The 'college experience' will vary for each individual based on their college, location, age, roommates, and living arrangements. Together all these components impact a student's experience but individually these components can play a bigger part. Let's focus on one of them: living arrangements.
According to Sallie Mae's college report, the percentage of college students living at home has increased to 54% compared to the previous four years, which leaves 46% of students living away from home during college. Those numbers are roughly the same and great to look at it but how is a student to know which is best for them? Forbes writer, Kate Ashford shares some of advantages and disadvantages of both in "More Millennials Living at Home to Save on College Costs."
Reading these comparisons and statistics, I decided to survey a few college students myself on how the experiences vary between living at home and living away from home. Below you will find the same 5 questions asked to both groups and the students' responses.
Living Away:
Why did you choose to live away from home during college?
1) I couldn't stand living with my trouble-making, younger brother and I was getting frustrated with the lack of freedom I had for being 20 years old.
2) I felt that living away from home as soon as I started college was a natural transition between relying on family and relying on solely myself. At my age, this was an opportunity to start learning how to survive with several of those around me, who were also freshmen straight out of high school.
What are 2 benefits of living away from home?
1) I have greatly increased my freedom compared to when I was living at home and I'm significantly closer to my school.
2) I won't be transitioning into a different lifestyle by myself. I'm surrounded by people who are also going through what I am going through. And I'll most likely be living away from home at some point. It's a good time to go when you're young and straight out of high school, where you're still in the "school" mode.
What are 2 downsides of living away from home?
1) The obvious downsides of living away from home are that I'm away from my family and that I can't have pets in my apartment complex.
2) I'm a huge fan of living separately from my family. I love having those I care about close so that I can spend time with them, and being apart from them has been a huge challenge in my life. And you rely solely on you. You have to go to class and do the homework and student, and you have to take care of yourself. It's all on you, and that is a weird transition.
How would you describe your social life while living away from home?
1) I guess it would be describes as non-existent until I moved out and closer to my school.
2) I moved up to school with one of my good friends and we roomed together. From there, the two of us both made a few really good friends that we spend a lot of our time with.
What are 2 things you've learned from living away from home during college?
1) I've learned how much food actually costs and how bored I get without my little sisters.
2) I've learned that I can get by on my own. I have a job, and now I know that I can do all the basics -- laundry, cooking, grocery shopping. College is this big, scary, mysterious thing that just keeps coming at you until it is finally here and you're pulling through it.
Living at Home:
Why did you choose to live at home during college?
A) I knew that moving home would not only help me but it would allow me to help my mom take care of my nephew.
B) I chose to live at home mainly because my mother is home alone. Even though that is the main reason, I'm also relatively close enough to where I save more money driving down to school 3x a week than paying rent.
A) I don't have to pay rent and buying food isn't as expensive.
B) I don't have to pay rent, utilities, or for food. My mother actually prepares my meals and lunches daily.
What are 2 downsides of living at home?
A) I still have a curfew and have to still follow the house rules like I did in high school.
B) Because I am not living on my own, I don't get the support of roommates or YSA wards that have students going through the same experiences.
How would you describe your social life while living at home?
A) It is harder to have a social life because it is hard to make sure someone is home with my nephew.
B) I think that there are different levels of being social. Thankfully, I have a boyfriend who takes me our every time he has a chance and plans social things to do or else I would be staying home with my mother a lot more often. But I do feel like I see the same couple of people every week, so I don't get out and see other friends very often.
A) I still have a curfew and have to still follow the house rules like I did in high school.
B) Because I am not living on my own, I don't get the support of roommates or YSA wards that have students going through the same experiences.
How would you describe your social life while living at home?
A) It is harder to have a social life because it is hard to make sure someone is home with my nephew.
B) I think that there are different levels of being social. Thankfully, I have a boyfriend who takes me our every time he has a chance and plans social things to do or else I would be staying home with my mother a lot more often. But I do feel like I see the same couple of people every week, so I don't get out and see other friends very often.
What are 2 things you've learned from living at home during college?
A) I've learned how I have to adjust to being able to do things around other people's schedules and learned that sometimes things aren't as easy as they were before.
B) I've learned that I stink at communication with people I used to be close to. I am so busy and isolated that I have learned that I need to keep myself in the loop while juggling work and school. And that I love when my mother takes care of me.
For more college advice and tips, check out my Pinterest.
A) I've learned how I have to adjust to being able to do things around other people's schedules and learned that sometimes things aren't as easy as they were before.
B) I've learned that I stink at communication with people I used to be close to. I am so busy and isolated that I have learned that I need to keep myself in the loop while juggling work and school. And that I love when my mother takes care of me.
For more college advice and tips, check out my Pinterest.
