Living in a university hall sounds just like the dream — having your friends as neighbours, being away from your parents, and joining fun activities to make you feel like you’re living your youth to the fullest. But hall life isn’t always rainbows and unicorns — sometimes, there may be toxic orientation programmes, or even having to live with a ratchet roommate.
We asked 7 university students to share with us their worst hall roomie horror stories. From never doing laundry in hall to letting their alarm ring over and over, these experiences might make you think twice about becoming besties with your roommate.
Some names have been altered to protect the identities of our interviewees.
Image courtesy of Denise
“I stayed in a university hall for all 4 years before I graduated. I always wanted to stay in a double room, with hopes of meeting a friend for life as a roomie.
I didn’t know my roommate before moving in as a freshie. My first impression was that she was quite shy, and I stayed with her for 6 months because she was an exchange student from Korea.
She wasn’t very participative in hall activities, so I kept to my own friends from hall rather than interacting with her. But she had weird habits like leaving drinks overnight or over a few days, and throwing her things such as her textbooks and clothes all over the room floor.
Even though it was mostly on her side of the room, I had to cross from her side to get to mine, which was a hassle. Other than our room looking like a complete mess all the time, we had an amicable acquaintance-ship so I think there was no conflict — just my generic annoyance towards the mess.
There was no closure. She just packed up and moved out at the end of her exchange, and that was that. I think I mostly regret not being a better host as I could have brought her around.”
Advice for freshies who are moving in with a new roommate: “Have an open mind and heart! In Year 2, I got a random roommate again and we developed a unique friendship through drinking and staying up late to talk.”
— Denise, 24
Image courtesy of Joseph
“I stayed in hall for 4 years because it was convenient and it was also an avenue for me to make new friends. I wanted to stay in a single room, but my hall ran out of vacancies for that so I had to play roomie roulette for a double room.
When I first met my roommate, I thought he was just a studious guy and could tell he wasn’t local. Within the first week, he began to do some weird stuff, such as being messy and eating instant noodles in the middle of the night while I was asleep.
The smell of noodles filled the entire room and it was noisy too. He would scrape the bottom of the metal pot with his spoon, which woke me up on most nights. He wouldn’t even wash the pot until the next day either.
The trigger point was during one long weekend when he left in a hurry to visit some relatives. The room was in an absolute mess once again. I was pretty pissed off, then I saw his dirty underwear on the table and that was the last straw.
In the end, I complained to the hall office and they offered to move me to another room. I never saw him again since the day I moved out.”
Advice for freshies who are moving in with a new roommate: “Identify your roomie first before entering hall. I did manage to randomly room with a really nice guy in the end, and he ended up being the best roomie I’ve ever had.”
— Joseph, 26
Source
“I got to know my roomie in my second year of university through random allocation. When I first met her, she was quite introverted and shy. I found out that she was in the same course as me, so naturally, we clicked well with common topics to talk about.
We ended up staying together for half a year in Year 2, then roomed together again in Year 4. Our living habits didn’t clash and we got along very well, being respectful of each other’s boundaries.
We also attend the same church, but things started to change in Year 4. I got together with my same-sex partner, and because we were in church, we chose to stay in the closet and only let a few people know about us.
One time, I went out on a date with my partner and someone snapped a photo of us and uploaded it to social media. My roomie’s friend spotted it and forwarded it to her. My roomie did not ask me about it, and instead went to show our mutual friend.
She then asked her friend to take photos of my partner and I whenever she saw us in public. With the photos she had, she outed me to our mutual friends and our church members without my consent.
I still lived with her until the end. We barely talked then, and I completely cut off contact right after graduation. Honestly, I have no regrets. Living in hall was still fun and I got a lot of freedom from being away from my parents.”
Advice for freshies who are moving in with a new roommate: “If your roommate is your friend, it’s important to draw the right boundaries and convey certain expectations. Don’t assume that you will understand each other because you are already friends.”
— Sophia, 27
Image courtesy of Hui Jia
“I lived in hall for 2 years for convenience as my home is really far from campus. I initially wanted a single room but stayed in a double room without knowing my roommate prior. When I first checked in, she was not in. However, she left her socks on my chair, so it wasn’t an ideal first impression.
