The department of Resident Life has been working with RoomSync, an independent company, since last semester to provide more advanced roommate-matching technology to students.

Finding a perfect roommate match and avoiding unpleasant surprises after move-in day may be easier once the Department of Resident Life launches a new roommate compatibility survey this spring.

According to Resident Life Assistant Director Scott Young, the department has been working with independent company RoomSync since last semester to give students access to more advanced roommate-matching technology. Young said he anticipates about 500 students will try RoomSync, which develops matches using Facebook, when it’s made available for the first time next semester.

“The Residence Hall Association has been very interested in having a program like RoomSync for many years,” Resident Life Director Deb Grandner said. “I think we’re particularly excited about this program because it seems to be one that would be well suited to Maryland.”

Students who use the application will answer 10 questions about sleeping habits, views on having guests over and how social they are on the weekends, Young said. RHA President Sasha Azar said the program is similar to a dating site — the application will take information from users’ Facebook accounts, such as their listed interests, activities and “likes,” and work from those details along with the survey to find similar students.

“It’s kind of a new endeavor for us,” Young said. “It gives people a little more depth and detail  — not a tremendous amount.”

Using RoomSync will be optional, and students who don’t have a Facebook account or who choose not to use it will still answer the five questions Resident Life currently uses to pair students with random roommates, officials said. If the RoomSync Facebook application matches students, they will be able to request each other through the application rather than by submitting a separate request to Resident Life.

Additionally, students can use RoomSync to meet new friends, Azar said. Though students of the opposite sex cannot room together in dorms, they can befriend each other after seeing similar characteristics on the application.

More than 35 colleges already use RoomSync, including the University of Florida, East Carolina University and Temple University, according to the company’s website. Resident Life has a contract to pay RoomSync $4,900 each year until 2015 for the service, Young said.

A Michigan State University study from last year, cited on the RoomSync website, found roommate conflicts can be one of the contributing factors to students dropping out of school. Having a compatible roommate can determine how a year goes for a student, Azar said, and she encouraged students to take advantage of the free service.

“If you don’t feel comfortable at home, then where are you going to feel comfortable?” Azar said.

By starting this program in the spring, Resident Life officials will be able to gauge its popularity among a smaller group of students before more than 7,000 freshman potentially use the application next fall. Resident Life officials will send an email to students accepted in the spring with an access code for RoomSync on Nov. 16, the day after the freshman confirmation deadline for undergraduate admission.

“Students will feel that they have a little more control over who they are going to live with, and for many freshmen, they are worried about that,” Grandner said.

Junior communication major Bria James said the application could limit people from meeting other students who are different from themselves.

“One of the things people say about going to college is you meet a whole bunch of diverse people and Maryland is a diverse school,” she said, adding rooming with someone who has identical interests discourages people from stepping out of their comfort zones and meeting new people.

But when it comes to living with someone, similar interests are important, said senior communication major Jennifer Nakavuma. If she were choosing a freshman year roommate next fall, she said she would leave it to RoomSync.

“It helps you do the job already,” she said. “It kind of helps you find similarities with people that you can live with.”