How to Be a Good Roommate

You might say Wesley Yeo is an expert on roommates. After all, he had 13 in his four years at Stanford. Yeo, ’02, admits that having had several “random” roommates was not all bad. Rooming with good buddies “is the cause of many friendship fatalities,” he says. “Living with a random you become friends with is the way to go.” In his own words, here are Yeo’s other tips:

• Understand your role. Were you in the room first, or are you the one planning to settle down in territory that’s already been staked out? If you’re the invader, be sensitive to the native and adopt his good habits. If you’re the existing occupant, be friendly.

• Play the Stanford name game and identify mutual acquaintances.

• Learn a foreign language. It’s awkward trash-talking with your parents about your roommate if he understands what you’re saying.

• Don’t gather outside intelligence on your roommate. Instead of relying on unreliable secondary sources, let your roommate dig his own grave.

• Falling in love with your roommate can lead to awkward situations. Just kidding; I wanted to make sure you were still awake.

• Try pillow talk. I’ve found that the best roommates are the ones you chat with right before you doze off. Plus it’ll help both of you fall asleep if you’re uninteresting people.

• Use headphones! Not only is it polite, it’s also a great way to ignore a particularly annoying roommate. The music doesn’t even have to be turned on for this to work.

• Mentally draw a line splitting your room in half. Make sure you never defile your roommate’s half of the room. Protect your own turf by promptly serving notice if something is bothering you.