High Tech Roommate Pairing Goes Way Beyond “Smoking” or “Non-Smoking”
“Education’s about putting people in uncomfortable situations so they start to learn about themselves,” says NYU housing head Thomas Ellett. “[Programs like RoomSync] are a good customer-service tool, but there’s a big difference between customer service and education.”
This Rolling Stone piece about RoomSync, a Facebook app that allows incoming freshman to pick their own roommates by answering a complicated questionnaire (I mean, if it works so unfailingly well for OKCupid, why not?), is interesting. But what’s really interesting is the fact that Stanford’s newbies are “hand-paired by two upperclassmen.” The power! The responsibility! The hand-pairing!