The Roommate Matchmaker

Social media has played a central role in Dylan Shabbouei’s time at UCLA.

Informed by his own negative experience finding roommates freshman year, the rising third-year business economics major decided that the available roommate search methods for incoming students were inadequate. Inspired to take matters into his own hands, he started an Instagram page called @ucla2026official during the winter quarter of his first year.

According to Shabbouei, the page encouraged incoming students to send in photos and information about themselves. Shabbouei began posting these student biographies so new admits could meet and connect with each other online. The page grew in popularity, soon gaining thousands of followers and even taking on sponsorship deals. Shabbouei dedicated himself to expanding the account.

Though there were several other accounts similar to @ucla2026official, Shabbouei felt he could meaningfully contribute to the ecosystem of incoming student pages. As he posted the carousels of smiling new Bruins, he aimed to spark compatible roommate matches, not just casual Instagram mutuals. Shabbouei also sought to break the Instagram page norm by running the account from a returning student’s point of view. While some other account owners were incoming students, Shabbouei saw himself as an anonymous mentor for the new Bruins who messaged him for guidance about UCLA.

After UCLA released college admission decisions in March, Shabbouei rebranded the account as @ucla2027official for the incoming class. The account has since built on its predecessor’s popularity, now boasting over 2,000 followers with more than 460 posts displaying profiles of incoming students. As a uniquely seasoned account admin, Shabbouei has been able to track the fruits of his digital community-building work.

Balancing his classes and social life, on top of his Instagram project, Shabbouei has had a unique few years as a Bruin. His Instagram experience has demonstrated the importance of vulnerability when forging relationships in large campus communities.

This summer, PRIME writer Alexa Cyr sat down with Shabbouei to learn more about his account and its role as an unofficial roommate search for incoming students.

The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

PRIME – Do you mind elaborating on the purpose of this account?

Shabbouei – Of course. Well, it kind of stems back to my freshman experience, in which I wanted to kind of throw myself out there with my roommates. So I went random. But being a naive freshman, the way UCLA does things, because the vast majority of dorms are triples, I didn't really get random roommates. I got two people who had selected each other, and then I was kind of thrown in.

So I realized that UCLA’s system of random pairing is bad. That's my opinion, it's bad. And obviously there had been other accounts doing this in the past that I thought that the best thing I could do to help future Bruins is to run one myself.

The purpose of this account – which was the main question – is I'm trying to help incoming students feel more comfortable and have a community before they join, before they get on campus. A big part of that is finding potential roommates. But also, just seeing a familiar face that you saw had a post on the account is nice. You’re like "I’ve seen that person before." Even if I’ve never spoken to them, even if I did DM them– if I didn’t, it still creates a sense of familiarity.

PRIME – How many submissions do you typically receive?

Shabbouei – So I've been running this account for two years now. So I did the class of 2026, and now it’s the class of 2027. I'll actually pull up the exact numbers for you. But last year, the UCLA account did– excuse me. Yeah, I did around 300 posts.

However, not everyone that sends a submission ends up getting posted. There are some requirements. Sometimes I'm sponsored by someone and ask them to sign up for an account or sometimes people just didn't send in proof of admission. But so, if I posted 300, there was probably 750 submissions.

PRIME – Are you aware of any other accounts for incoming students, and what are your thoughts on them?

Shabbouei – Yeah, I know that UCLA has one other account that I believe is affiliated with the actual school. So obviously, what they do is great. I'm trying to compete with them because I think it's providing a good service.

I want to spin the question a little bit and add where I think an account like mine provides value is these guys post probably 10, 20, 30 people a day. You get lost in the sea of everyone, and sometimes it can be nice to be on a slightly smaller account with, what, a third of the followers, a third of the posts. So it still gets seen by enough people and it gives kids an opportunity to maybe stand out a little bit more.

PRIME – So I know that you mentioned that you started the account. What would you describe your role in the account as?

Shabbouei – I do everything regarding the account. So, I started it and what that meant at first – in October of last year – was creating branding for it: creating highlights, creating my bio, creating my profile picture. And then it was trying to reach out to UCLA people. So that was following accounts that were liking pictures that UCLA Instagram posted or that were following UCLA Instagram or that were following the other competitor accounts and trying to get my account out there.

And then once you have a solid base, I would start posting for people. So what that looks like is somebody would send a DM that has four pictures and a blurb about themselves and each day I would download those four pictures for someone, copy the biography and then post that to the Instagram page.

PRIME – Okay cool! So you haven't received any help in running the account, but have you used the account to meet friends yourself? Or have you used similar accounts to find a community that maybe you feel connected to through UCLA?

Shabbouei – That's a fantastic question, and I have a unique answer. So I personally, when I’m running these accounts, when facing the students, I try to remain, I do remain anonymous. I mean, obviously not anymore, but I don’t want to use – I don't know if this is the right word – but like pervert a position of power that this is. I really have information about all these kids and have pictures of them on my phone, and I don't want to do the wrong thing with that.