When she came back in the evening, she told me to put my slippers inside the cabinet. While I was confused since I needed my slippers to go out and use the restroom, I still did it anyway. But I realised she wore her slippers in the room and would remove them to walk to the toilet barefooted — it was really weird.
I went out at night and came back to find her sleeping, but the fan was switched off. I thought that perhaps she was too tired and fell asleep without the fan on, so I switched it on before I went to bed. To my horror, I woke up covered in sweat. She switched off the fan in the middle of the night.
Even after speaking to her, she refused to compromise. We stayed together for barely a week and I decided that our habits were too different, so I requested to change a room and moved out.”
Advice for freshies who are moving in with a new roommate: “It can be very hard to determine if your living habits will match with others. Try to accommodate one another, but if it really can’t be helped, just request to change a room.”
— Hui Jia, 28
Also read:
Source
“Apart from my freshman year, I knew all my roommates via hall activities or outside work. I changed roommates almost every year, but my third roommate was someone I worked with during my summer vacation.
My roommate almost never does her laundry in hall. There was a time where we stayed over the weekend to get some studying done. She packed a month’s worth of clothes to bring to hall and I was so shocked at the amount. After bathing, she would fold her used clothes back onto the shelf to bring home for her mum to wash.
I asked her why she doesn’t just wash her clothes in hall. She told me that she doesn’t know how to, and would rather give her mum to wash. Yes, inclusive of her underwear.
I think the final straw was that she moved out earlier than me and asked if she could use my vacuum to clean up. She used it and left the vacuum haphazardly on the floor and not placed back to its original spot. Needless to say, we definitely did not remain in contact after that.”
Advice for freshies who are moving in with a new roommate: “Be honest with each other and practice active communication. No hall life is the same, so don’t place high expectations of an ideal experience.”
— Amanda, 27
“I’ve graduated from university but I stayed in hall for 2 years. My dorm consisted of 4 people including myself, and my roommates were all my poly classmates.
One of our roommates would stand behind us and look at our laptop screens without permission, which felt like an invasion of my privacy. She would also spread rumours about me to our mutual friends, which I only found out after they shared their untrue impressions of me.
One time, my parents treated our group of friends to a meal and she told our mutual friends that I tend to over order, followed by saying it’s only because I’m “rich” enough to be able to do so.
I wanted to ignore these at first, so I minimised the time I spent in the same room as her except for sleeping. But the long-term lack of privacy and having to feel that I have to mind my actions around her or else it’ll be misunderstood resulted in the tipping point.
I decided that I had enough and went to search for rental apartments near my school. I just moved out without her knowing. Till today, we are not friends. I wish that I had spoken up earlier so that I wouldn’t have to make my university life so difficult.”
Advice for freshies who are moving in with a new roommate: “It’s definitely a bonus if you have a roommate that you can get along with and respect each other’s boundaries. But always speak up and have a healthy communication system.”
— Isabel, 28
Source
“I went on a 4-month long overseas exchange program a few years back. As rental was expensive, the normal practice was for multiple students to share an apartment. In my case, we had 2 people per room.
I knew my roommate prior as we worked in the same project group before. We coordinated relatively well together and got along fine in classes, which is why I chose to room together with him in the first place. Obviously a mistake in hindsight.
There were many small things that added up to make the experience so grating. In the early morning, he would set his alarm for 1 hour before he had to get up and let it ring over and over, snoozing it every 5 minutes, yet refusing to get up.
He would complain about the place being dirty or nitpick about some mess while being relatively messy himself. He basically always did his own thing and didn’t want to share in any communal activities like groceries and buying supplies.
Initially, I confronted him, but nothing changed. After that, we just became cold to each other to the point of not even acknowledging when the other person was staying in or going out. I ended up spending most of my free time with another group of students in their apartment. Eventually, I used my original room solely for sleeping and showering.”
Advice for freshies who are moving in with a new roommate: “No matter how nice or good working with someone might be, you don’t really know them until you live with them for some time.”
— Jonathan, early 30s
While it’s true that living in a university hall is more than just dealing with terrible roommates, we can’t deny that they affect a huge part of the hall experience. These university hall roomie horror stories have shown us that living together with a friend isn’t as easy as we think, and at the end of the day, communication is key.
Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Cover: Source, image courtesy of interviewee
Also read:
No, I did not find the love of my life here.
If you're going to watch out of FOMO.
Better hair days ahead.
Dark circles who?