When students first arrive on campus in their first year, the sheer amount of things to do and keep track of can get overwhelming quickly. In addition to classes, there are clubs and activities that students get involved in, as well as meetings and socials to attend. For many, one of the advantages of staying on campus is the wealth of additional resources available. Whenever one has questions or feels distressed, RA’s, advisors, and other students are almost always readily available and willing to help. When moving farther away from campus, the ease of access to these aides is greatly decreased and it can add to a student’s worries.
The result of the added companionship and help of living on campus is often higher academic performance. Students who live off-campus are nearly twice as likely to get a GPA below 1.0 as those living on campus. In addition, those living on-campus have an average GPA that is anywhere from .19 to .97 points higher than their counterparts. Possibilities for the academic gap could be that the libraries are in easier walking distance of those on-campus, as well as the offices of professors, study groups, and academic advisors. Many large universities also provide tutoring and student organizations dedicated to learning on-campus.
However, there are several problems with trying to quantify the benefits of living on-campus. For example, many students who choose to stay on campus are in better financial situations, as most believe it is more expensive. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between financial situation and higher academic performance. Therefore, it is possible that the theoretical correlation between living on-campus and better academic performance is really just the well-known correlation between wealth and grades.
Another problem is that the majority of students who stay on campus are freshmen, especially in schools that require all freshmen to stay on-campus. This can lead to comparisons of academic performance between freshmen and upperclassmen, which can be unfair and lead to bias, in either direction. Unfortunately, in schools that require freshmen to stay on campus, there is no control group.
Finally, the students who choose to stay on-campus are those who believe that the decision will help them more than staying off-campus. If the same students stayed off-campus, it is possible that they would perform differently. At the same time, the students staying off-campus believe that it is the best decision for them, for financial, academic, or social reasons. Without a control group for both, there is no way for us to tell whether staying on or off campus is the better decision. Ultimately, every student is different, and will have to decide for himself/herself whether to live on or off-campus.
Study groups are a huge benefit to living on-campus. While they exist off-campus, the difficulty of finding and gathering a group increases the farther a student moves away from campus.
I think in the beginning of first semester freshman year, living off campus can affect grades in a positive way. The student will not have to deal with stress of moving in, finding their way, adjusting to living with a roommate and etc. However, in a social aspect, living off campus can be very unhealthy. Students need to grow and learn what it is like to not live at home with meals being cooked for them, being on their own and finding a new building and having a change of life. I agree that students who live off campus have better grades than students who live on campus . I disagree that there is no control group. You can get a group of students to live on campus, and a group of students to live off campus, all who are taking the same classes and see which students perform better.
I really like this blog post however I find a couple flaws in the logic. For one, although you seem to have a few good facts about how people who live on campus are exposed to more resources and therefore have a better chance of doing well in school, it’s also true that people who don’t live on campus could have the same opportunity. I live here in State College and I took summer classes but decided not to live in the dorms because it seemed unnecessary at the time. Although I didn’t live on campus I was still able to make my way to study groups and tutoring sessions just like everyone else. But there’s really an exception to every case. Also, I think that this is a question of the specific individual. I live on campus now and although it’s a lot easier to get to places where I can seek help with my academics, there are also a lot of distractions such as the social scene, clubs, and a lot of other things. If someone can focus in this environment then that’s fine, but there’s also people who naturally perform better at home in a quiet secluded area.
Another problem with the study I realized is another bias between freshmen students and students living off campus. Freshmen generally take easier classes because they aren’t in their major courses yet or are taking gen-eds. These are the classes that us first-year students are supposed to do well in so that we can start off with a good GPA. The ease of schedules of freshmen could be a reason for people living on campus having higher GPAs, coupled with all of the ideas you had as well. Also, has anyone else realized that they’ve been calling us first-year students instead of freshmen? That’s supposed to be more gender-neutral because of the “men” part of freshmen. Just a fun fact!
If we look at specifically Penn State, those living off campus are right in the middle of all the action down on College Avenue. This could be a detriment to some students because it is more difficult to focus on their studies but could this be focused more on those living in apartments? I know that many of the fraternities and sororities are known for keeping good GPAs and they are off campus. Specifically, the fraternity I am pledging DTD has the third best GPA of any house on campus at a 3.4