[Deprived]

How do you think INTJs would manage in a dormitory room?

[GouldFan]

It all depends on whether you get a single or double room, and who your roommates are. I've lived in both single and doubles. Both experiences were not bad. My roommate was an international student who was polite and well behaved. I never had any issues with her, as she was very considerate.

Where I slept did not really matter, since the whole campus had many niches and nooks where I could spend time alone.

[repartee]

As GouldFan said it all depends on the people you are sharing with. I have shared accommodation at university and my job many times; sometimes I really enjoyed it and sometimes I despised it. If you have the opportunity try and find out who you will be sharing with before you commit, but do not avoid sharing it can be seriously good fun.

[Synchronicity]

My dorm experiences have been predominantly positive. I only had one roommate I didn't like and he was rarely around and dropped out after 2 months. I got along well with my replacement roommate and we went on living together for another year and might have continued if I hadn't encountered better prospects outside of the dorms.

I don't think there's any reason why INTJs can't enjoy the dormitory experience, so long as they have their space.

[PWatterson]

It works well enough for me. I live in a three man room, and I am okay just as long as my space is my own. I can accept a mess in the room as long as it does not invade my own space.

[pcardiff]

As a freshman I had a two man dorm room. I fought with my roommate, broke hand actually. He was on offense, I was on defense, he joined a different frat, he's a doctor now. We were children.

[JYFly]

I never had any problems with my roommates, but I still got sick of sharing a space with them and was glad to be sleeping in my own room whenever I went back home. If privacy's a big issue for you, I would recommend getting a private room. If you can't, then it can work. You'll likely have problems, though, if (s)he's one of those extroverts who always has friends over and is just generally disrespectful of your need to recharge.

[Night Runner]

Like others said, it depends on your roommate. Overall, I'd strongly recommend it: it's a great way to improve your people skills. Over the past six years, I've had over 50 roommates, suite-mates and housemates and it's made me a better, more well-rounded person.

[Malkavia]

I would go with almost every other post here. I think spending at least a year in a dormitory is a great way to develop yourself. Even if you have a roommate, it can be hard sometimes, but I think the experience is worth it.

It does depend on your roommate but normally it takes two people to cause a bad situation.

[Bobsama]

I simply dislike it. I much prefer a single or a double with a fellow geek. At least then I won't get the "what the fuck are you doing?" stare. First year I had an OK roommate (a bit annoying--like family) and the first part of second year I had three roommates. Of those 3, I'm only friends with one and distant friends with the two others.

[Alderamin]

My first year dorm experience was with this total extrovert who rearranged our beds, brought in a huge couch and TV, had friends over in our room a lot, and brought in his girlfriend for sucky sucky under the covers while I was trying to sleep.

My second year I had this sports jock roommate who once came home drunk, went to sleep, sleepwalked over to my bed, and started peeing on me. I woke up in the darkness so startled I screamed - I really thought someone had broken into the dorm room and was going to kill me. I quickly realized what was happening and stood next to him trying to wake him as a stream of urine contaminated my sheets but he just quit after a short while and then laid down on my bed in his own filth. He woke up soon after but was very groggy. I led him back to his bed, then took the sheets off the bed and slept without them after changing my pyjamas. The next day he didn't even say anything as I gathered up this obvious bundle of urine stained stuff and took it to the wash.

I had a new roomie second semester who was a bit better - he only sleepwalked over to my dresser and whizzed all over that, then went back to sleep. So I left him a note while I was gone for Spring Break. He did apologize when he saw me again.

[taciturn]

Don't touch my stuff.
Try not to talk too much.
We'll get along just fine.

[Booko]

My son's had 3 years of pretty much the same roommates and they get along very well. I've seen his crew plenty of times -- they're decent guys and quite fun as well.

My first roommate and I had about nothing in common. I was a street kid and she was a preppie who thought bringing 34 sweaters to school for an 11 week quarter was sensible. I thought her friends were boring as dishwater and didn't want to hang with them or her. For all that, we have similar habits and once we'd discussed a couple of potential problem areas and figured things out, we had a good year. It was probably a bonus it was easy for me to disappear the few weeks her boyfriend came by to visit from the other side of the state.

The only serious problem I had was one roommate for a quarter (11 weeks) who clearly had no concept of respect for the things of others. I tried explaining the concept to Little Miss Silver-spoon-in-the-mouth that using my towel for her personal bathmat so it was wet and dirty when I needed to shower wasn't a nice thing to do. There was some other incident equally absurd. The third time I caught her eating the last of two pounds of chocolate I'd gotten a couple of weeks before. She had to have gone into my room and rifled beneath a stack of books to find it because no one knew I'd had it. Two pounds of chocolate and I'd had two pieces.

Slamming her into the wall turned out to be of more use for her education. She never touched anything of mine again after that.

---------- Post added 08-06-2010 at 07:17 PM ----------

@Aldermin: You are far far nicer than I am.

[Alderamin]

I got embarrassed easily and didn't handle confrontation as well at the time.

