Let’s face it. All of us come into college with the perfect roommate situation in our minds. You’re going to have so much in common and totally get along, share your deepest darkest secrets with one another and become best friends for life. She (or he) will probably end up being your best man or maid of honor.
The truth is you’ll probably mostly get along, will sort of have some stuff in common but mainly just tolerate living six feet from each other for a whole school year.
In Morrill, not only do you get to test your compatibility with one other person…but nine other people. These are the people you will see every day for the duration of the school year, so it’s in everyone’s best interest if you put your differences aside and just get along.
Does that actually happen? Usually not.
There was plenty of suitemate drama my freshman year. People got mad at each other, somebody tracked mud in the showers, boyfriends basically lived with them. There’s all sorts of issues that come with living with so many people of the same gender.
The best thing you can do is to make sure that you get enough time to yourself. No matter how much you like these other people, you cannot spend every waking minute around them or you will go insane.
You can always request roommates as well. You’re less likely to have this work as a freshman, but it’s possible.
Most cases, however, are like mine. I lived with totally random people that a computer sorted into rooms based on what I said about myself on my housing form (though I highly doubt that actually makes much difference).
(Back in the old days an unfortunate man or woman had to sort all these out by hand and unsurprisingly there were a lot of “Jackie and Diane’s” living together. Hey, you gotta do something to make your job interesting.)
One day this summer you will get the email telling you your roommates names and it will be the most exhilarating and nerve wracking email. Because now you know their names….but you don’t know anything about them.
So you have to find out! In these times of social media, you will creep on your roommates before you meet them and they will creep on you. So maybe keep that in mind when you’re tweeting and posting….and don’t make judgements before you meet them. Just because their favorite band is Nickelback doesn’t make them a terrible person.
Anyway, there’s always a chance you might end up rooming with your best friend and there’s a chance you might be polar opposites, but the key is to find similarities and work on the differences. If you do that, there’s a good chance you’ll survive living in Morrill Tower.
Surviving Morrill Tower 
Hey! I’m a possible incoming freshman to THE ohio state, and the scholars program i chose resides here in ol’ Morrill. I’m kinda nervous though, because I’ve got trouble falling asleep and being with 9 extra people seems kinda, A LOT, to me. Also, I think it’ll just be weird with people of different living styles. Will it be better than I think? And how does community baths work? ahh im nervous. Thanks in advance!
Hi larnc5! Thanks for the questions! I was a part of the MMC Scholars program during my freshman year and was pretty nervous coming to live in Morrill Tower because of the stories I had heard, but for me, the experience was much better than expected! I lived in a double, which made it easier to fall asleep, plus my roommate was pretty quiet, so your experience is honestly very much connected to whether you end up in a double or quad and if your roommate is a naturally quiet person. The max number of people that will be in the room you sleep in though is four, and the walls are pretty thick, so you can’t really hear through them unless you’re trying to (so hopefully that provides you with some comfort!). Also, the different living styles can become an issue if people bring them into the common living space, but, again, that’s pretty dependent on the people you end up living with. The University does try to match you with similar personality types, so take that into account as well! Also, as far as community baths, I’m about to put up a new post about the baths (with pictures I’ve had on my phone for three years and never did anything with haha) to kind of complete the info about the towers that I provide on this site. So if after that is posted, if you still have questions, feel free to reach out! I know none of that is super specific, but I hesitate to say you will or won’t enjoy the experience of living in the towers because it varies so widely. However, in my experience, even having bad roommates (of which I had a few) doesn’t totally ruin the experience of living in the towers! I found a church community called H2O that was really helpful for me in finding a community that wasn’t just my suitemates, so if you’re looking for something like that, i’d encourage you to check it out! Please feel free to reach out if you have any other questions or concerns! – Hope to see you on campus in the fall!