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

Please know that if issues arise with your roommate your residence hall’s Resident Assistant is there to help. Our Resident Assistants are an active presence in the halls and often support students living away from home or with a roommate for the first time. You can also reach out to your building's Residential Learning Coordinator (RLC) and let them know what you are struggling with. They can help you talk through how to address the issue or provide support. It is always best to address the issue rather than ignore it and most of the time when an issue is made known to each other a common ground can be agreed upon to resolve it.

We believe that a structured opportunity to get acquainted and set some ground rules for your room will enhance the development of your roommate relationship and provide you with a more positive experience while living on campus.

Soon after move-in, each roommate set will be asked to complete a Roommate Agreement together. Use this agreement as a guide to help you get acquainted or get re-acquainted with your roommate.

A discussion of your intended living situation should include the division of housekeeping tasks, sleep and study patterns, methods of conflict resolution, visitation, and use of your room and the resources located within it.

Each roommate should fill out the agreement of what they would do and then together have a conversation of what as a roommate set you agree upon for those areas.

Following your discussion with your roommate you will complete a signed roommate agreement which must be turned in to your Resident Assistant (RA).

 

Each student living on campus at Ball State University has the right to:

  • Sleep during the night undisturbed by his or her roommate or their guest(s).
  • Read and study free from undue interference in his or her room.
  • Free access to his or her room without pressure from his or her roommate.
  • Be free from fear of intimidation, physical, and/or emotional harm.
  • Live in a clean room.
  • Expect that each roommate will respect his or her belongings.
  • Host guests if both roommates agree to allow guests in the room if it is also permitted within the hall.
  • Expect reasonable cooperation in the use of room facilities and a commitment to honor the agreed-upon room agreement.
  • Redress of grievances when they arise.

 

 

Students are able to request room and/or roommate changes if needed. These requests can be made directly on the online housing portal by completing a form. 

Please be aware that room changes are dependent on available space and are at the discretion of the building's Residential Learning Coordinator (RLC). Before approving a change, RLCs will work with students to help them understand the situation and make a sincere effort to work out the problem.

Students are not able to move from their assigned room into another residence hall without prior permission of the RLC involved. Room or roommate changes are not made on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, or physical ability.

How to Request a Room Change
  1. Log-in to the online housing portal with your BSU ID and password.
  2. Select the three horizontal lines located on the far left of the top red navigation bar.
  3. From the drop down, select "Forms".
  4. Once on the forms page, select "Residence Hall Forms" from the "forms category" drop down.
  5. On the Residence Halls Forms Page, choose "Request a Room Change" from the drop down.
  6. Complete the required information on the form. Once submitted, the form will be sent to the proper person in Housing and Residence Life to review.
  7. Please be patient, and a person from our office will contact you directly once your form has been reviewed.

Questions?

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

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