I don't reach out to kids, especially because they’re incoming, and I don't want to create the wrong impression or make them feel uncomfortable. However, I do try to answer any questions they ask. So a lot of the time you get DMs saying "What do you think about this class?", "What should I do for orientation?" and this and that. And I can provide my opinion as a generic UCLA student rather than Dylan Shabbouei, which I like.

But in terms of community, one big thing about these accounts is people. Companies reach out to me wanting to partner with me, and basically, I act as a third-party contractor advertising for them.

So one account, I don't know if you're familiar with the carrot guy that's been around on campus, but one time, the first day he was there I saw him and he gave me a carrot. And I was like– and I noticed he was advertising an app to download. So I downloaded the app. I checked it out, and I ended up contacting them, and I called the founder, and we’ve had multiple conversations. We've been out to dinner now. I formally met him last week.

And now I'm a part of his startup team – which is really cool – that includes other students who intern for him, advertise for him, and we have our little Carrot group of entrepreneurs, I guess. That was a cool thing to get out of this.

PRIME – So what was it like creating an account as a non-freshman since you're somewhat removed from the community that you're catering to? I know that you mentioned your goal for starting the account, but was it an attempt to mentor or help younger students?

Shabbouei – One hundred percent. I think that's well said. I think that I've always been a person that likes to help others and impart my wisdom, even though I'm still young. And this was one way to do this. This was something that I wish I had used – it was there when I was a freshman, an incoming freshman, but I wish I had used it. And the next best thing to using it was providing it for people who are in a similar position to me.

PRIME – So what do you help incoming students gain from being a member of your online community? Maybe more specifically than generally UCLA affiliated accounts.

Shabbouei – It’s hard to say. However, two things come to mind, I think. One recent partnership I had was with a UCLA website called hotseat.io. They do something similar to Bruinwalk, if you're familiar with that. But they did an account takeover, and they did a huge Q&A. They talked about the ins and outs of being a UCLA student, about orientation, about classes.

And I think that what my account is able to provide is maybe a little bit more of an in-touch community. It’s not the biggest one, it's able to be a little bit smaller, it’s able to keep the kids more connected. And from what I've seen in the DMs I've received, in both questions and submissions, people have been able to find roommates and that's my number one goal. It's really– it’s not to foster a unique community. I'm just trying to help these kids find roommates and have a positive freshmen year experience. But to that same note, it’s cool that there is a unique aspect to it, mostly because it is smaller.

PRIME – You might have a good perspective on this question because you're not just an incoming freshman, but have you noticed any differences between UCLA’s approach to incoming freshmen versus transfer students or other members of the population when it comes to admissions and orientation?

Shabbouei – Yes. I think that one thing that I don't love is how separate those two groups are when they're incoming. To me, as an owner of the account and manager of the account, I view it as, "You’re an incoming UCLA student. You weren't there last year and you're going to be this year." I think that although there are certain nuances to being a transfer student, that the basics of orientation and knowing what you need to know is all the same, and I wish that UCLA did not separate it so much.

And I also wish that– I mean, my account is open to posting for transfer students, but it's a minority of people that send in submissions. And maybe that's on me – I need to make them feel more welcome. But I think that in general, there's a culture that it's two separate pools of people when in reality it’s not.

PRIME – You're a junior right?

Shabbouei – Right.

PRIME – So what do you see as the future for this account? Maybe in the next year or in the next few years. Particularly since you're graduating relatively soon.

Shabbouei – Sure. I mean, I would love to do it again next year. I think that that’s definitely the plan. However, once I graduate, I've had a couple of students over the last two years reach out and say "I would love to take this over for you," and that would definitely be in the cards of passing it along to probably a younger student that could run the account for a couple years and keep it alive. That would definitely be the goal.

PRIME – What are some of the biggest takeaways from running this account for you?

Shabbouei – Honestly, I would say that I've learned that people want to be seen, but they don't want to be vulnerable. And it's a very hard – and I'll expand on that – but it's a hard balance.

People want to have a lot of friends, they want to find the right roommate, they want to be social. But sometimes they're not willing to do what it takes, which is putting yourself out there and putting yourself in a vulnerable situation. And I’ve definitely felt that way before and it's not the most fun to go, let’s say – obviously this doesn’t have to do with the account – but it’s not the most fun to, say, go up to a random person in the dining halls and ask to sit with them and start a conversation.

But that's translated into the online Instagram account in the way that I see some people that write a bio that's maybe two sentences and just says, "This is my name, this is where I'm from. I like X genre of music. Please DM me." And then I see people that really go in depth about themselves and like open up a little bit and I found that those people that open up more are the people that get more responses and have better luck finding people they connect with.

And for me, as a takeaway, as someone who is social and wants to be more social and make friends with everyone and make connections, it’s taught me you make more connections by opening up about yourself and the more you share, the more others will share.