Before I started school here at Villanova, I was so scared of the idea of living with another person. I had always had my own room and had never really been in such close quarters with someone. Granted, I had shared a room with my brothers growing up but that was before I needed half as much space as I do now. So you can imagine my fear as I walked into my dorm room on move-in day with my storage bins and millions of belongings.

After being here (officially!) for a whole month, I've learned that living with a roommate is actually not as bad as people may think. I mean, as long as you get a person who is on the same page as you. Just know that you honestly probably won't even see your roommate that much once classes start. You'll both be running in and out of the room trying to get to class and maybe you'll cross paths while walking across campus.

In terms of cleanliness, it's important to communicate about how you want the room to be upheld. If your roommate doesn't want people hanging out in your room all night, then you have to respect that; there are, of course, two of you. You'll hear horror stories of roommates gone wild and freaking out over the fact that the lights aren't off by 10 PM, or the people aren't out by 9, but when you think about it, that doesn't happen very often.

It's important to appreciate your roommate if you're lucky enough to get one that is reasonable, cool, and easy to talk to. You don't have to be best friends with your roommate, but you do have to be friendly with him or her. And maybe that's hard for some people but I guarantee that your year will be a lot less awkward if you make an effort to talk to your roommate on a regular basis.

I've also learned that a good roommate is reliable. On multiple occasions I have thrown my laundry into the dryer and completely forgotten about it. By the time I reached class, it was too late to go back to get it. So, obviously, I sent a frantic text to my roommate. She happily went downstairs to get my laundry out of the dryer and brought it back up to our room.

In the end, it's mostly about luck. Although those roommate questionnaires help a lot, they will not always be completely on top of pairing you with your perfect roommate. If you have a well-matched roommate, though, and as long as you communicate and stay friendly, your year should be pretty easy.