Our Story
In 2009, Boyd Yarbrough, a former Housing Director, had an idea that the outdated and cumbersome housing assignments process could be modernized. He knew today’s college students wanted more control over who they were rooming with, and he knew that small schools needed help with their assignments process.
Our Purpose
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PDS creates a safe, secure environment for college students to find their own roommate.
The owners of PDS are all parents, so the safety of students using PDS is paramount. The platform is designed so that students can only interact with other students from their school. All communication is designed to occur within the safety net of the PDS program.
The security of information is also important. No information is shared with other companies and all information is kept secured with each individual school. In fact, PDS only needs name, email, and gender to create a student account. Students are provided a personal password that they may change at any time.
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PDS provides colleges and universities with a cost-effective tool for matching roommates and assigning students to campus housing.
One of the important distinctions of PDS is providing an effective tool for college administrators at a low cost and without any gimmicks or misleading information. Many companies will not disclose the cost of their products or services.
PDS discloses all costs upfront and offers its products and services at a fraction of the cost of many competitors. PDS is offered as a stand-alone program and does not require colleges to purchase additional programs or software, nor does it require unnecessary or undesired tools. In addition, no long-term contracts are needed and full satisfaction is guaranteed!
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PDS relieves stress for students and residence life staff caused by the housing assignment process.
The most compelling reason for the creation of PDS was seeing students and parents stress over the process of the roommate selection process. Many colleges only provide students with two options: choose your own roommate or have a random roommate assigned to you. Most students enter this process, never having shared a room with another person. Only to find that when they get to college, they are sharing a room with sometimes several students!
PDS empowers the student to play an active role in the housing assignment process by identifying the most important characteristics of a roommate. Those who listen to, practice and perform music may find that they prefer a roommate who is also a musician. Neat freaks can find other neat freaks. Those who stay up late or go to bed early can find someone with similar preferences.
Our Team
Dr. Boyd Yarbrough, President and CEO of PDS
Boyd has his BA degree in psychology from Furman University. He earned his Masters in Human Development from Appalachian State University. He has an EdS and EdD in Higher Education from Florida State University. Boyd has worked in Higher Education for over 30 years, including serving as a former Director of Housing.
Boyd has two children who are in college and they have first-hand experience with the stresses of choosing a college roommate.
Boyd has also spent many hours with other parents helping them cope with the stress of seeing their children being assigned to random roommates and having to share a room with another person.