Renting out a room to a stranger

Ok, so I've been needing to rent out the extra room in my home for awhile now. I work part time now and attend school which has put me in a tight position for money. I mean, full time student with part time job making mortgage payments. Pretty insane, huh? I've been borrowing money from my money market account with my college fund but I must stop doing this. Since my efforts to find a roommate within my group of known friends/co-workers have failed I need to resort to renting out my room to a stranger.

With this I am a bit concerned. What is the best way to go about it? First of all, I'm thinking about advertising on campus first. Only thing I'm concerned about is them hosting parties or bringing bad people into my home.

What should I do to prepare before hand? Should I do a background check on whoever moves in? Do I need to have some sort of contract made? What type of deposit should I require? I want to know what I should expect to do before I put an ad out to the public. Should I include utilities in their monthly bill and make strict rules on running the heater/AC?

If anyone has experience with this please let me know.

How ya doing, buddy?