You found your college. Now find your roommate.

College housing is expensive. Off-campus rent keeps climbing. And scrolling through sketchy listings alone on marketplace sites like Craigslist, random Reddit threads, and even open Facebook groups is not the safest bet, nor the most intuitive way to find someone you actually want to live with. Roommates.com matches you with roommates who meet your criteria. And right now, your .edu email gets you 50% off.

Claim Your Discount at Roommates.com →

Why College Students Need a Better Way to Find a Roommate

 

Whether you are heading into your first off-campus apartment, transferring to a new school, returning for grad school, or just trying to make your rent more manageable, finding the right roommate is one of the most important decisions you will make in college and in life.

The wrong roommate can make even a great apartment miserable. The right one can make a tough housing market actually work in your favor.

That is exactly what Roommates.com was built for: connecting people who want to share a space with people they actually want to live with. Not just whoever responds first. Not whoever seems okay in a blurry Facebook profile photo. The right person. Verified, compatible, and ready to move.

Who Roommates.com Is Built For

 

You Have a Spare Room to Fill

Maybe you are already locked into a lease, and your original roommate fell through. Maybe you own or rent a house near campus and want to offset costs. Maybe you are subletting for a semester. 

 

Whatever the situation, listing your spare room or rooms on Roommates.com puts it in front of thousands of students and educators actively searching for a room in your area, right now. Set your preferences, describe your space, and connect with people whose lifestyle and budget actually align with yours.

No more fielding messages from people who ghost you after the first exchange.

 

You Are Looking for Someone to Go In On a Place Together

 

This trend makes good sense for budget-seeking students. In this situation, two or more people who do not already have a place team up to find one together and split the cost.

It is a smart move. The average Roommates.com member saves $500 or more per month by sharing versus living alone. In high-cost college markets like New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles, that number climbs even higher.

Roommates.com lets you find a co-searcher whose budget, move-in timeline, lifestyle preferences, and location needs match yours, so you can go into the apartment hunt as a team rather than scrambling to find a place and then hoping someone compatible shows up.

What Makes Roommates.com Different

There is no shortage of ways to look for a roommate. Here is why Roommates.com is the better choice for students.

Every member can verify their identity with phone and ID verification, so you know who you are connecting with before you ever meet in person. No anonymous listings, no unverifiable profiles, no guessing. The compatibility matching system goes well beyond location and price. You can filter by move-in date, budget, neighborhood, pets, sleep schedule, smoking preference, and lifestyle habits to find someone whose daily life actually works with yours, not just someone willing to split the rent.

All communication stays within Roommates.com until you are ready to connect directly, keeping your personal contact information private until you choose to share it. The platform has thousands of rooms and roommates listed nationwide across every major college market, with new listings added daily, especially during peak move-in seasons before fall and spring semesters. And browsing is completely free. You only need a membership when you are ready to connect, and with your .edu email, it's 50% off.

How the Student Discount Works

Sign up using your verified .edu email address, and your 50% discount is applied automatically to any membership plan. Instantly.

 

Claim Your Discount at Roommates.com →

 

Already have a Roommates.com account? Log in, verify your .edu email in your account settings, and the discount applies to your next billing cycle.

The discount is available to students, graduate students, faculty, adjunct professors, and university staff. Basically, anyone with a valid .edu email address, at any age, in any program.

Built for Every Stage of Campus Life

Roommates.com works for the full range of student housing situations, from incoming freshmen searching for their first off-campus place to sophomores and juniors ready to leave the dorms, graduate students relocating for a new program, PhD candidates seeking longer-term stability, and returning or non-traditional students at any point in their academic journey. 

 

Faculty and staff new to a university town, and adjunct professors looking for affordable options near campus, are equally at home on the platform. Whatever your situation, the inventory, the tools, and the verified community are there to help you find the right fit fast.

 

Why Educators and Graduate Students Have Unique Housing Needs

 

Teachers and graduate students face a housing challenge that most platforms are not built to solve. Thesis residencies, internships, clinical placements, and on-site practicums often require temporary housing for a single semester or academic term. These short work stints in a market mean that a standard 12-month lease feels like overkill, and long enough that a hotel is not a realistic option.

Unlike undergraduates, of whom only 21.5% at the country's 175 largest universities can be accommodated in campus housing, graduate students are even more exposed, with just 6% living on campus, leaving the vast majority to navigate the private rental market on their own, under time pressure, in cities they may not know well.

