By Rebecca Cosgrove, Liberal Studies major, Education concentration

One of the biggest transitions I and many other students have to deal with when starting college, is living in a dorm with a roommate. This is the first time many people have to truly experience living with someone else. To prevent any conflict that might happen between them and yourself, it is important to have an agreement with them so that you have a template to refer back to when a problem does arise. Here are a few questions that might help you get started:

1) Get the basics out of the way. Do you like studying with music? Do you fall asleep with the television on, or music playing in the background? What type of music do you listen to? What time do you usually go to bed?

2) Are friends allowed over?

3) How long are guests allowed to stay?

4) Are boyfriends and girlfriends allowed over? Are they allowed to spend the night?

5) Set up a grocery list and a schedule that requires everyone to take turns getting the essential toilet paper

If the roommate agreement fails, here are some Do’s and Don’ts that you might want to consider:

1) Talk to your roommate, preferably in person and alone. Don’t send a text message or ‘sub-tweet’ them. This conversation needs to be done face to face and be done courteously and sincerely.

2) Don’t badmouth your roommate, spread egregious remarks about them, or roommate-shame them on Instagram as this would aggravate the situation.

3) Do go to your RA if the situation worsens after you talk to your roommate. It is their job to help with situations like these.

Living with someone new for the first time is tough and like everything else, there will be bumps in the road and hopefully, a Roommate Agreement will help avert some of them!