Roomates share room, name
Moving into an area of just 196 square feet, roommates quickly learn how to live together. Share space. Share time. Share food. Share clothes. But share the same name?
Walking down the hallways in the residence halls, it is not uncommon to see two signs on a door with identical names.
“It’s absolutely by chance,” said Eddie Hull, director of Residence Life and Student Housing. “The computer doesn’t factor name in deciding roommates.”
Nevertheless, year after year, there are several first-years who arrive at SMU to find that their randomly-selected roommates happen to have their name.
“What’s remarkable is it shows the series of names that were very popular at the time students were born,” Hull said. “I can see how it can make for some very confusing situations, though.”
According to Residence Life & Student Housing, when a student completes his housing application, it is submitted into the computer. Based on the student’s response to the roommate-selection survey he fills out with his hall preference form, he is matched randomly with another student.
While Katie Wiles’ housing application asked only about her preference for messy or clean room, smoking or non-smoking roommate and gender, when she arrived on the Hilltop she found she and her roommate had a lot more than that in common.
“I didn’t know my roommate at all before I moved into my dorm,” said Wiles, a first year living in Cockrell-McIntosh. “My real name is Katherine, but I go by Katie, and it just ended up that my roommate is named Katie as well.”
The only problem for most like-named roommates has been answering the phone and not knowing which roommate the caller is asking for.
“My mom called one day to speak to me but ended up talking to the other Katie for a little bit before she realized she wasn’t talking to her daughter,” said Wiles.
Some students chose to live with a roommate of the same name.
“We met at AARO and got along well and were both really nervous to end up with a bad roommate,” said Megan Williamson, a first-year living in Boaz. “The second we decided to room together we realized how complicated it would be to differentiate between the two of us. But now people on our floor call me Meg and her Megan, so it has worked out well.”
Emily and her roommate of the same name were best friends in high school and decided to attend SMU and live together.
“Every time we meet people they get a little confused, but it’s actually pretty easy to remember,” said Smith, a first year living in McElvaney.
However, for most roommates with the same name, the potential for confusion is less difficult to work around than expected.
“It’s not so bad at all,” said Wiles. “It’s really easy to just introduce ourselves as the Katies. Sometimes our suitemates say they’ll answer to that name too, so most of the time people find it humorous.”
