Move in is so exciting! You say goodbye to your parents, you hang up the posters and photos that broadcast your personality to everyone who peeks into your room, you decide which snacks to share and which ones to hide in a corner and only eat when your roommate isn't home. But even more fun is getting to know all the people you'll be living and bonding with over the next nine months. Here's 8 types of people that you'll definitely meet.
1. The Super-nice Sorority Girl
She was suuuuuuper sweet during orientation and you got to know her a little during the first few weeks of classes too. She was really nice and you enjoyed talking to her, but as soon as rush week hit, BAM—you only saw mysterious glimpses of her. A white sundress disappearing around the corner. A figure, laden with stuffed animals and sleeping bags, masked by the elevator doors. A drunken giggle late at night—was it real? Or did you imagine it? If it weren’t for the sparkly Greek letters on her door, you’d be wondering whether or not she still lives in the hall.
2. The Cool RA
If you end up on the cool RA’s floor, you are one of the lucky ones. About halfway through first semester, everyone figures out that this is the RA who’ll unlock your door without taking a tally; who bakes cinnamon rolls for all the hungover kids Sunday morning; who catches a kid with alcohol and says “hey, be more subtle” instead of giving them a strike; who puts on a Chewbacca onesie to watch a Star Warsmarathon in the basement. This RA is almost always the residents’ favorite, and manages to do the bare minimum of their job without getting themselves or anyone else in trouble.
3. The Vape Guy
You’re always kind of worried when this guy stands under a fire alarm because he’s usually encased in a cloud of vape smoke. He assures you, talking through a scraggly beard with some food still caught in it, that it’s just steam, not smoke, and it’s toooootally legal and toooootally allowed in the dorms. After all, he knows his rights. He’s ripped from going to the gym seven days a week and catcalling women on his way out, and instead of an on-campus job, he applied to the vape shop five miles from campus even though he doesn’t have a car. Once, a girl tried to flirt with him by saying “is that a vape pen in your gym shorts or are you just happy to see me?” and it was actually a vape pen.
4. The Couple
Technically this counts as two people, but they’re a package deal, so for the purposes of this listicle I’m counting them as one. These two met during orientation and may have started dating immediately, or may have taken their time to get to know each other. Either way, they’re now inseparable. The whole dorm gets to live vicariously through their relationship. Every fight in the common room. Every night they spend trying to be quiet (but still managing to slam the headboard against the wall for thirty minutes straight). The dorm loves them, though—watching them nuzzle during an RA program or give each other back rubs during finals can make you believe that dormcest can actually work.
5. The Mean RA
If you live on the mean RA’s floor, you better be on your best behavior. They are on the other side of the spectrum from the Cool RA—if they see you stumbling down the hall on a Friday night, they will stand listening outside your door for twenty minutes until they can deliver that “Resident Advisor, please open the door” Knock of Doom. Then they’ll give you a strike (or two, if you’re particularly on their bad side). This RA isn’t necessarily a bad person—they’ll sing Disney songs and bake cupcakes just like the Cool RA—but they’re very strict about the rules and take their job very seriously. They see themselves as more of a disciplinarian, the Lawful Good in a sea of Chaotic Neutrals. This, though, earns them a bad reputation among freshman who just don’t want to get in trouble.
6. The Social Media Mogul
It seems like literally every person on campus follows this person on Instagram, Twitter, Vine, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, Foursquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, Google+, or some combination of these. You’re not really sure what they got so popular for—they don’t particularly stand out from anyone else in the dorm aside from the fact that they’re constantly posting in the dorm’s Facebook group about stuff that no one but their small, elite group of friends cares about. They’re likely to start drama with anyone and everyone, but never in person—they wage their war completely on social media. The only way to defend yourself from the wrath of this Mogul is to delete your online presence completely and use carrier pigeons as your primary source of communication.
7. The Local
They may live in the same city, or they may live an hour away, but this person knows the area. They go home the most out of anyone in the dorm, and though they may not have a car on campus, their parents can drop it off at school anytime. Since they tend to spend Friday through Sunday at home, they always have unused meal punches at the end of the week and always have a mini fridge full of leftover food and snacks. The coolest thing about a local is that they can be your unofficial tour guide to your town—did you know there was a sunflower farm twenty minutes away? Did you know the best haunted house in the state is in the next town over? The local knew. The local knows all.
8. The Dueling Roommates
DRAMA!!! DRAMA!!! DRAMA!!! These two were probably best friends in high school, but living together was the literal worst option for them. For some reason, neither of them moves out or switches rooms—every fight they have is reconciled with a tearful hug and some ice cream from the campus convenience store. Between makeups, though, these two fight like T’challa and Bucky Barnes. The whole dorm bears witness to their screaming matches, then has to choose which one to comfort when one of them inevitably stomps down to the common room and screams into the couch. Sometimes their drama is justified—like one of them tears pictures off her roommate’s wall and steals her clothes—and sometimes it’s just another pointless fight about who spilled Rumchata on the carpet. Either way, these two are a 24/7 episode of Real Housewives—cancel your cable subscription now!
Freshman dorms are a great experience, and they'll be full of interesting people that fit none of these stereotypes. Even the people who do fit these stereotypes can be great friends and ever better stories to write home about. Until you get to know those people though, consider this listicle your own personal bingo chart as you navigate your first year of mass housing!