Moving Off Campus Research Paper

here are many compelling reasons to move off-campus. Pretty much all of them can be broken into seven main areas.
1) Cost
2) Freedom
3) Space
4) Privacy
5) Health
6) No Res-Life Drama
7) Life Prep
I'll go into further detail on each below:
Cost:
It can be expensive to live on campus. First off, residential life/housing offices tend to require that your bill be paid in full with tuition which most likely means a loan, which while resulting in a single payment, will likely mean you are going to accrue interest while paying for on-campus housing. Secondly, in many situations you will be required to purchase a meal plan, another expensive ticket. If like some students, you have dietary restrictions, or even schedule restrictions, you may find that
you are paying for excessive amounts of food outside of your meal plan. This includes going out for meals and buying snacks since you can't take advantage of the food available with the meal plan. Finally, if you break down the amount you are paying for on-campus housing by dividing it by the number of months you are staying there, you will find that it is a rather large figure. Yes, this figure does include your "rent" and utilities, but in many cases it still remains cheaper to live off campus. Living off campus can be much cheaper if you find a good apartment, or choose a slightly more expensive apartment but add a roommate to split the costs, and if you are careful about what you use (utility-wise) and what you spend (on food).
Freedom:
Most dormitories and student housing facilities have a number of rules - these tend to include prohibited items (even things like warming plates!), visitor hours and numbers, room checks, mandatory meetings, etc.
If you choose to live off campus, you ultimately are responsible for your own rules. You have to follow the law, of course, but you have the freedom to decide what to include in your apartment, how it will be set up, when to come and go, the number of people you can have over, and when you will clean. Your time and space are your
own.
Space:
There are a few special benefits involved with living off campus. Getting hold of a single room can be pretty difficult, not to mention expensive. So you will most likely be rooming with someone, which is not the worst thing in the world, but it can have some pretty negative repercussions when you find yourself sharing a shoebox with one other person and all of their worldly belongings. Moving off-campus will allow you to take advantage of greater filling it up with what you need, eliminating what you don't, and making it your own. Another benefit is having separate living facilities - again this applies in dormitories, not necessarily in all on-campus housing. Studies have shown that people sleep and work better when they have designated areas to do so, and yes you can make a "computer area" and a "bed area" but they are so close together it can be a little disconcerting sometimes. Moving off campus will allow you more space to be effective, successful, and comfortable.

Privacy:
Obviously, it's pretty hard to keep up privacy when sharing a shoebox on-campus, and it might still be difficult if you move off-campus with a roommate, but it will still likely be better than it was. The largest privacy issue for most students though is bathrooms/showers. Many dorms and some apartments are communal - have shared facilities. Even if you get over the privacy issues involved, you might find you have a scheduling conflict you need to resolve since six other people wake up and take a shower when you do - leaving you with no available shower and a few minutes until class starts. Off-campus housing eliminates this problem; you can reclaim the bathroom as yours!

Health:
It's easy to overlook the health benefits of moving off campus, and of course they may not apply to everyone, but moving off-campus can help you avoid getting sick during cold/flu season or when someone in the dorm has bronchitis and seems to be spreading it like the plague.
When you move off-campus you are forced to become more responsible for your health - in more ways than one. A big one will be eating - what will you eat/cook? How often will you eat? Don't be afraid of this though, there are a lot of resources available to help you get into healthy eating trends and to help you learn to cook. Moving off-campus is a great way to jump-start healthier eating
habits.

No Residential Life/Housing Office Drama:
Unfortunately, one of the pitfalls many students encounter while living on campus involves their local residential life office. This can be as simple as having to explain why you didn't make any of the mandatory meetings or as difficult and serious as finding out that due to some mix-up or overcrowding you don't have a place to live. With all of the rules, paperwork, and general bureaucracy involved with living on-campus, many students find that living off-campus is a pretty peaceful existence.

Life Preparation:
Now, I know it sounds corny, but moving off-campus really is a great way to prepare for "The Real World"; yes - that thing that you will have to face after you graduate. Getting into the habit of paying your rent and bills online, establishing a budget and being responsible for your own finances and payments, cooking, managing your household, and living in/maintaining more than one room are all great ways to make life after college more bearable and less frightening. At least you will have a leg up over the new grads who are only now finding their own apartments and facing reality. It can be a great opportunity for you to start refining your habits and creating a lifestyle that suits your needs.
Those are the major benefits to living off-campus - so what should you do now?
If you haven't read any articles on why you should live on-campus, go do that right now!
If you have already examined the opposing side, then you should sit down, look at your needs and situation and evaluate what best meets your needs .