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Youngstown native's software brings science to roommate matching
YOUNGSTOWN
Kim Rubenstein wants college students to avoid a bad roommate experience.
The Youngstown native, now living in Chicago, co-developed Compatibility, a startup that uses an algorithm to match students with roommates, mentors, peers and student organizations.
“I wanted to prove that nonacademic factors affect student success,” she said.
Rubenstein said the product is sold only to housing agencies and universities. Through the housing application process, students are matched on their responses to a 108-question survey about their behavior, personality and interests.
“We don’t use any demographics to match students,” Rubenstein said. The key to matching students is whether their values are aligned, she said.
The administrators can’t see an individual student’s answers, due to privacy concerns. But they can aggregate similar data from the population into niche categories.
Rubenstein said the idea came about when she and her friends talked about their own roommates in college.
“I had a horrible roommate experience,” she said, while reflecting on her third year at Ohio State University.
During that year, Rubenstein said, her roommate would steal money, clothes and even her identity to some extent.
Such experiences led Rubenstein and her colleague Andrea Meltzer to research and develop a way to match students.
They hired Versta Research in Evanston, Ill., to develop their survey from more than 500 questions to 108. In 2011, the two developed their product with the University of New Haven in Connecticut, which became their first client.
Other clients include Scion Group, a Chicago-based private student housing group.
Rubenstein said other universities are inviting them to do a demonstration of their products, which can also be tailored to each client’s needs.
Some universities across the country, such as Youngstown State University, already use a short survey when pairing up roommates.
The university uses software from Colorado-based StarRez Inc. where students answer a seven-question survey, said Crystal Mills, associate director of housing and residence life at YSU.
“I think it’s very successful,” Mills said. “It gives them a way to start communicating back and forth.”
According to a survey conducted at YSU in spring 2013, nearly 84 percent of students were satisfied with their room assignment.
Competition doesn’t sway Rubenstein, who thinks her product has something new to offer in the industry.
“There are other competitors that do it but not on a scientific basis,” she said.