Katie Lim worried selecting a bad roommate could tank her freshman year before it even began. A portal from the University of Maryland read like a government form: dense with text, full of questions to find possible pairings that were both vague yet oddly specific and utterly devoid of vibes. There wasn’t a single photo.

So the 18-year-old did what any self-respecting Gen Zer would do: She turned to Instagram. There she found not one, but three different pages run by private companies to help members of the Class of 2029 find roommates. Lim picked the one with the most engagement, uploaded 1 0 carefully curated photos (volleyball, Chipotle, friends) and waited.

Two weeks later, her profile was live. The payoff was almost immediate: 150 new followers to her Instagram account and 30 DMs. T

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