Roommate Matching FAQS
When it comes to UGA college housing, who you live with plays as big of a role as where you live. At Athens Ridge, we offer furnished townhouse-style apartments with four- and five-bedrooms. To help you find the right people to live with, we provide roommate-matching services. Here, we explain the ins and outs of this service and why it could work for you.
How Does Roommate Matching Work?
Roommate-matching is a free service from Athens Ridge that takes the work and uncertainty out of finding roommates for off campus UGA student housing in Athens. We provide a short questionnaire that asks about lifestyle preferences, finds other students who gave similar answers, and pairs compatible matches — it’s as simple as that.
HOW ARE THE MATCHES DETERMINED?
Roommates are paired based on whether they give similar answers on the questionnaire. Admittedly, human nature is not an exact science — seldom do students share all the same preferences, but applicants with high numbers of matching responses are generally compatible. Our staff has years of experience working in UGA student housing, and they’re able to use intuition to make judgment calls to pair residents when necessary.
HOW MUCH DOES THIS SERVICE COST?
For-profit roommate-matching services are available online, but we offer the service at no cost to our residents. We do this for a few reasons. First, roommates who get along are more likely to be content and successful during college. Second, incoming freshmen, transfer students, and others who may not know many people in Athens, GA, can use the service to make friends. Third, since we rent by-the-room, we can more easily find the right spaces for individuals if we know their preferences up front.
WHAT IF I HAVE ROOMMATES PICKED OUT?
If you already know the people you’d like to live with, that’s great. Each person in the group merely needs to submit an application for the same apartment. It’s also helpful to inform us in advance that you’d like to room together. That said, if your group doesn’t have enough people to occupy all the rooms, roommate-matching can help ensure whoever is added to your clique is a good fit.
WHAT IF MY MATCH ISN’T RIGHT FOR ME?
Despite being a good match on paper, there’s always a possibility two roommates won’t get along in person. We address these instances on a case-by-case basis. If you come to us with a genuine complaint, we’ll always listen considerately and look into offering a thoughtful solution. Sometimes, we can solve roommate issues by shuffling around residents — but if that’s not an option, we’ll try to help the students work out their differences.
HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?
To start, let us know that you’d like to use roommate-matching when you fill out an application. We’ll make sure to provide you with a questionnaire — either from our leasing office or by email — to fill out and return to us. As soon as we have the questionnaire results, we’ll let you know who your new roommates are; so you all can begin communicating with other renters and plan a move-in date.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO FIND A ROOMMATE?
Residents learn of their roommate matches not long before their move-in day and prior the start of the fall semester. The reason we delay the process, instead of matching applicants as soon as their forms are submitted, is to ensure the pool of applicants is large enough to make the best matches possible. You’ll learn of your roommates far enough in advance to have time to coordinate move-in plans.
WHY SHOULDN’T I FIND ROOMMATES ONLINE?
Finding roommates online is not without risks. On the one hand, demand is high for off campus apartments near UGA. By posting an ad on Craigslist or a roommate-wanted board, you shouldn’t have difficulty getting responses. On the other hand, navigating through those responses and identifying compatible matches is tricky to do without an organized process. Our roommate-matching service eliminates guesswork — the same can’t be said for matches made online.
CAN I GET STARTED FINDING ROOMMATES TODAY?
Absolutely! Athens Ridge is always accepting new applicants for our student apartments — applying early increases the chance we’ll have available space for your preferred move-in timeframe. While filling out an application, be sure to request our roommate-matching service. Once we receive your completed application and request for roommate matching, we’ll add your completed questionnaire to the applicant pool and inform you once we’ve determined your roommates! Finding college roommates is as easy as filling out a form. Contact us to get started today.