College Roommate Tips

Roomsurf hits 1 million users!

Roomsurf has reached 1 million sign ups! Since 2010, Roomsurf has helped over one million students find compatible roommates across the United States. Click "Get Started" to join them and find great roommates at your school.

Coming summer 2017, Roomsurf will get a massive visual and functional make over. Stay tuned, exciting things are ahead.

Textsurf - One stop tool for comparing prices and selling textbooks

Textsurf's price comparison tool searches all the major retailers at the same time to find the best prices on textbooks. Textsurf also offers buyback at the highest prices and free shipping, to make sure you're getting the most out of your used books.

Search by ISBN, title, or author to quickly find the book you need, and immediately see the buying, renting, or digital download options from major retailers. Select the option that best works for you, and your book will soon be on its way!

We just launched JoinU!

Join your classmates, discover shared interests like similar dorm or major, and even find out who likes you on campus! Visit JoinU.com for more information and screenshots!

JoinU has been downloaded over 25,000 times in more than 50 countries! Available in the App Store!

Freshman Five: 5 Essential Safety Tips for New College Students

The transition into college is one of the most exciting – and frightening – times in your life. For the very first time, you are completely on your own. But more freedom also means more responsibility. Not only will you have to be accountable for your studies, but it’s also your duty to look out for your own safety.

With that in mind, take a minute to look over the following safety tips for incoming freshman:

Get to know the campus

It’s a good idea to get to know your way around campus before school officially starts. Find out where emergency contact phones are located and map out the safest routes to all of your classes. You’ll want to use well-lit walkways at nighttime and avoid walking through areas where shrubs, trees or buildings could potentially hide a thief or an assailant.

Make sure people know where you are

Make sure that your family and close friends are aware of your daily routine. Provide your parents with a copy of your class schedule, and, before you go out, always let someone know where you’re going, who you’re going with and when you expect to be back.

Take advantage of campus resources

Every university is concerned with promoting a safe campus environment. In fact, you’ll find that most of them have fantastic safety resources and programs for their students. These may include 24-hour escort services, counseling centers, self-defenses classes and more. Don’t hesitate to utilize these resources if you feel compelled to.

Get in the habit of locking your doors

While it seems obvious, locking your doors is essential to ensuring your safety. However, you would be surprised at how many students simply neglect to do so. By locking your doors, you will not only help keep intruders out, but also help protect your valuables. Remember to also lock your car if you have one on campus. If you live in an apartment or other off-campus student housing, it’s also a good idea to invest in a home alarm system. Check out SecurityChoice if you’re looking for a high-quality system that’s affordable on a college budget.

Be smart about social media

In this social media culture we live in, many young people feel to publish tweets and status updates about their daily experiences. Unfortunately, criminals are beginning to exploit Facebook, Twitter and other social media services to target homes for burglary and commit other illegal acts. Therefore, you should avoid posting live updates about any vacations or trips you’re taking. You should also be suspect of people you correspond with over the Internet. Furthermore, make sure to adjust your privacy settings to limit the amount of personal information you share with others.

The Second Class of RevTech Labs Announced

Original Release: http://revtechlabs.com/the-second-class-of-revtech-labs-announced/

Packard Place announces the 2^nd class of RevTech Labs in Uptown Charlotte. RevTech Labs is geared toward Charlotte’s burgeoning developer community and provides a place for tech startups to launch. The 3 month program focuses on early stage mobile, software and web companies. RevTech Labs provides free work space, mentorship, and programming all geared toward revolutionary technology startups. The program is now launching its second class this week and working through the end of April. The program will end with a Demo Day where the companies will have an opportunity to pitch to investors and the business community.

RevTech Labs has selected 10 companies for the second round of the program (listed below).

The Program

RevTech Labs is all about community, mentorship, and connections. All companies will be required to locate within the same community space. The 4,000 sq ft space, located within Packard Place, provides shared desks, break space, and casual meeting space. Mentorship from local, regional, and national tech talent will help to guide startups as they focus on building their products and defining their business models.

