Living on campus can be exciting at first, but as the months go by, the nostalgia for the real world can make a person tire of the constant immersion experienced on campus. But, there are a few reasons why you should resist the urge to move off too soon while still in school. The biggest mistake of my undergraduate years after transferring to the University of North Alabama was moving to an apartment for my senior year. My reasons were typical. I couldn’t study well living on campus, I wanted to start real adult life, I wanted my own kitchen and bathroom, etc. But, in hindsight, the benefits of being an on-campus student definitely outweigh the negatives.
1. Making friends is easier when you’re in close quarters.
A big part of college is the relationships that a person forms while there. In many ways, college is an artificial environment. At no other time in a person’s adult life will he or she be around so many unemployed people of the same age with which to interact on a daily basis. Great friendships can definitely be formed across generational lines, but the opportunities of developing meaningful, lasting friendships increase if your neighbors are in the same phase of their life as you rather than working full-time jobs as is usually the case at an apartment complex.
2. You’re already stressed out with schoolwork, why add money to your troubles?
Everyone would certainly love for on-campus housing to be more affordable, but it sure beats trying to find something comparable in the same town. You’re already going to face stress from coursework, why add additional expenses like rent. Besides, in a dorm, electricity, water, and cable are included in the price of room and board for less than you’d pay in rent. Then there’s food and gas. Living and eating on campus can save you anywhere from $80-$120 a month in gas and groceries and for most college students, it’s usually better food than they could cook on their own anyway.
3. It makes college and career planning less stressful.
This one ties into number two. The college years are a small portion of your life and with the cost of a college education increasingly rising relative to the job market payoff, it makes sense to learn as much as you can. After all, you’re either paying for it now or you will be for the next ten to twenty years. According to a Pew Research Center survey, the top three regrets that graduates have toward their college days are: gaining more work experience, studying harder, and looking for work sooner.
These three things can be best accomplished if you wrap your life around your studies and future career. Most employers prefer college graduates that have some sort of work experience that is relevant to the job they’re seeking. Having to take two or three un-career-related, off-campus jobs to pay for rent and cable only prolongs the potential to land that dream job after graduation. It also increases stress and gas expense to have to go back and forth between home, work, school, work, the library, and home again. Living on campus is also preferable if the career field you seek requires a healthy resume. It’s much easier to intern during the summer if you don’t have to worry about how to pay for rent and bills in an apartment you will not be living in for two or three months.
4. It’s easier to stay connected with events.
Living on campus provides a great way not only to connect with other people but to stay connected with free and subsidized college events. After all, your tuition is helping pay for them, why not get your money’s worth? Whether it’s concerts, sporting events, theatrical dramas, intramural sports, or movies on the lawn, college should be so much more than cramming for finals and delivering pizza to pay for gas. Living in the dorms makes it much easier to keep up with what the campus community is involved with.
5. Store that car away! You moved here for college, not a suburban lifestyle.
Some people love the post-World War II American Dream lifestyle of living far away from city centers, near big box stores and suburban malls and having to drive everywhere to get anywhere. Extravagance is the key to winning in Keeping Up With The Joneses. For those of us though that long for the efficiency and community of nearly forgotten Americana when the downtown was the town, college is the perfect place to relive the glory days. There will be plenty of time after college to add car debt to your college debt, but you’ll have a lot more money to pay for it. In the meantime, you can save gas money and enjoy the pedestrian, bike, or longboarding culture of campus life.
Remember, these days won’t last forever.
