It was still summer, but Laura Runnels ’04 already had talked to her new roommate and found she liked her, alleviating a major anxiety.

Kent Gould ’04 did not end up getting along with his roommate as well as Runnels did, even though after one phone call Gould predicted he and his future roommate would be best friends. Instead, they spent freshman year “in a weird sort of existence with minimal conversation,” Gould said.

Initial impressions from contact over the summer don’t always successfully foreshadow positive or negative relationships, but both Runnels and Gould agreed that using information sent by Yale to make some contact with their future suitemates made arriving in August a little bit easier.

Early communication also helps coordinate living arrangements, so roommates can decide who will bring what so there is only one illicit microwave and not six.

Runnels and her roommate decided to purchase everything they needed once they got to New Haven, while Gould ended up bringing most of the equipment for his suite since he lived closer to Yale. Gould said bringing things from home saved his suite hassle and stress during the first week of school.

But no matter who ends up bringing what or whether relations with suitemates improve or deteriorate throughout the year, adjusting socially also takes place beyond the walls of the suite.

“Everyone gets worried about who they’re going to live with and what their suite’s going to be like,” Jeff Sandberg ’04 said. “But even if you have the smallest suite on Old Campus or the weirdest roommate at Yale, most people still have an awesome freshman year.”