Wanted: 'stylin' roommate

Seana Trice prefers a freshman roommate who "believes in a higher spirit." Marisa Morrison wants a girl who "is stylin so that i could share clothes with her." Another young woman proudly declares, "I drink I smoke I drug. I want a roommate who does too."

So they've done what 18-year-olds do these days for pretty much everything they need. They've gone on Facebook. And they've advertised for their college freshmen roommates.

Generations of newly minted high school graduates have fretted about spending their first year of college in a fluorescent-lit, cinderblock cell with someone who hears voices, lets mysterious organisms sprout under the bed, or brings home too many romantic guests. But this spring, the phenomenon of finding roommates over the social networking website Facebook, which works much like online dating, is spreading like wildfire at many colleges that allow incoming freshmen to request specific roommates. In Massachusetts they include Boston University, Northeastern, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Bentley College. (Many smaller, elite private universities, including Harvard and Boston College, do not allow freshmen to request roommates.)

"I live six hours away. I'm going to be stripped of all my friends and family. I don't want to go there and have a terrible roommate and no friends," said Trice, who lives outside Philadelphia and will attend Boston University in the fall.

Some college officials worry the emerging trend could kill the tradition of campus housing as a utopian social experiment. They believe in rooming sculptors with lacrosse players, New Yorkers with farm boys, and blacks with whites.

"This is our first opportunity to promote a learning experience where they live with someone different from themselves," said Marc Robillard , director of housing at BU.

Many schools have allowed freshmen to request roommates for years, but without Facebook, few students had any way to find someone to bunk with. (Colleges almost always allow students to choose whom to live with after freshman year.)

College officials know that hundreds of students are posting on Facebook to seek roommates, but they do not know how many students will follow through. At Northeastern, the number of freshmen requesting a specific roommate for this fall jumped 22 percent over last year to 343, out of a n entering class of 2,800.

The roommate search flows from the larger Facebook phenomenon. High school seniors who have settled on a college and want to get to know future classmates start Facebook groups named after their school and graduation year, say, "Boston University '11." Then, hundreds of classmates join each group and chat on discussion boards.

Someone starts a discussion thread to look for a roommate and invites others to join in. Students describe their sleeping habits, interests, and personality. Partying habits are a big topic. Women predominate the roommate-matching boards, though it's unclear why.

Posters invite kindred spirits to send them private messages. Most of the high school seniors have elaborate Facebook profiles that detail their passions for things like "Grey's Anatomy," mint Oreo ice cream, or the fight against genocide in Darfur.

If two students click -- with or without meeting in person -- each requests the other on their housing preferences form.

At BU, Morrison got the ball rolling after she was admitted by early decision. She joined the BU class group and then started a smaller discussion group within it. In an interview, she said she had heard too many roommate horror stories, and feared being matched up with "a crazy girl."

"I promise I'm not a psycho!" wrote Morrison, who lives in New Jersey. "I'm not depressed, bipolar, or on drugs . . . I'm obsessed with high fashion and would loooove someone to talk about it with. I don't snore or talk in my sleep. I stay up late and like to socialize."

She got about 10 replies, including one from a young woman on Long Island , N.Y . They liked each other's profiles and decided to meet in New York City over spring break. They quickly got over the awkwardness of being strangers, marveling when they stopped for lunch that they ordered the same pesto chicken panini and later, while strolling Greenwich Village, that both love the same hole-in-the-wall burrito joint.

In contrast, Trice and Saugus resident Jen Covino agreed to live together without meeting or talking on the phone. Trice had posted her interest in finding a roommate ("I HATE WHEN GIRLS THINK THEY ARE FAT."), but then she responded to Covino's mostly because they share a passion for a fairly obscure alternative rock band called Brand New.

The two instant - messaged, and both liked the idea of decorating their room in black and white, maybe with a little pink thrown in.

Another incoming BU freshman, Kira Ross, posted on Facebook's BU discussion group that she wanted "someone who can introduce me to new things." She heard from an Egyptian student who attends boarding school in the United States. They met for lunch on Newbury Street, then agreed to live together.

"Facebook allowed us to realize that we have things is common, despite our different backgrounds , while had we met face to face, we may have been caught up by the differences," she wrote in an e-mail .

Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@ globe.com.