Host

Packard Place is the foundation of like-minded entrepreneurs sharing skills and business opportunities in Charlotte. It serves as a community center for entrepreneurial activity in the heart of the Queen City, allowing access to technology, education and hands-on assistance to help business partners and start-ups design, build, market and deliver innovation and solutions. This is accomplished by the collaboration of key organizations in the region including entrepreneurial, industry, civic, economic and university groups that together are changing the landscape of Charlotte business.

Partners

Current partners in RevTech Labs include Charlotte area Interact Authentic Communication, CLT Blog, and Twilio.

Interact Authentic Comminication:

Interact Authentic Communication is our partner for the purpose of helping participants breakdown, practice and polish their pitch. RevTech Bootcamp will be held at Interact Studio in the Grinnell Building off West Morehead Street in early April. Bootcamp leader Lou Solomon is the founder of the Interact, which focuses on authenticity as the driving force of communication.

CLT Blog:

CLT Blog is Charlotte’s blog of record. Our mix of citizen and professional contributors have earned CLT Blog the reputation of “Best Local Blog” by way of Creative Loafing and Charlotte magazine’s regular contests. As a locally born and bread collective, CLT Blog focuses on Charlotte’s most pressing issues and inspiring stories, and through the use of rich media like live streaming video, engage the next generation of Charlotteans.

Twilio:

Twilio, the cloud communications company, is reinventing telecom by merging the worlds of cloud computing, web services and telecommunications. Twilio provides a telephony infrastructure web service in the cloud, allowing web developers to integrate phone calls, text messages and IP voice communications into their web, mobile and traditional phone applications. The company is privately held and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

RevTech Labs Second Class of Companies

eCampus

The company goal is to deliver the products, services and experiences that students look for throughout their college career. eCampus currently operates Roomsurf. Roomsurf is a social network that helps students find compatible roommates.

Principals: Justin Gaither, Dan Thibodeau

Alcohoot

Alcohoot is the world’s first smartphone breathalyzer. The small device connects to your smartphone and together with the Alcohoot mobile app enables you to test your blood alcohol level quickly, accurately, and easily.

Principals: Ben Biron, Jonathan Ofir, Max Koeppel

Womadz

Womadz affords its creative members the opportunity to showcase their talent in circles that matter, earn recognition with brand executives and accrue serious cash. Womadz provides its online community with an environment populated with entertaining videos, enabling users to earn money by selecting and sharing the very best of these videos.

Principals: Diek Minkhorst, Sam Wright

MyLearningID

MyLearningID was formed by two business partners that share a passion for education and security. Through facial, voice recognition and additional digital signatures, an individual can maintain the integrity of their identity online while schools to maintain the academic integrity of their distance education programs.

Principals: Velvet Nelson, Mike Murphy

Podanize

Podanize is an innovative website and mobile app that provides moms with an efficient and fun way to stay organized with their kids’ ongoing group activities. The activity leader brings the group online by forming a “Pod” where the parents have free-flowing discussions, schedule recurring events, set up task lists, and easily reference the group’s information in one central location.

Principals: Nikki Sacks, Steven Sacks

Reward Summit

Reward programs are confusing and the costs to consumers on average are between $400 and $700 per year in lost rewards. Reward Summit is a mobile and web-based platform that makes it super easy for customers to always pick the right card, and also to find the best new cards to use to further add benefits.

Principals: John Espey, Chris Hart

InspireInYou

Is the Pandora Internet Radio for messages centered on self-help and religious and non-religious inspiration. Users are gauged on various preferences and then matched with audio messages arranged into customized channels for each user. Contributors of the content include churches, certified counselors, motivational speakers, and certified life coaches.

Principals: Shaun Andrews

Shomo Live

Web based start-up ShomoLive, Inc. is currently developing a social media platform that provides valuable tools for anyone interested in playing, booking, or listening to live music. The main focus of the company’s website (www.shomolive.com) is to help local musicians and venues streamline and automate the process of booking and promoting gigs, as well as other types of events.

Principals: Scott Jermyn, Tony Verrioli, Tim Beidear

Campus Carriers

Campus Carriers is a full-service solution for university students that makes the campus moving process easy and economical. By using technology to fine-tune customer management and logistics as well as providing a streamlined e-commerce website, Campus Carriers is determined to deliver the highest quality of services and amenities to university communities throughout the country.

