Issues You Encounter With Grad School Roommates Vs. Undergrad Roommates

By Elana Goodwin on September 21, 2016

This article is brought to you by Kaplan, the leader in test prep for over 90 standardized tests, including the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT.

Living with other people has its challenges, whether you’re an undergrad or graduate student. When you share a room, apartment, or house with roommates, you’re bound to run into some issues — but those issues may vary slightly when you’re a grad student compared to when you were in undergrad.

Here are some roommate problems you may encounter as a grad student that you may not have had as an undergrad.

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

1. Finding a roomie. As an undergraduate, you were probably either randomly assigned a roommate to share your dorm or requested someone you already somehow knew to be your roommate. As a graduate, you may find it a bit more difficult to find roommates, depending on where you want to live, whether you know anyone else at grad school, and the characteristics you’d like in a roommate.

Undergrads don’t usually have a choice in roommates, especially during their first year at school, but grad students do, which may make the process of finding a roomie more challenging since you have seemingly endless choices. That being said, there are resources at grad school to help students find roommates, including being assigned to graduate student housing, Facebook groups, and more.

2. Having to share. Since you’re undoubtedly older and more mature than you were in your undergraduate years (okay, the mature part might be up for debate, but you’re definitely older), sharing a room, apartment, or house with a roommate or several may be harder than it was when you were an undergrad. Even if you lived with roommates throughout undergrad, now that you’re juggling grad school and adult life, you may feel like living with roommates is just one more thing on your plate.

You have to be more considerate when you live with roommates, since even if you have your room, there are common areas you’ll have to share. Having to think about others and to stay aware of their feelings, on top of your classes, perhaps being a TA or otherwise employed, and working on research, makes living with roommates as a grad student that much more challenging.

3. Keeping clean. As an undergrad, keeping your room, apartment, or house clean probably either wasn’t your top priority or wasn’t a big deal as you and your roomies all had time to clean up after yourselves and keep your home neat. As a grad student, living with roommates and keeping your place clean may be more of an issue as you’re all super busy and your schedules are hectic.

When you live with roommates, you can’t leave your dirty dishes lying around for a while since you’re so busy and let your home become a mess — and while of course you shouldn’t do that as an undergrad either, it’s a bigger deal when you’re a grad student and letting your home get to be slovenly.

4. Making time. Somehow, as an undergrad, all your work managed to get done and being able to chill with your roomies and other friends was a given. Being able to go out on the weekends or grabbing a bite to eat together between different classes is much easier to manage when you’re an undergraduate. But as a grad student, you’re way more busy than you were in undergrad, which means making time — for many things — can be a problem and seem impossible.

When you live with roommates, it’s important to make time to connect with each other and hang out together, and as a grad student, you likely have a jam-packed and erratic schedule, so getting you and your roommates’ schedules to align is a difficult task. Not having the time to really get to know and hang out with your roommates as a grad student, except for when you pass each other on your way in and out of your home or when you’re getting a snack from the fridge at night, means your living situation won’t be as harmonious and comfortable as it could be.

5. Doing you. In undergrad, you may have to compromise when it comes to decorating or other things in your apartment or house, but it’s expected and usually not a big deal. Living with others as an undergrad still leaves you plenty of room and time to be able to do what you want to do and not worry too much about your roommates. When you’re a grad student, having the ability to “do you” is more difficult when you have roommates as you have to worry about inconveniencing and disturbing your roomies and juggling your crazy schedule.

All in all, living with roommates — as an undergrad or graduate student — comes with its benefits and challenges. The important thing is to make sure your living situation is the best one for you and solve any issues right away so you don’t really have to worry about your home life while juggling your graduate studies.

Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

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