For students planning to live off campus, it's time to pick roommates.

But the search for a suitable living mate can be frustrating for some students who don't have anyone to live with.

Some apartment shoppers discover they are unable to live with friends, they're transferring to University Park campus midway through the year or have friends who backed out of getting an apartment.

There is one easy solution to the problem: Students can sign up to be given random roommates.

Finding potential roommates

Looking for a potential roommate does not have to be a difficult process.

Jean Welling, staff assistant for the Office of Off-Campus Living, said although individual realtors ultimately assign students to rooms, the OCL does have a World Wide Web site (www.sa.psu.edu/ocl) for people looking for roommates.

"The Web site is free to advertise on," Welling said.

Students can look at the Web page and contact people with whom they are interested in living.

To avoid conflict, Welling recommends students fill out a roommate agreement form with the people who they chose to live with.

There are also other ways to find roommates and a place to live.

Kathie Nguyen (senior-marketing) was looking for roommates when she came up from a Commonwealth campus midway through the school year.

"I saw a flier at Penn State Delaware County that was looking for a sublet for one semester," Nguyen said.

However, the rent was so high that she was unsure whether or not to take it.

"I guess it was hard to sublet, so when I told them the rent was too high they agreed to meet me half-way," Nguyen said.

Some students said they picked out the apartment complex they wanted to live in and then searched for roommates.

"I just called the apartment building and asked if anyone needed a roommate, because I didn't know I was coming up here until the last minute. By that time it was too hard to plan on who I was going to live with," Eric Zarmanian (junior-hotel/restaurant management) said.

Other students said they planned to live with friends but something happened at the last minute.

"It was supposed to be four of us and we were all friends, but one had to stay back at the branch campus for another year," Josh Miles (junior-journalism) said.

Miles and his remaining friends asked to have a random roommate to keep the rent down.

"We were short one person so they hooked us up with one other guy," Miles said.

The pros and cons of random roommates

"It's the luck of the draw," Welling said. "I've had people who it works for and some it does not."

Some students do get lucky.

In Suzanne Weadon (senior-biology and secondary education) and Kate Genser's (junior-media studies) case, they couldn't have made a better decision. The women said living with random roommates helped them develop new friendships.

"It was a pretty easy transition because everybody in the apartment was random so we were all in the same boat," Genser said.

Both students said having random roommates helped them expand their circle of friends and interests.

"It's better because we all have different interests, but we all get along," Weadon said.

Sometimes having different interests can create problems too, but it is more beneficial than not, Weadon said.

"Some of (my roommates) I would never have become friends with if it wasn't for us getting put in the same apartment," she said.

Both women recommended living in a random roommate situation to other students who need extra names on their leases.

"I think people should always live with random roommates at least once," Genser said.

While both agree that there could be problems in a random roommate situation, they pointed out that many times there are even more problems if you live with friends.

Unfortunately, not every random roommate situation works out.

Paul VanDeBoe (junior-finance) said it's not a great situation but could be worse.

"At least it's nothing really serious, but there could be more conflict," VanDeBoe said.

VanDeBoe does not recommend living in a random roommate situation.

"It's a big risk. You could get someone that you really can't stand," he said.

What to do when things go wrong

If the situation does not work out, students are not completely helpless.

Students can go to the Office of Off-Campus Living where Welling can help them.

"Sometimes I refer them to the attorney for legal help or we can send them to conflict management," Welling said.

However, when the situation reaches the point that students need to be taken out of the living environment as soon as possible, she also tries to help.

"We can refer them to a list of people that are looking for roommates and they can sublet their place," Welling said.