This summer, for the first time, Emory College let freshmen pick their own roommates in an online roommate-selection system that works on the same principles as computer dating. Students, using screen names to hide their identities, posted profiles of themselves detailing, personality attributes, work habits, music and food preferences, and answers to questions like whether they hoped to "do almost everything" with their roommate or "lead separate but compatible lives".
Roommate-matching is a summer ritual that plunges college housing offices into the most intimate realm of sleep patterns, cleaning habits, and noise tolerance. Online matching is on the cutting edge. Housing officials at Emory, in Atlanta, say they expect that letting students pick their own roommates will increase the likelihood of compatibility. And there's little risk of hurt feelings if the e-mail exchanges do not lead to a match, since the initial round of contacts is done under screen names.
Several studies have shown that roommates have an impact on the attitudes and social behavior of those they live with. And one recent study found that a roommate's academic performance has a small, but statistically significant, effect on the other roommate's grade-point average. Other studies, however, did not find that effect.
The business of assigning roommates varies widely across the country. At Davidson College, the housing staff sort every freshman with careful hand-selection. The Davidson philosophy is that roommates should be as similar as possible, while halls should be as diverse as possible. "We had a match that seemed perfect, until we discovered that one was a cattle rancher's son and the other was a vegan(绝对素食者)," said Ms. Kromm. "They should definitely meet, on the same hall. But we didn't want to put them in the same room. " Occasionally, an incoming student asks to be paired with an Asian, or says she might not be able to get along with a Republican. In such cases, Ms. Kromm will remind them that Davidson does not accept roommate preferences based on race, ethnicity, and religion.
Davidson's care in matching pays off. "By Christmas last year, we had only four requests for roommate changes out of 480 students. " No one knows whether computer-matching works as well. But at Emory, so far, student reaction seems to be telling something: the online system is overwhelmed with clicks.

单选题 In computer matchmaking, initially students do not reveal their______.

单选题 If e-mail exchanges between students fail to find a match, the students involved______.

单选题 Both computer matching and hand selection follow the principle of______.

单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that computer matching______.

单选题 We can learn that students in general______the online roommate-matching system.