So I live in an apartment with three other girls. Two of them are graduating this semester, so we need to replace them on the lease. The roommate that’s staying, that I’ll call Emma, and I agreed we’d start searching after the new year.

Well I put up a few Facebook posts, and we’ve gotten around seven responses so far. Some we agreed were bad, some I liked. Emma liked none of them, and she has twice now gone against an applicant just because they were a freshman. This means they would be a sophomore when they move in. She says that you can’t trust freshmen to pay the rent on time, or that they’re crazy and unpredictable. I fee she’s being too judgemental.

On top of that, Emma is holding out for that “perfect” roommate. She doesn’t want to settle this early, thinking if we wait, we’ll find someone else that didn’t want to settle. What I think will happen is that every good roommate will have found a place to stay, and we’ll be left with a bunch of procrastinators who are an actual risk for not paying rent on time. I don’t think this “perfect” roommate exists, let alone two of them. I want to give the freshmen a chance, but Emma seems adamant. AITA? Are freshmen really that bad? Am I rushing this?