Roommates in b-school

Aw, I like the BarneyStinson account's posts. He/she plays the character pretty well, IMO.

To quickly answer the OP, though, most people that I personally know who've succeeded in finding roommates have done it through craigslist, sometimes even randomly connecting with fellow b-school applicants.

i don't think i want to go that route, i'd prefer someone in school who may understand my situation a bit better (i.e. during recruiting i don't want to come home to a house full of people watching the oscars while spilling salsa on the couch lol)

Most people I know met either at admit weekend, admit events in respective cities, or perhaps on google groups admitted student forum. I don't know anyone that has a random roommate from Craigslist. Although I do know some people with roommates from other grad schools they found through university postings/boards.

Same here at Kellogg, most people that I know who have roommates met during DAK or other Kellogg events prior to moving in together. A lot of people use Kellogg's admitted student discussion boards and Facebook group to find someone to share a hotel room with during DAK, and many times those people end up as roommates once school starts.

I think there're pros and cons to having roommates in b-school. Some of the upsides include better networking and cheaper rent. On the other hand, you also get the hassles associated with living with others and you'll not really get any "down-time," which may be important to some people, like me. Personally, I'm planning to live by myself, after having lived with roommates for the past 5 years. As far as networking goes, I really don't think that you'll lose out by that much by living by yourself, b/c my understanding is that you hardly spend any time at the apartment/house, anyway, since you're going to be attending events, hanging out with people, and just networking. You'll be so busy that your abode will just be a place to crash at night. Also, I'm the kind of person who needs his alone/down-time. I may decide to get roommates during my second year, though, depending on how the first year goes.

how much downtime do you really need, though? im assuming the OP meant a roommate situation where each one gets a separate bedroom, not freshman year of college-type where you have bunk beds.

i wound up getting roommates that i met during admit weekend. we're not saving a huge chunk of change, but we were able to get a much larger apartment than we could have alone. also, we each have separate rooms, so if you dont want to be bothered, you can always close the door.

So having lived with roommates for a good portion of undergrad, there can be a lot of inconveniences of a roommate (may be different from b-school... I sure hope so).

For instance, I'm the type of person who really respects other people's property, and I demand respect for my property as well. Unfortunately, sometimes my stuff gets misplaced, misused, or just taken, which can take a mental toll on you too.

We both have separate rooms, but if he's listening to music really loud or has people over playing video games at 12 am at night, there's not much that my poor wooden door can do.

The upside? I was able to save probably $200 dollars in rent.

The most important thing, which may be obvious, is to be completely honest with yourself and how flexible you are with your style of life.