One of the greatest benefits of living in the residence halls is the opportunity to live and work closely with a diverse group of people. The key to getting to know your roommate and getting along with them is communication; it’s difficult to get to know one another without talking to each other. We recommend reaching out to your future roommate to begin building a relationship – though it’s okay if you aren’t able to get in touch with one another.

Students who want to be roommates must mutually confirm the request in the housing application.

Roommate Search

On the Online Housing Portal, inside the housing application, students are able to search for other students to potentially become roommates!

There are three ways to search for a roommate:

  • By using a person's specific PIN number
  • By seeing others answers to profile questions
  • By seeing suggested students in their same field of study

In the housing application, students will be prompted to fill out their "roommate profile." The roommate profile asks specific questions pertaining to interests, living habits, preferences, and lifestyle. All students are prompted to fill this out when completing their housing application. Students will then be able to see how others answered the questions to their "roommate profile", including those who answered similarly to them. This will all be directly on the housing portal - the Office of Housing and Residence Life does not sending any communication regarding roommate matches to students. 

Students who choose to search for a roommate by the answered profile questions or field of study, they will be able to see a listing of other students who answered similarly to them. It will provide a match percentage, which is based on the way the "Roommate Profile" questions are answered. Students will be able to click on another student's profile, see their name, social media handles, and answers to their roommate profile questions. From there, they can decide if they want to contact the person to get to know them and pursue becoming roommates for the upcoming academic year or not. Students have the option on the housing portal to send the other person a message or they can reach out through the person's provided social media profiles.

Once a student decides who they want to room with, they will need to go through the roommate request process to confirm they will be rooming with one another. If a student decides to not find their own roommate, that's completely fine. However, it's important to know that every incoming first-year student will have a roommate unless they have been approved for a special housing accommodation.

There are several key steps to the roommate confirmation process. We highly encourage students to allot plenty of time to complete the request process as most of the process does involve data communication with our online Housing Portal. Going through the roommate request process earlier will guarantee that the two students will automatically be grouped together once it comes time to select their bed space in our residence halls.   

In order to secure a preferred roommate, both students must complete the following action items:   

  1. One student MUST request the other through the Online Housing Portal. 
    • Once on the online housing portal, revisit your housing contract in order to search for and/or request a roommate. 
  2. The student who receives the request must accept/decline the roommate request.
    • Once the request is submitted via the Housing Portal, an email notification will be sent to the requested roommate letting them know who is requesting them as a roommate. The student receiving the request will need to log-in to the online housing portal and accept (or deny) the roommate request and hit save and continue on the page.
  3. Once accepted, both students will be VERIFIED roommates. 
    • The student who made the initial request will then receive an email once the roommate pairing has been verified.

The steps below are how to request a roommate:   

  1. Log-in to the Online Housing Portal using your Ball State credentials.   

  2. Navigate to the top of the page and select “Residence Halls”.   

  3. Revisit your housing application and select “Apply.” Make sure to select the correct academic year that you plan to live in the halls.   

  4. Continue through until you get to the “Roommate” portion of the application. 

  5. You will then be able to search for and/or enter the PIN of the person you are wanting to request as your roommate.  

"I would have to say my favorite memory of living on campus happened while I was living in DeHority, or as many of us like to call it; DeHo. I spent most of the year without a roommate, but the second half of the semester a new roommate moved in. If I'm being honest, I was annoyed at first. I loved having my own
space but after getting to know my roommate, I loved just staying up until 2:00 a.m. doing homework together, making each other laugh, and just enjoying each other's company. DeHority gave me a great friend I still talk to till this day!"
- Maleyah Nowell, Park Hall Resident

Get to Know Your Roommate

To encourage engagement between you and your roommate, here are some helpful questions and topics to discuss together.

  • What are your interests/hobbies?
  • What major are you and what would you want to do ultimately with your career?
  • What kind of television shows, movies or games do you like?
  • What are your sleeping habits?
  • What kind of roommates do you want to be (acquaintances, close friends, respectful to each other but don’t need to be friends, etc.)?
  • What items do you plan on bringing (rugs, appliances, futons, etc.)? Do you want to share items?


  • What kind of music do you like?
  • What are your cleaning habits (really clean, mix of messy and clean, really messy)?
  • How do you feel about guests in the room (of the same and opposite gender, overnight guests, etc.)?
  • What day are you moving in? If one person is moving in earlier than the other, what should they do in setting up the room space (wait to arrange the room when both are there, separate it in half, arrange the room how you both would like, etc.)?

Additional Roommate Topics and Information

Questions?

If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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