Other students are using URoomSurf. It makes matches with questions like these: How often do you shower? How neat are you? How outgoing are you? What’s your study/party balance? Is it O.K. for your roommate to use your belongings?

Image Credit... Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

I guess if I had used URoomSurf, I might have avoided those donnybrooks with one pill of a roommate, who yelled at me for such infractions as allegedly stretching out her sweater and eating a whole can of Campbell’s Chunky Soup when I could have made do with half.

But co-habiting with snarly and moody roomies prepared me for the working world, where people can be outlandishly cantankerous over small stuff.

Just as rooming with Donna taught me humility. She was the sexiest girl on campus, an actress who would later brush off John Travolta in the Bee Gees-scored opening credits of “Saturday Night Fever.” And Susan, who wouldn’t leave the room when it rained and who lost 20 pounds on an all-brownies diet, taught me to tolerate quirks.

I knew the lovely Susan would be my friend for life when I arrived in our freshman-year room shadowed by my mom, who was carrying a butcher knife, a can of Mace and a letter opener.

Mom wanted us to be well armed against rapists  she wrote down instructions about how to insert the letter opener into an attacker’s jugular  and Susan appreciated the gesture.

As in Darwinian evolution, cross-pollination with diverse strains promotes species development.

One young woman I know was appalled at first that the giggly cheerleader and former prom queen sharing her freshman room at the University of Pennsylvania put up ’N Sync posters “unironically.” But in the end, she realized that just because her roommate loved ’N Sync and wore cute outfits did not necessary mean she was shallow. And the prom queen realized that just because you hum when you write papers doesn’t mean you’re mentally ill. The prom queen lightened up the brooding, cynical, emo chick, and even got her to an ’N Sync concert  unironically.