Principals: Daniel Burdi, Justin Burdi

Plate Share

Plate Share is a smartphone application that allows diners to round their restaurant bills up to the nearest dollar and donate the change to feed the hungry. The non-profit organization runs on a micro-giving transaction platform to tap into the power of the social web to make social change by making charitable giving easy, accessible, affordable, and attractive.

Principles: Katie Levans

Roomsurf in TeenVogue!

Living in a space the size of a closet is stressful to begin with, especially when you take into consideration that you'll be sharing your dorm room with a total stranger. We've long trusted colleges to make roommate matches, but now students are taking control of the process by seeking out roommates on the Internet, agreeing to live together, and making requests to schools. While self-selecting your roommate can have definite advantages, there are important things to keep in mind so that it doesn't hinder your college experience. We asked the experts about what to keep in mind if you do decide to find a roommate online, and why it's not always the best option.

Talk to your potential roommate offline.
"Meeting online can be constructive if you take real steps to get to know somebody," says Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out. "If you're only going off of a Facebook profile, that's not a real acquaintance with someone. It's like online dating: Imagine picking someone to live with based on an online dating profile—you're only seeing a much nicer version of someone. It's very important to talk to someone on the phone or meet up in person."

Ask the right questions.
"It's important to go beyond a profile picture and the surface level to see if you can actually get along with someone," says Justin Gaither, co-founder of RoomSurf.com, a social networking site that helps students find roommates. "In your conversations, get a sense of how much a person is going to school to study. How serious are they about academics? How much will they be partying? What's their sleep schedule like? Don't just type back and forth about what TV shows and music you like; communicate with the purpose of finding someone who you may or may not be compatible with."

Look for a compatible roommate, not a new best friend.
"In some ways, the old days of not having control over this process were much better because you just had to make do with who you were assigned to once you got to college," says Simmons. "There's too much power now. When you know too much, you can also set yourself up for big disappointment. Just because someone's nice, it doesn't mean that you should live together."

Don't try to find a clone of yourself.
"It's always been Penn's stated belief that it is a good thing for people of different backgrounds to live together and expand their horizons," says Sue Smith, the Associate Director of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania's Office of College Houses & Academic Services. "Rooming with someone different from you may even result in tremendous personal growth."

Use the Internet to introduce yourself to a wide range of students, not necessarily a roommate.
"Chances are that the first person you chat with—or maybe even the second or third—might not be the person you want to live with," says Gaither. "Talk to as many people as you can, and don't be afraid to say no to living with someone."

Trust the system.
"While choosing one's roommate definitely has its benefits, it has its downsides, too," says Kelci Lynn, an education writer for About.com and US News & World Report. "Schools have been matching roommates for a very long time, and some are very good at it. While getting a bad roommate match is a major worry for a lot of students, the chances of having it happen are actually pretty slim. Additionally, choosing one's own roommate can prevent students from being exposed to new people and experiences that may help them learn and thrive."

Roomsurf in USA Today

Original article written by Megan Landau from Dormify in USA TODAY COLLEGE

Link: http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/campuslife/choosing-your-first-college-roommate

The spring of senior year of high school could very well be one of the most exciting seasons in our whole lives. Committing to a college, going to prom, graduating and, for many of us, choosing the roommate that we will be living with for next whole year. Finding a roommate is a little bit scary and very, very exciting. For some people, finding the perfect roommate even helps to make the final choice on what college to choose.

I’m currently in the process of finding a roommate, so if you’re afraid of the “random” roommate like I am, you might find some of these tips helpful!

Some people find comfort in choosing a roommate that they already have some sort of connection to. Maybe you know the person from your high school, or maybe you have a few mutual friends. This seems like a very comforting option, but remember that if living with this person doesn’t work out, you could potentially ruin a friendship! Sometimes, knowing that you have a friend on campus with you is enough — you don’t necessarily need to be living with that person.

Roomsurf is a great option for finding roommates. When you join the site, you are prompted to take a short survey about your living habits and then fill out boxes such as “About Me,” “Interested In,” and “Message Me If.” Roomsurf then compiles your top matches based on the survey.