[Paul Siraisi]

	Originally Posted by Deprived To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	How do you think INTJs would manage in a dormitory room?

Depends how stong the 'I' is, and how set you are in your ways. I had no problem at the time. I probably wouldn't be very happy now, with all my routines locked in at age 45+.

I had two roommates, one of whom became a best friend--only one I've ever had, actually. Our personalities were nothing alike. Physical character of the dorm could be important, though. Some dorms are much noisier and smellier than others. I would think it's possible to get a single room, too (I just never tried to).

Beware of athlete's foot from the shower (I figure).

[Imperator]

My freshman roommate was as quiet and studious as I, so we got along splendidly.

Had I gotten the drunken rugby player next door, it probably wouldn't have gone so well....although I'd certainly have some better stories to tell.

[Bobsama]

Originally Posted by Paul Siraisi To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Depends how stong the 'I' is, and how set you are in your ways. I had no problem at the time. I probably wouldn't be very happy now, with all my routines locked in at age 45+. I had two roommates, one of whom became a best friend--only one I've ever had, actually. Our personalities were nothing alike. Physical character of the dorm could be important, though. Some dorms are much noisier and smellier than others. I would think it's possible to get a single room, too (I just never tried to). Beware of athlete's foot from the shower (I figure).

"Introverted" on MBTI/related DOES NOT MEAN SOCIALLY. It means that your dominant cognitive function is inward-facing. There are socially introverted Exxx's and socially extroverted Ixxx's. Likewise, being xxTx does NOT mean a person doesn't have real, genuine emotions. To me at least, it means that surface emotions are subject to my thoughts and subsequent confusion over their appropriateness.

Anyways, I dislike dorms, especially shared dorms. A single is bad enough when they practically shove you in a closet and charge you >$800/month for the "privilege".

[Ludwig]

I'm off to college this January, from the West Coast to the East Coast. I'm prepared for the changes in weather and surroundings, and I know I'll do well in my courses there. My strongest concern is dorm life. As a fairly extreme inrovert, living closely with someone else sounds very off-putting.

Does anyone have any personal experiences with dorm life, or tips on living with other types?

[JohnDoe]

In general, agree on who is responsible for cleaning what. If you can handle that then everything else is easy. That and you should take the opportunity to let extroverts drag you around to parties if they want to.

[Alpha]

Ive been extremely fortunate with roommates. Ideally you'll get a tidy introvert as your roommate. As for other social things, when i lived in the dorms at my school I made a very big effort to try to at least meet and talk to as many people as possible in my building and on my floor in the first few weeks. A lot of my better friends from college came from my floor back during my first year.

Other than that I haven't much to offer =l

[Smacknrat]

The roommate thing worked itself out naturally... If we liked each other's company, then we became friends and being in a room together was never an issue. If we were apathetic, then the arrangement quickly became computer or TV addiction with a little bit of hanging out at the friends' places instead.

I think you'll be fine.

[JohnDoe]

Yeah the big thing with roommates is as long as you arn't someone (or don't appear to be someone) who is going to rat people out to the RA's then its easy to get along. Disputes get handled internally.... never with RA's. (Not to say that RA's aren't nice, but as soon as you go to one they are bound by university policy which may not be what you want).

[Bobsama]

Tip #1: Be conscious of what you dislike/are intolerant of. For me, this was people who brings gaggles of people over and people who smoke.

Tip #2: Try to find things in common. Food, music, hobbies, etc. can be used as a middle-ground. Ideally, you'll find someone with many matching interests.

Tip #3: Find a very comfortable bed pad. Spend extra on this, actually.

Tip #4: Random cool stuff. Bring a bit of decoration. Even if this just means your entire CD/DVD collection or your library of books or a few models, bring it along.

Tip #5: TV's are annoying.

[eagleseven]

Dorm living can be tolerable...or a living hell.

It all depends upon your roommate and close neighbors. My first roommate was an uncompromising morbidly obese slob, and my neighbors were drunks who would piss on my door, and so I moved out into an apartment with (hand-chosen) roommates ASAP.

Not to mention you'll be hard-pressed to find a clean, vomit-free toilet seat Sunday morning.

---

I suppose my best advice is to get out of the dorms ASAP...I blocked out most of that period of my life.

[Silverity]

What is your dorm situation, is it an apartment type place with 2+ bedrooms? Is it like a hallway with 20 bedrooms and you all share kitchen/bathroom? Is it one room with two beds?

I lived in res and hated it. I had my own 10 x 10 foot cell and stayed there almost 24/7. My roomates, 23 other people, were loud jock types who drank excessively and were violent. They did $800 worth of damage to our floor. I moved out to a house I shared with three other people and it was better, but my roommates were adverse to cleaning and one of them liked "discordant" music--basically hitting two keys on his keyboard that clashed in a spectacular fashion. His bedroom was right underneath mine. Ugh!

My biggest tip if you end up in any situation like mine... work your schedule so you're never around when they're home and you're home when they're gone. It'll give you recharge time. Establish boundaries sooner rather than later.