For students at UT Austin, the housing search process can be extremely stressful, especially if it’s your first time navigating student living in Austin. It can be especially intimidating to learn that some students secure housing well over a year in advance of move-in.
Read Next: When to Start Looking for Housing as a UT Austin Student
One aspect of the student housing search that many find stressful is deciding how many roommates you will have and who they will be.
There are plenty of reasons you might have difficulties finding roommates. You might be an incoming freshman or transfer student ready to make new friends. Maybe you don’t have enough roommates in mind to fill all of the bed spaces in the floor plan you really love. You might even just be ready to switch up your living situation.
At the Rambler leasing office, we receive many questions about what to do if you don’t already have roommates in mind. Luckily, at Rambler, like many apartment complexes in West Campus, we offer roommate matching services to pair you with roommates.
To help you get acquainted with the matching process, we’ve created this guide answering common questions from students and guarantors, including:
- What is roommate matching?
- Does Rambler offer roommate matching?
- How am I assigned a roommate?
- What categories do you prioritize on roommate match?
- When will I find out who my roommates are?
Rambler is proud to offer roommate matching services to pair you with your future roommates.
A Student’s Guide to Roommate Matching at the University of Texas at Austin
What is roommate matching?
Roommate matching is a service where you are assigned roommates by the property, rather than signing for a full unit with a group of predetermined roommates.
Roommate matching allows you to sign an individual lease for your particular bed space in the unit type of your choice without having to worry about finding roommates to fill the other bedrooms. For example, if you sign a lease in a three-bedroom apartment, you aren’t required to search for two more roommates. The apartment will be responsible for leasing those rooms and assigning your roommates. Plus, you won’t be financially responsible for the extra rooms if the apartment management doesn’t fill those spaces.
Plenty of students at UT Austin take advantage of roommate matching because it’s the simplest choice for their situation. No matter the reason, roommate matching can be a helpful service that eases some of the pressure on students searching for housing.
Roommate matching is a popular option to help UT Austin students connect with new people.
Does Rambler offer roommate matching?
Yes! Rambler offers roommate matching.
Rambler offers individual leases, so we are able to offer students a spot in any available bed space that they qualify for. To learn more about which floor plans are currently available for roommate matching, contact the Rambler leasing staff!
Read Next: 5 Benefits of Signing an Individual Lease in West Campus
How am I assigned a roommate?
At many college apartments or dorms, random roommate assignments are truly “random.” However, at some apartments, like Rambler, roommates are assigned based on a combination of lifestyle compatibility and floor plan availability.
Most student apartment applications include a section of “lifestyle questions” that ask about things like your cleanliness and sleeping schedule. This portion of your application is then used to match you with roommates.
At Rambler, you’ll see these questions on your application, specifically for roommate matching purposes. It’s extremely important to be honest when filling this out so that our leasing staff can get a good feel for your personality and lifestyle.
Because Rambler’s roommate matching form is such a crucial part of our matching process, we even send it out a second time before move-in to ensure you’ve filled it out as accurately as possible. Remember, the more honest you are, the easier it is for us to make you a compatible match!
Rambler’s ultimate goal is to help you find the most compatible roommate match possible.
What categories do you prioritize on roommate match?
It depends. We do our best to find roommates who have the most in common, but it depends on the pool of potential roommates that we have available. The primary factors we look at are:
- Allergies
- Pets
- Cleanliness
- Classification
When will I find out who my roommates are?
Because the Rambler team is constantly receiving new roommate compatibility forms, we are also constantly adjusting our matchups of which future residents might make the best roommates.
Matches aren’t finalized until Rambler is fully leased. This way, we have all potential pairing options available and are able to match you with your most compatible roommate. For privacy reasons, we must wait to release roommate assignments and information until everything is 100% finalized. At the time of publication, we anticipate that roommate matching results will be released during the summer before move-in.
Finding out who your new roommates are is one of the most exciting parts of moving into a new apartment, and we understand that you’re eager to get to know them! The Rambler team is just as excited, so we will share your future roommates’ information with you as soon as we can.
We hope that this article helped you learn more about roommate matching at a student apartment and why it might be a good choice for you. If you have any more questions during your West Campus student housing search or about the matching process in particular, contact the Rambler leasing staff, who is always happy to help!
