Living Off Campus Living Off-Campus

¶ … Living Off Campus

Living off-campus while attending a university has many benefits compared to living on-campus. One of the main benefits arises from costs associated with on-campus living. If you choose to reside in a dorm, you will be asked to pay in full for it at the time of paying your tuition. This will of course raise your costs, not to mention the interest you will still have to pay if you took out a loan. This can be avoided if you find a place off campus. Meal plans and cost of food can be another incentive for avoiding on campus accommodation: "Food cost is another reason students consider living off campus. Students who live on campus are required to purchase a meal plan, and most choose one of three meal plan offerings that cost $2,073 per semester. The average off-campus student budgets $150 per month for food, causing him or her to save about $323 over the meal plan." (Burnell, 2000)

Living off campus also means that accommodation doesn't have to be cramped like the one a student might find on campus. In the dormitories, universities are always short of space and they will likely have two students share an already small room. With hundreds of things that students bring alone, that one room accommodation may seem even more cramped that it really is. With off campus residency, there is no such issue. There are studio apartments and single rooms available for all budgets and all pockets and hence there is no need to suffer in a single room with another person. Students can choose to take in a room mate or not without having to force themselves to share a room or apartment. If privacy is an important issue with a student than living off campus is a blessing. With no one to disturb and no sharing to do, the student can spend as many hours studying as they like, they can bring in their friends as and when they wish and use the bathroom as often and for as long as they like.

Many students will also prefer to live off campus because of health reasons. This may not seem an obvious reason but it can be a problem when someone in residence hall or dorm has a contagious condition or if someone is under influence of the weather. With on campus space being closed and cramped, the chances of catching infections are much higher.

Students are also responsible for making their own rules when they live off campus. This means there are no restrictions on visitor hours, entrance and exit hours and simply no one to direct your behavior. Instead students can choose to maintain their own hours and be their own boss. Apart from the freedom that it brings, it also teaches students responsibility and instills in them a sense of accountability to themselves which are some of the things that parents would want their children to learn as they live independently. These are important life lessons which will help students a lot once they step outside the university world.