Occupying a room on the third floor of Matthews, Colin T. Quirk ’14 says he wrote on his housing survey that he wanted to live with two athletes. One of his roommates, Tyler Ott ’14, is a tight end on the Harvard football team. And his other roommate, Cameron J. Croy ’14, was wearing a dappled gray t-shirt that read “Property of Harvard Wrestling” while being interviewed.

Brown “couldn’t have matched [them] up better,” Croy says.

Another key to their match is their hometowns. Ott is from Oklahoma and Croy is from Tennessee, while Quirk is from Boston. Resident deans often try to place local freshmen with those from outside the area, especially international students for whom going home during vacations is more difficult, according to Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67.

To go home for long weekends or vacations, Abushaar would have to travel for more than 12 hours to her home in Kuwait. On the other hand, Abushaar’s roommate, Barkowski, is from Dorchester, Mass., only a 20-minute drive away.

At Harvard, Barkowski said she wants to study Arabic, and Ryu, Abushaar and Barkowski's roommate, also expressed an interest in diversity on her rooming survey.

“We’re both very interested in languages and foreign cultures,” she says of Barkowski and herself.

Across from Matthews in Weld Hall, six language aficionados live in a suite. Together, the six women speak English, French, Italian, Spanish, Creole, Korean, and Telegu.

They hail from all over the Western hemisphere, but despite their geographic and cultural differences, the six exuberant freshmen say they are already incredibly close.

“We like having each other,” Medha-Kameswari Gargeya ’14 says. “They’re kind of like my security blanket.”

COMFORT AND COHABITATION

The security blanket may be a comfort, but the primary goal of the Freshman Dean’s Office, says Dingman, is twofold—to ensure that freshmen “feel a level of comfort in going home every day” while still allowing them to “grow and learn from one another.”

Roommates Sheyda Aboii ’14 and Stephanie Charles ’14 said they had a “really enlightening” conversation about Haiti’s history after Aboii shopped Societies of the World 25: “Health, Culture and Community: Case Studies in Global Health.” Charles is from Haiti, and one of the course’s instructors is Harvard Medical School professor Paul E. Farmer, known for his work in Haiti with his non-profit health care organization Partners In Health.

But despite the FDO’s best efforts, their matches are not always perfect.

Every year, a small margin of freshmen—”about half a dozen”—are switched out of their original suites after approaching the FDO, Dingman says. Many more choose to block with and live with others in future years.

Still, Brown says a successful rooming match does not require cohabitants to be best friends.