College acceptance letters are being sent out to a countless amount of future students. Most students will breathe a sigh of relief knowing they will have somewhere to call home next year, but then the next wave of panic comes.

“Who will I live with next year?”

Will the future student leave their fate with their colleges random matching or will they search for hours on Facebook and Roomsurf trying to find the perfect roommate?

Roomsurf is a website that allows students to match other students from the same university. When creating an account participants fill out a survey that allows the website to match you to people with similar interests and living preferences.

After being accepted to Syracuse University, I did two things: I paid my tuition and housing down payments and then joined every Syracuse Facebook group and Roomsurf in order to find the best roommate possible. I thought about leaving my roomie fate in the hands of Syracuse, but I was worried I would get an anti-social, messy and shy girl.

I struggled for a long time looking for a roomie; I communicated via social media with countless girls and none seemed to match what I was looking for. Either they were too much of party animals, too messy, or wanted the room to be 81 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, I finally found one. I enjoyed everything about her from her closet to her hobbies and pastimes, plus she likes to sleep in the cold. We text and Snapchat daily, she also made us matching tailgate outfits–what’s not to love?

Unlike me, some might take the path I did not travel and do random assignment. Some universities like New York University, Bucknell, and Notre Dame do require students to participate in random housing to broaden their views on backgrounds and ethnicities.

“At first I was pretty nervous about the random rooming especially since most of my friends were finding great people on Facebook, but I talked to a few people from Notre Dame and in most cases they seemed to love the random rooming,” said Jill Schlais, senior.  “I’ve heard that random rooming takes the stress out of having to look or be best friends with your roommate and allows you to room with someone who you may never expect, leading you to spread out your social circle. I think either way you can like or dislike your roommate if you go random or not. I am  just a little nervous since I won’t know who [my roommate] is until late summer.”

Participating in random roommate selection does have its perks. There would be no need to surf Facebook for hours looking for the “perfect match” and there would be no guilt if you actually ended up hating your supposed “perfect” roommate. On the plus side, most colleges that require students to participate in random selection provide a survey they fill out so that your OCD doesn’t drive you insane if your roommate is a slob.

Whatever path you choose, your roommate could end up being your best friend or worst enemy.