Recent studies conducted by Michigan State University, have shown that roommate conflicts are one of the top five reasons students drop out of college. On the other hand individuals such as Dr. Dalton Conley, a sociologist, and dean of social sciences at New York University is a firm believer of matching people from different backgrounds. Dr. Conley even wrote an interesting op-ed piece in the New York Times titled “When Roommates Were Random,” on the subject.
Whatever your point of view on the subject matter, Facebook has a very successful app, RoomSync, which allows students to choose their own roommates, based on common interests and/or values they may share.
Today RoomSync announced the launch of RoomSync Mobile, the company’s mobile version of its popular Facebook app for college roommate selection.
The new app is available for both Android and iPhone, and it allows users to experience the innovative roommate-finding process instantly from their hand-held devices.
While 96 percent of college students are on Facebook, 76 percent of those students access the social network straight from the mobile app (Noel-Levitz, 2012). With such high mobile usage and current users already accessing RoomSync from their mobile devices, the company believes the addition of its own mobile platform will further increase student engagement and roommate-selection.
On RoomSync Mobile, students will be afforded the same roommate matching experience from their Android and iPhone devices as they do on their desktop browser. Once someone has registered their account, they can continue the matching process at any time from the palm of their hand. The app has already launched on Android and is expected to debut on iPhone in the upcoming weeks.
The University of Florida, one of the company’s clients, collected data after the first year of implementation, and 65 percent of hall staff surveyed reported a decrease in roommate conflicts.
“Prior to using RoomSync, we found that students would go to Facebook to research their assigned roommates, so RoomSync is a natural fit for our housing department,” said Sean Killion, M.B.A., Assistant Director for Assignments & Billing at Temple University. “By operating as a Facebook app, residents are excited to select their own roommates on RoomSync and they intuitively understand how to use the app with little or no direction.”
The company believes offering the service on mobile adds an even deeper and more effective experience for the user. “Mobile access to the RoomSync app gives students real-time notifications regarding requests, announcements and more. We believe the availability of instantaneous matching information will create an even higher level of user engagement and satisfaction, and of course, will enable more students to connect with their perfect roommate,” said Michael Hacker, Technical Co-founder and President of RoomSync.
