Web site to help students
find roommates for internships
 By
Luis Jiménez
Staff Writer
Students usually do a lot of work to get an internship.
They go to internship fairs, fill out applications, go through interviews
and then often move to unfamiliar cities.
But a new initiative developed by the Purdue Student
Government - the online roommate finder - will make interns' lives easier
by helping them to find roommates in the cities where they are going
to intern.
The online roommate finder will be on a Web site
that students can go to and select a roommate depending on the city
where they are going to work.
Rajat Bhatt, director of Web site development and
chief designer of the online roommate finder, said the roommate finder's
format would help people find a roommate depending on which day the
internship starts, the city they will internship in and the school or
the major they are in.
Bhatt said students can look for roommates in 15
major cities including Chicago, Indianapolis and Las Vegas.
According to Bhatt, the Web site is limited right
now to provide roommate finding for the fall, spring and summer internships.
He said that depending on the input of students and the response the
Web site gets from students, the student government might expand the
service to on-campus roommate finding as well.
"We've initially started the service depending
on students' response. The more input, the better chance of expanding
our services later on," said Bhatt.
Jim Vaca, president of the Purdue Student Government,
said the Web site is being developed to be upgradeable if the service
expands in a near future. It would allow for online roommate finding
on-campus during the semester, not only for internships.
Scheduled for a Feb. 15 launch, the online roommate
finder can be found through the link http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~psg.
John Nichele, executive director of public relations
for the student government office, said the finder will be advertised
by flyers and commercials on Boiler Television. Brochures are also going
to be made and distributed around campus and at upcoming internship
fairs.
"We are going to have booths with information under
the mural at Stewart Center and at the Union on Feb. 15 and Feb. 20,"
Nichele said.
Students will be able to specify their roommate's
characteristics so they can find someone they can live comfortably with
during the internship period.
"Roommates can be selected because of their hobbies,
smoking preferences, major, age and similar interests," Nichele said.
According to Bhatt, the waiting time to find a
roommate will vary depending on the number of applications received
by the system.
Nichele explained that once you enter your roommate
preferences, the finder will give you a list of potential roommates
with their contact information, then you'll have to contact them to
arrange everything.
Nichele said that the online roommate finder will
be very useful because a lot of students go off to major cities when
they find an internship.
"It's a great opportunity to take out much of the
stress and burdens that are put onto students when they have to move
to cities where they do not have any friends or relatives," said Vaca.
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