The scale of the problem is significant. University housing demand already outpaces supply at many institutions, and according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, an additional 112,000 graduate beds will be needed by 2031 on top of existing shortfalls. For graduate assistants and educators working within the limits of a stipend or an adjunct salary, finding affordable, flexible housing close to campus is one of the most stressful parts of an already demanding season.

Roommates.com provides a practical and immediate bridge. The platform's flexible search options align naturally with academic calendars, so you can filter by move-in date and duration to find rooms and roommates that fit a single semester, a summer term, or a full academic year without being locked into a lease that outlasts your placement.

Budget filters let graduate assistants and educators working within tight financial constraints find compatible options without wading through listings that are out of reach. And the platform's compatibility matching goes beyond price and proximity, so you can connect with people in similar professional or academic situations, whether that is another grad student on a parallel timeline, a fellow educator with a comparable schedule, or a researcher whose work habits and lifestyle actually match yours.

There is also a less obvious benefit that matters more than most people expect: community. Sharing a home with someone who understands the rhythms of academic life, such as late nights, early mornings, the pressure of a practicum week, and the particular exhaustion of grading season and graduation, makes the day-to-day of a demanding placement meaningfully easier.

 

Roommates.com is one of the few platforms where finding that kind of fit is actually possible, because the matching system is built around who people are and how they live, not just whether they can cover their share of the rent.

Popular Student Markets on Roommates.com

Roommates.com has active listings in every major college city in the country, including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C.

Search by city, neighborhood, or zip code to find rooms and roommates within walking or commuting distance of your campus.

Real Students. Real Results.

~ "I found my roommate in three days. Way better than anything else I tried. Knowing everyone was verified made me feel safe reaching out." — Graduate Student, University of Florida

~ "Finally a platform that felt safe and legitimate. I knew everyone was verified before I ever sent a message." — Undergraduate Student, Michigan State University

~ "Saved me hundreds compared to living alone. My roommate is now one of my best friends two years later." — PhD Candidate, University of Texas

Claim Your 50% Student Discount

Half the price. All the features. A verified community of students and educators who are searching for exactly what you offer — or who are ready to go in on a place together.

Claim Your Discount at Roommates.com →

FAQS 

Q: What is the Roommates.com student discount?
A. Students and educators with a valid .edu email address receive 50% off any Roommates.com membership plan. The discount is applied automatically at signup, with no coupon code required.

Q: Who qualifies for the .edu discount?
A: Anyone with a valid .edu email address qualifies, including undergraduate students, graduate students, PhD candidates, faculty, adjunct professors, and university staff at any age and in any program type.

Q: How do I claim the student discount?
A: Sign up at Roommates.com using your .edu email address. Your discount is applied instantly and automatically. If you already have an account, log in, add your .edu email in account settings, and the discount will apply to your next billing cycle.

Q: Can I use Roommates.com if I don't have a room yet?
A: Absolutely. Many students use Roommates.com to find a co-searcher; someone to team up with and find a place together. You can search for compatible people by budget, move-in date, location, and lifestyle before you have a lease in hand.

Q: Is Roommates.com safe for college students?
A: Yes. Members can verify their identity using phone and ID verification. All messaging stays within the platform until you choose to share your personal contact information. You control when and how you connect directly. In-app video chats enable you to interview a prospective roommate online, before meeting in person. 

Q: Is it free to search? 
A: Browsing profiles and listings is initially free. When you are ready to connect, select a membership plan that works for you: 7-day, monthly, six month, or annual  With your .edu email, that drops to as little as $6 per month! 

Q: What if I need a roommate fast before the semester starts?
A: Set your move-in date in your search filters and sort by most recent listings. New listings are added daily, especially during peak move-in periods before fall and spring semesters.

Q: What cities is Roommates.com available in?
A: Roommates.com has active listings in every major college market nationwide, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, Minneapolis, and Washington D.C. Search by city, neighborhood, or zip code.

Q: How is Roommates.com different from Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace?
A: Roommates.com is built specifically for roommate matching with identity verification, compatibility filters, and safe in-platform messaging. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are general classifieds with no verification, no matching tools, and significantly higher risk of scams and unvetted contacts.

Q: Does the discount apply to grad students and faculty, too?
A: Yes. Any person with a valid .edu email qualifies, regardless of whether they are an undergraduate, graduate student, faculty member, or university staff.

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Roommates.com has been the largest and most trusted roommate matching platform in the country for over 20 years. As featured in Apartment Therapy, The Boston Globe, Business Insider, Forbes, and more.