Last spring, Sarah Perry, a college-bound high school senior from a tiny Central Valley town, carefully checked the boxes that best described her.
Sleeping patterns: On that, she'd be flexible.

Smoker: definitely, a no.

Study habits: Background noise wouldn't be a bother.

Neat or messy: a tidy room, for sure.

Questions answered, the 18-year-old from Newman mailed her roommate-matching form to the housing office at California State University, Sacramento, and began the months-long wait.

Last Thursday, Perry's suspense was about to end. Surrounded by a mountain of belongings in her 165-square-foot home in Desmond Hall, she finally knew her roommate's first name -- Julia.

"I'm sure I will get along with her," said a smiling Perry as she waited for Julia to make an appearance. "I've been to tons of camps, and I was an exchange student, so I know how to adjust to new people."

Perry's wait to meet the stranger she'll live with in her first year away from home is a late-summer rite of passage for millions of college freshmen who entrust university housing specialists to make a compatible match.

After years of dissecting student personalities and personal habits described on paper, college roommate-matching techniques -- sorting, stacking and entering those traits into computer databases -- are starting to give way to the Internet.

A handful of schools, ranging from Emory University in Atlanta to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, are offering a computer-dating-like program to let roommates choose each other, and the room they want. The University of Washington in Seattle will use the program starting in the spring.

At the University of Utah, students use screen names to sign onto Webroomz, a Web site where they can troll the profiles of potential roommates and make offers to live together. Without finding out real names, students can see in great detail the likes and dislikes of roommate candidates. Are you a vegan? Do you like Tex-Mex? Are you talkative, shy, aggressive?

"We went this route because it gives control to the student," said Barb Remsburg, associate director for residential living at the 28,000-student University of Utah. "We hope that they become more invested this way, instead of saying 'the administration created this problem for me' if things don't work out."

While most colleges still pair up roommates the more traditional way -- including California schools -- Remsburg predicts that Web-based self-selection will become the method of choice for campuses.

"I think this is where everybody will be going because this is what students want," she said. "I wouldn't describe it as a fad."

But there are plenty of college life experts who aren't convinced that housing directors should relinquish their matchmaker responsibilities.

At CSUS, residence hall director Melissa Kohl, spent a marathon weekend in early August matching the 250 freshmen and sophomores -- including Perry and Julia -- who will be Desmond Hall tenants this school year.

Of course, there are certain students Kohl would never mix: smokers and nonsmokers, early risers and night owls, neat freaks and slobs. But putting students together who might not otherwise find each other is a good thing, Kohl says.

"I don't think choosing someone who is just like you is going to enrich your college experience," Kohl said. "When students are put with someone they haven't chosen, they are challenged to step out of their comfort zones."

University of California, Davis, freshmen are matched through the campus' own computer software program that pairs students by preferences for single-sex or coed dorms, room occupancy and whether they want to live in halls with themes, such as outdoor adventure or sports.

"We don't get into too much detail about social preferences," said Emily Galindo, associate director of student housing. "We've found that it doesn't do much to reduce roommate conflict and can actually make things worse because it sets expectations that you'll get a perfect or near-perfect match."

The random matching is working so far for California State University, Chico, freshmen Miranda Rosales, from Woodland, and Leslie Daniels, from San Diego.

Both 18, they hadn't even heard each other's names until they met on campus two weeks ago.

"We are fortunate," Daniels said. "We can already talk about anything."

Said Rosales: "We found out we're both Catholic. We both like to go out, but aren't too big on partying."

Remsburg says more students can have the same experience as Rosales and Daniels if they are able to choose for themselves.

"Just because students choose each other doesn't make them identical twins," Remsburg said. "They still have so much to learn about each other. It doesn't take away from the diversity of the college experience at all. It means you have someone to share it with."

That's exactly what Perry is envisioning with Julia, while awaiting her arrival.