DISTANCE LEARNING | CONTINUING EDUCATION | ONLINE DEGREES

College professors will be the first to tell you that their lives are boring. They don’t usually find themselves in critter-infested catacombs, duking it out with rabid Nazis or fighting supernatural beasts. They don’t find themselves becoming the victims of their own research, gaining superhuman powers in the process. They especially don’t find themselves in the arms of beautiful, cosmopolitan women. I mean, let’s face it: these guys make a living teaching half-conscious college kids and either reading others’ research or producing their own. They get more involved with spreadsheets and computer models than they do with any damsels in distress.

College roommates can be less than desirable. Let’s be honest: they can be downright revolting. Some are severely challenged in hygiene and organizing skills. Some are insanely clean and demand the same of others. Some take your stuff. Some won’t give you a thing. Some are too loud. Some are freakishly quiet.

To commemorate these annoying, infuriating, and sometimes endearing habits, we have compiled the following list of bad habits. Vote for which ones you think are most annoying:

Borrowing without asking (a.k.a. stealing) – Includes taking or using clothes, electronics, food, toiletries, dishes, CDs, DVDs, magazines, and books. It also includes not contributing to the purchase of common items, like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc.

Picking nose – Includes dredging the nasal passage walls for mucous build-up. Most troubling cases involve ingestion of removed mucous or depositing of mucous on furniture. Leaving used tooth floss or q-tips around may also fall under this category.

Leaving dishes unwashed – Includes using dishes, silverware, or cookware and then leaving them in an uncleaned state. Whether they are left in the kitchen sink, on the coffee table, or buried under a pile of clothing, any abandonment of unclean dishes falls under this category.

Not taking a bath – Includes lack of regular showering or bathing within two or more days of the last instance of showering or bathing. Sponge baths do not constitute showering or bathing.

Being too noisy – Includes playing music, shouting, laughing, or otherwise generating noise at higher than acceptable sound decibel levels, especially during sleeping or study times. However, if noise occurs during other times, you may be guilty of improperly assuming authority (see below).

Being a recluse – Includes not returning greetings, not reciprocating polite conversation when offered, hiding in one’s room, or otherwise inhibiting reasonable communication and interaction with one’s roommate.

Always having company over – Includes continuous presence of non-roommate persons in the premises, especially at inopportune times of the day to the point of encroaching on privacy and personal property. Level of annoyance depends largely on physical appearance of and unwanted noise generated by non-roommate persons.

Creating unfavorable odors – Includes gastrointestinal expulsions, poorly prepared food items, lack of personal hygiene, and odors originating from environmental hazards that are the result of neglect (i.e. dirty clothes hamper).

Improper assumption of authority – Includes all communications, both verbal and nonverbal, implying a dominant role on the part of the communicator. Common examples include leaving out sarcastic notes, scolding, and glaring disapprovingly.

Overuse of facilities – Includes exceeding one’s daily hot water quota, toilet time quota, or remote control time quota.

Tell us which ones annoy you the most. Got one to add to the list? Tell us about it below…