective roommate matching for off-campus living.

Darren Vanecko, President and CEO of Places4Students Inc. stated that, ldquo;Offering a roommate matching service has been something that we have always provided to our clients, however; the need has arisen to provide students more. We find students and their parents taking a very active and comprehensive approach to finding a place to live and with whom to share their home. nbsp;RoomSync allows students and their parents just this, a venue to search, learn and connect with prospective roommates. rdquo;

About Places4Students

Places4Students.com was created from within a college and university environment by following several years of market research and hands-on involvement within the post-secondary environment. The company has a great understanding of student, school and landlord off-campus housing needs. Places4Students is a young, energetic and vibrant company that is bringing a product to the post-secondary market that schools can really use. Unlike most competitors, Places4Students is not a web development company or a software developer. Places4Students.com focuses 100% of its efforts on providing students, schools, and landlords with Off-Campus Housing Service solutions. The service is completely fluid to meet the individual needs of each school and is completely branded to each school, ensuring a seamless addition to their current online offerings. Places4Students Inc. does not charge schools any type of fee and does not charge students to use the website. Places4Students Inc. assumes all of the administrative costs and requirements associated with running the Off-Campus Housing Service and returns a percentage of the revenue generated to schools who partner with Places4Students.com as their exclusive Off-Campus Housing Service.

About RoomSync

RoomSync offers collegiate-focused software solutions through Facebook Platform. RoomSync was previously selected as one of fifty global finalists in fbFund, Facebook’s seed fund and mentorship program with Accel Partners and Founders Fund, to help enable talented developers and entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses on Facebook Platform. In addition to Places4Students, RoomSync integrates with Residential Management Systems, Inc. the leading provider of University Student Housing, Conference, Judicial and Property Management software globally. RoomSync offers Facebook-integrated roommate matching solutions on and off-campus university housing divisions, by-the-bed leasing properties and traditional leasing properties.

Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Media Contact:

Places4Students: Darren Vanecko, darren@places4students.com

RoomSync: Robert Castellucci, rob@RoomSync.com

It's always fun to guess how much your roommate affects the type of person you become. Without a doubt, someone that you live with for an extended period of time has some type of effect on you, but how much? There was a studydone by Bruce Sacerdote at Dartmouth University measuring just that. In the study, titled "Peer Effects With Random Assignment: Results for Dartmouth Roommates", Bruce analyzes freshmen year roommates and dormmates that are randomly assigned to live on campus together. 

He found that roommates will have an effect on your GPA as well as social groups that you decide to join.  Interestingly, peers seem to have no real effect on major decisions such as what college major you decide on. Why is this? Well its certainly more difficult to study in your room if you have a roommate that is partying alongside you all night long.

Why are freshmen influenced by roommates and dormmates to join social groups, such as fraternities and sororities? The study says there was no direct correlation between your roommate and what social group you joined, however there was a strong correlation between your dormmates (others in your same residence hall) and which you joined.

Give the study a read, which is full of insights and lots of technical data results from the study. And comment here if you've come across any other interesting roommate studies!