Roommates, Floormates, and Success: Multilevel Analyses of the Role of International Peers

Abstract

The increasing internationalization of higher education brings opportunities for international and domestic students to interact with one another in productive and meaningful ways. This study examined residential environments in which international and domestic students may be placed in close physical proximity and spend a great deal of time together. Using an institutional dataset of 1,340 international students and 20,323 domestic students from a large research university in the United States, this study explored the extent to which having at least one international roommate and the percentage of international floormates predicts success outcomes among international and domestic students. The results of multilevel regression analyses showed that domestic students living with international roommates tended to have lower grades, retention rates, and graduation rates than domestic students living with domestic roommates; similar adverse findings were observed for the percentage of international floormates. In contrast, the presence of international roommates and floormates was unrelated to success outcomes among international students.