La Tasha Hicks, an incoming freshman from Radcliff, said she has a hard time meeting new people.

But a new roommate matching Web site allowed her to find a new friend and a roommate for next semester.

Housing and Residence Life decided earlier this semester to use a roommate matching service from the company Lifetopia. Officials say they’re happy with the number of people who’ve used the site so far.

Incoming freshmen and transfer students were e-mailed a key code to create a profile.

The service started on March 31, and 90 profiles were created within the first day, said Kit Tolbert, director of housing operations.

The site allows users to list their preferences such as music choices and preferred bed times and search for people based on those preferences.

As of April 24, 20 people had found a roommate through the site and several hundred had created profiles, Tolbert said.

“I feel good about the number of people who have actually created a profile,” she said.

Tolbert said she was expecting more students to have found a roommate already, but she hopes more will by the time she gets updated numbers.

“For getting started late, I think we have had a great response,” Tolbert said.

Hicks, who plans on majoring in psychology, said she found a roommate within a week of creating a profile on the site.

“I just typed in people that had the same major,” she said.

Hicks said she was looking for someone she could get along with. She e-mailed someone who seemed good for her.

“We’ve become good friends and she agreed to be my roommate,” Hicks said.

The two have been e-mailing every day or every other day in the few weeks since then, she said.

Hicks said the site helped her feel more comfortable about her roommate situation next year.

“I recommend it for people who are not easy at making friends face to face,” she said. “It really helped me.”

HRL Director Brian Kuster said student use of the site has exceeded his expectations.

He said he’d only expected about 50 students to use it, but he’s excited about so many students using it the first year.

Tolbert said she’s gotten great feedback from students who’ve used the Web site.

She said she expects more students to use the site next year when officials can start it earlier.

Officials will probably offer the site to all students next year in case returning students want to use it to find a roommate, she said.