After looking through the profiles of your matches, you can seamlessly click the “Find Me on Facebook” button, which brings you straight to the persons Facebook profile. Roomsurf makes it easy to meet the people who you will most likely be successful rooming with—plus, interesting info in your matches’ “About Me” profiles is always helpful for breaking the ice in those awkward first few conversations!

Facebook makes it easy to find roommates, as well. Almost every college creates an official “Class of ____” page, where all incoming Freshman are invited to join. People talk about all sorts of things on these groups, from their own roommate preferences to their favorite movies and foods. Facebook groups also make it easy to find people who will be participating in the same clubs and activities as you.

Okay, so you’ve found someone who looks like they could be a potential roommate. Of course you’ll do some Facebook stalking, but what comes next? Talking to someone for the first time is undoubtedly awkward and can even feel a bit like speed dating sometimes.

Obviously each conversation and person is different, but here are five important subjects to mention when speaking to your roommate for the first time.

1. Study habits. Does your potential roommate like to study in his or her room? If so, does it need to be silent? This may pose a problem if you plan on blasting music in the room at all times.

2.Visitors. If your friends from high school want to visit and stay in your dorm, will your roommate be upset? It would definitely be a better idea to answer this question now, rather than later.

3. Sorority recruitment. Are you planning on going through recruitment? You may be very busy for a few weeks during recruitment and it could be nice to be living with someone who is going through the same thing.

4.Sleeping habits. You definitely don’t want to be up and about in the room at 3 in the morning if your roommate goes to bed at 11 or 12 each night.

5.Common interests. You’re going to be living with this person for at least a year, so you want to make sure that you share some interests! This could be anything from going to the gym together or watching a TV show together every week.

Good luck finding your perfect roomie!

ABOUT THIS SERIES:

Dorm, Sweet, Dorm.

At Dormify, we believe that dorm rooms should be just as fun, hip and fashionable as the college students who live in them. We get it. You want to walk into the white-walled, four-by-four, tiled dorm room that tons of people have lived in before and feel like this space is all you. That’s why our Dormify Style Advisors share so many creative and stylish design tips and tricks, do-it-yourself projects and design solutions with students across the country.

But our spirit for style doesn’t end there. We also design fashionable bedding, wall art and other home accessories—created specifically for beautifying dorm rooms. Our imaginative products bring style, comfort and personality to college students everywhere through bold colors, patterns and overall design innovation. Above all else, we want students to feel at home in their new homes—by feeling inspired to style their space. So read our blogs, listen to our Style Advisors, and be sure to look out for our full e-commerce site launch with a full product line this April.

If you like us in real life, you should definitely like us on Facebook and you should also follow us on Twitter. So read our blogs, listen to our Style Advisors, and be sure to shop dormify.com for inspiring dorm décor products.

Have no fear, Roomsurf is here!

When a high school senior gets accepted in to college, he or she typically goes through a series of phases. The initial reaction is shock, then celebration with family and friends, and then something dawns on the college student-to-be.

I’m going to have to find a roommate…

Roomsurf, the social networking-based roommate matching service for college-bound high school seniors re-launched on January 20. This website has proven to be very popular among students, offering timid future college freshman a portal to make friends, connections, and potential roommates going to the college of their choice.

Read full article here: http://nicolettepost.com/2012/03/23/roomsurf-the-best-way-to-find-a-roommate/

Roomsurf on TV!

If you live in the Chicago area, watch out for our 30-second Roomsurf commercial on cable television! The spots will air on MTV and ABC Family in late March and early April.

You can watch the 30-second spot on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSoDo9fpYk0

Roomsurf Articles

Find more articles on Roomsurf below:

Orlando Sentinel: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-08-21/news/os-college-roommate-matchmakers-20110820_1_roommate-matching-services-college-students-florida-college-campuses

Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704017904575409203223872556.html

Inc Magazine: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100701/entrepreneurship-education-beyond-business-schools.html

Gossiprenuer: http://www.gossipreneur.com/?tag=roomsurf-com

Crunchbase: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/uroomsurf

Roomsurf Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw90cazwjtg

Description: http://roomsurf.org/

Roomsurf Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSoDo9fpYk0