Living with a roommate can be a tough chore for most anyone, but with alittle guidance on choosing the right one, your new living arrangement willgo much smoother.

For starters, make sure you hook up with somebody who is on the same levelas you are in areas of responsibility and lifestyle. For example, if youare a full-time student who works a lot, do not move in with a full-timepartier; they will keep you up all night with their music and friends.

“It was fun at first when I moved in with someone who liked to party, ” junior Alicia Banks said. “He?d bring over his friends and we’d all have a good time. But when it came time for me to study, my roommate just didn?t understand the concept of keeping the noise down.”

It is also important to find a roommate who has similar habits and petpeeves that you do. According to senior Nicole Lee, who is working on herfifth roommate, a neat freak living with a complete slob is a big no-no!

“No matter how much you hound someone about cleaning up after themselves, itwill not happen, ” Lee said. “It’s like them asking you to not be so neat.It is a way of life for them and so habitual that it will not change.”

Many people want to live with close friends of theirs when they move out,but this can be both positive and negative, depending on how you look at thesituation.

“Originally I was hesitant to move in with a close friend in case it didn’twork out, or we got sick of one another, ” Lee said. ” Now I have discoveredthat it is actually easier to live with a friend because since you alreadyknow each other inside and out, you can communicate better about the thingsthat you might have problems with. “

On the other hand, living with a friend could put a damper on thefriendship.

“I thought it would be fun to move in with one of my close friends from highschool,” said junior Justin Deets. “It wasn’t but a month that we startedgetting at each others throats over really stupid matters.”

Lee suggested that living with a friend is a good way to test yourfriendship.

“When you live with a person, you find out a lot about them. If you do nothave respect for each other at home, maybe you are not the greatest friendsanyway, and losing the friendship is really not a loss,” Lee said.

Moving out with siblings can prove to be an ideal living arrangement, afterall, you already managed to do it growing up. Plus you don’t have to adjustto living with someone else’s weird quirks and habits.

“Since I have lived with my sister all my life, I already knew how she wasgoing to be, so I knew I wouldn1t be surprised about any of her livinghabits,” said junior Melissa Zentner, graphic design.

However, drawbacks might include not feeling like you are really out on yourown with your sibling watching your every move, or the threat that they arestill going to tell your parents about any bad choices that you might decideto make. Also, the silly fights that you had while living at your parentshome won1t necessarily go away. In fact, they might get more intense nowthat it is you who has to worry about paying the bills, not your folks.

All in all, finding a good roommate involves a little research on your part.Find out what that person is really like before you move in with him or her.Go to their current home and observe their living habits and see if theycompliment yours. But most importantly, choose someone that you think youcan communicate with. If you can do that, then you will be able to solvemost any problem that arises before it becomes unbearable.