Your MBA Roommate
“you will make decisions that can greatly impact how you interact with others in the community. Particularly when you are moving to a new city, as many MBA students do, you need an apartment and possibly a roommate…
… consider your roommate’s personality and how this could impact your social life and engagement in the MBA community.”
~ The MBA Slingshot for Women, pgs. 75, 76
If you’ve already started business school, then your living situation is set – you can’t go back and change it now. Still, you should now consider how your roommate and living situation (i.e., where you live in relations to campus and to other MBA students) can support your approach to the 4Cs (the Classroom experience, Career exploration, Club engagement, and Community and social life).
Your roommate can play a unique role because they see you literally morning, noon and night, particularly if they are also an MBA student. BFF, “first friend” that you met at admitted students’ weekend, or someone that you didn’t know before move it day. Regardless of how you came to know each other, you should consider:
- What kind of relationship do you want to have with your roommate? What do you have in common? How will you rely on and support one another? What can you learn/ teach one another? How do they fit into your professional as well as personal development?
- Is your roommate in your initial circle of friends? How might that your relationship as you move forward?
- How you are “showing up” to events with your roommate? How are you interacting with new people? Are you attached at the hip with your roommate fast becoming part of your personal brand (i.e., people always see you together)?
As you embark on the MBA journey, take nothing for granted. Something seemingly inconsequential such as your roommate relationship can leveraged to maximizing your MBA experience. Of course this applies to your other classmates as well, not just your roommate, but there is something unique about the person who literally sees you before you brush your teeth in the morning.
