ABEL YAHAYA A.
U14MM1127
Each student, while entering a college or university has a choice if he would like to live on campus or rent an apartment in the city. And as usual, this choice is very complex and both options have their own advantages and disadvantages. So I decided to pen down my opinion and review the pros and cons of living in school campus.
Living on campus in a dorm with unknown others of varied background and not of one's choosing is an excellent way to broaden one's perspective, gain some valuable living skills, and learn some things about oneself and others. This is totally in line with the aims of university education.
The first advantage of living on campus is that you have a higher accessibility to school; you can access libraries and classes, cafeterias, computer labs and other things you may need to learn without wasting time on walking to school when you live off-campus. I think this is important because while your studying you need to complete a lot of tasks and write numerous papers and access to Materials and equipment is important. The next advantage of living on campus, I think, will be social life. When you live on-campus you can meet more people and establish friendly relationships, you also will know about all activities on campus and how to take part in them. The other advantage of living on campus is the simplicity of your life you don’t need to worry about meals, rent payments and other things which needed when you are living alone. If you live on-campus, you can easily walk to classes, libraries, computer labs, tutorials, group discussions, cafeterias, sport centers, etc. On-campus, this of course makes life easier. While renting an apartment, besides worrying about your meals and rent, you also have more tasks to do, like shopping at grocery, cleaning, transportation, sometimes buying furniture and other things needed for home required.
Of course living on campus has other disadvantages but cannot overweigh the advantages that I earlier mentioned. First is a limited space, you are living with one or two people and need to share space with them. Second is the influence of on-campus social life on your grades and study. Such living will be of course, lack of privacy, you won’t have quiet time and will need to share a bathroom and bedrooms with others. So if you like to be alone, living on-campus probably is not the best option for you.
Another thing you should consider is that living off-campus will require time spending on transportation, you will be doing it by car, bike, bicycle or even a shuttle bus, depending on where you are living and where the university is located. This will take time and also money (not in the case when you are riding a bicycle). As a result, you need to think of how much you will spend on such activity. Also, when you are living off-campus you are less involved in different university/college activities which are aimed to build team spirit, friendship and in some cases educate you. The isolation you may feel living off-campus can be harmful for your education, and may prevent you from establishing friendly relationships with your course mates.
I think that it depends on the personality of the person who makes a decision if he would like to live on- or off- campus. If the person loves to rest in a quiet place, needs to be alone to concentrate on studying, needs a lot of space for living and organized enough to live alone. In this case, it is easier to choose, whether you want a social life with your classmates or living in a quiet comfortable atmosphere of your home.
Also it situates students near resources, like residence hall advisers, lecturers, they can call on if needed. And help might be needed: students are learning to balance all their needs on their own, typically for the first time in their lives. Today's students are often well prepared academically but have zero experience in self-management, as their lives have been highly engineered by parents, coaches, guidance counselors and others. Of course, dorm living often provides distractions aplenty, although no more than the electronic universe students carry with them but it also provides a relatively safe context in which students can practice self-discipline.
When I had a paper to write or exams to study for, I could be at the library until 11pm and then walk home without worrying about my safety.
Academically, living on campus set me up for success. And provided a good solid base from which I branched out. Still a topic open for debate.
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