So how does the roommate-pairing process work? The magic isn’t entirely random, Ice said. It’s informed by a questionnaire with approximately 40 multiple-choice questions so that incoming students can provide input on their lifestyle preferences, including cleanliness, study habits, bedtime, and the level of connection they wish to have with their roommate. An automated system collects responses and when two students’ answers correspond closely enough, they’re paired. 

The process does not consider race or ethnicity, educational or socioeconomic background, or hometown, Ice said. As a result, a student from Texas is just as likely to get paired with a student from China as they are with a student from Massachusetts. Once paired, the system randomly assigns them a room in a first-year residence hall. Residential Life staff ensures pairs are matched according to gender and that requests for disability accommodations are honored. 

“The residential experience shapes and informs the overall student experience,” Ice said. “By making housing integral to the development of the overall student, we’re helping to sustain a successful student experience.”

Put another way, living together in University housing is an element of learning at Brown that extends well beyond classrooms and labs, Ice said. 

“Students spend 75% of their time outside the classroom,” Ice said. “Part of our charge is to create learning opportunities, even if they’re not specifically labeled as learning.” 

Making the magic happen

Two of Brown’s newest undergraduates, Irene Chen and Violet Dellinger, both members of the Class of 2028, received their roommate assignments and connected in late July. A month later, they met for the first time as they set foot in their room in the Emery residence hall.

Chen hails from New Milford, Connecticut, and plans to concentrate in environmental studies, while Dellinger is from Arlington, Virginia, and plans to concentrate in physics. Dellinger is a huge Formula One auto racing fan and loves 1980s bands. Chen plays the piano and the flute and loves drawing and writing stories. But they view their different interests as an opportunity more than a barrier.

“Getting to know someone who has different interests than you will make you more open-minded as a person overall,” Dellinger said. 

Chen said the process encouraged her to look past her assumptions.

“I can get a broader experience and get to know more people, rather than come in with expectations of who I’m going to hang out with and what kind of people and things I am going to learn,” Chen said. “There are so many genuinely amazing people here who come from so many different walks of life, and I’ve had an awesome time getting to know them.”

Not every pair of first-year roommates is destined for lifelong friendship, but success stories are plentiful in speaking with current juniors and seniors, and alumni during reunion weekends on campus.

For Brown seniors Yabeke Zike and David Okoh, who were randomly paired as first-year roommates, the experience of living together prompted them to think more broadly. Zike is from Virginia, and Okoh is from Texas. Neither of them knew anyone who was attending Brown, and Providence felt novel and foreign.

“You are thrown into an unfamiliar situation, but the process really makes you accept it with open arms,” recalled Zike, a computer science and economics concentrator. “Brown is such a free-thinking and free-spirited school, and I think this helps its students embrace that.”

Four years after the pair met initially, Zike and Okoh’s friendship has continued to grow. They still live together, now in an off-campus apartment.

“It was an opportunity to open myself up, learn new things and expand my way of thinking and way of living,” said Okoh, a biomedical engineering concentrator. “Just living with someone else is a huge, huge step, especially if you’ve never done it before.”

When Lucas and Rudolph-Larrea reflect on the random-roommate process, they’re struck by their initial reservations. Rudolph-Larrea had taken a gap year between high school graduation and college, and Lucas thought she seemed worldly and a bit intimidating. To Rudolph-Larrea, a Providence native, Lucas’ West Coast upbringing felt unfamiliar and far away.

“We are actually very different in many ways, but we’re really similar personality-wise,” Rudolph-Larrea said. 

Outside of her economics coursework, Lucas is a social media editor for a female comedy campus publication, the Rib. During Rudolph-Larrea’s time on campus, she has been involved with Fashion@Brown and contributes design and illustration to a student publication called the College Hill Independent.

“I’ve never been in a class with her, and we have very different schedules, but we happen to be very similar in personality and living style,” Rudolph-Larrea said.

“I feel like we are very lucky,” Lucas said. “And we’re still best friends.”