How to Survive Roommates as a Grad Student:
As a grad student, we have different uses for the apartment than when we were undergrads. You might be living with full time working roommates or even undergraduates, but regardless, there are some tricks of the trade to help you survive as a grad student. After 7 years of living with roommates, here are the tricks of the trade to have a peaceful and communal living situation.
- Set some ground rules.
This sounds silly. As a twenty something year old, we figure that by now, people should know how to be somewhat of an adult. But everyone is different. They don’t know you and you don’t know them, so the best way to ensure that you’re all on the same page is to set the ground rules from the get go. This has been an important step to figuring out how certain people function i.e. the morning person or the night owl and helping you figure out what is the best way to engage with this particular roommate.
- Communication is key!
None of us are mind readers. And if you are, you are the ultimate graduate student! I cannot stress how important communication is because if there is an issue or concern, how can you expect your roommates to know if you don’t voice it! Make it known in a very calm way. That is how you fix a problem. You let them know that xyz is bothering you. Passivity is not an effective way to live with roommates because it adds fuel to the fire instead of putting it out.
- Find your happy place.
By happy place, I mean study place. It could be in your room, in the kitchen, in the living room, or maybe it’s not even in your apartment. Regardless of where it is, find it! This is so important because there is a lot of heavy work as a grad student and you need to be able to calmly find your happy place to get into your groove. Don’t let whatever stressful roommate situation that is happening effect your ability to find a calm place for you to study.
- Learn from this experience.
Whether it is bad or good, learn from the experience. You have the opportunity to meet people. Everyone has a story so take this moment to learn something new. You never know if their perspective on a subject will help you with that paper you’re writing or that topic you’re researching.