As a new student in the residential buildings, you may be assigned to a single room or to one roommate, maybe as many as three! If you have never shared a living space before, having a roommate may be a challenge, but meeting the challenge of sharing and learning from alternate perspectives can also be infinitely rewarding.  It is essential that you engage your new living arrangement, and the students with whom you will be sharing it, with an open, interested, tolerant, and considerate attitude.  Students come to UC Santa Cruz and Cowell College from a wide variety of backgrounds. You will invariably meet people who have made choices about their lives that are unfamiliar to you.  Assigning rooms and roommates is not an easy task. One important consideration for making roommate assignments is your Cowell College Housing Application/Contract and your Lifestyle Questionnaire. Within the application we ask what we think is important for determining compatible lifestyles. In addition, you have room to write about what else you think is important in matching roommates.  We will do our best to find you a compatible roommate, but please do not assume your roommate will share all your lifestyle preferences.