Should College Students Live on Campus or off Campus?

Sample-1:

As adults, college students are responsible individuals capable of sensible and independent judgments and decisions. Living on or off campus is really a matter of personal choice and different students can make their decisions that best accord with their individual needs.

In most countries in the world, such an issue has never been a dispute or controversy. Students have the implicit freedom to make their choices based on their preferences. In China, a university is largely a micro-society where dormitories are provided for all matriculated students. Additionally, as an Oriental nation, China has conservative moral standards against pre-marital sex, especially for college students. Therefore, it is taken for granted college students should live on campus.

However, things have been changing dramatically. As many Chinese families become financially well-off, they can afford their sons and daughters better-equipped apartments off campus. In the rented accommodation, a student enjoys greater personal freedom—a more tranquil environment in which they can concentrate on their studies and greater privacy with which they can associate with their friends, including their boyfriends or girlfriends. Those are all unalienable human rights guaranteed by the Constitution. As long as those students behave within legal boundaries and their off-campus life does not affect their academic performance as students, there is no reason why college students should not live off campus.

However, living off campus does pose problems. A student living alone off campus may incur greater personal risks. With less time to mix with classmates, he or she will be less competent as a team player. Having to spend much time traveling to the campus, the student will have serious challenges to be punctual for classes. Finally, without their independent income, most students will certainly increase financial burdens on their parents. Therefore, any students with serious intentions to live off campus should really have serious thoughts about those issues before they actually make their choices.

Sample-2:

In recent years, a growing trend has been for college students to live off campus. The reasons given are diverse, ranging from more time for students to concentrate on their studies to greater personal freedom and privacy. However, many are merely pretexts and living off campus definitely does more harm than good. 

A student committed to academic excellence can always find sufficient time to focus on their studies. Vacant classrooms and reading rooms in the library never fail to offer a perfect environment for self-study after classes. Too many students who rent a room off campus don’t focus on studies at all. Instead, they simply go shopping or play computer games. Having a room of one’s own so that one can better focus on one’s studies is simply a lie.

Many students rent rooms off campus under the pretext of having greater independence and privacy. To some extent, such independence and privacy are possible, but they tend to keep one isolated from one’s fellow students. In a matter of several years, college students will have to graduate and work at corporate or government organizations where they must be productive team members. Living alone off campus will make one less competent as a proactive team player; hence one’s career development will be seriously undermined.

Finally, living off campus will pose serious financial constraints on students and their parents. Expenditures on education are already prohibitive/forbidding/exorbitant in China and renting a room off campus will constitute a substantial amount of money in addition to tuition fees and living expenses. Students living in rented accommodations, often quite expensive, simply disregard the efforts their parents make to support their education with the hard-earned money.

Most colleges and universities in China have sufficiently good facilities for students to study and to live. Living off campus is simply a huge waste of money and time. All students would be better off living on campus.

Sample-3:

Throughout primary and secondary education, Chinese students are subjected to the strictest custody of their parents and teachers. Going to colleges allows them superb chances to take care of their own development.

Living off campus offers one of such chances. A key skill college students should cultivate as adults is self-management—managing time and studies, doing laundry and shopping, and preparing food, etc. Left entirely to their own discretion, they have to exercise greater self-discipline. For those responsible students, living off campus is really a self-imposed effort to enhance one’s capacity for an independent life.

Apart from that, living off campus can improve students’ emotional maturity. They learn to associate with the right people, take part in healthy activities, behave responsibly, and handle possible emergencies and crisis. Typically, they face more challenges. Meeting those challenges effectively is definitely a mark of emotional maturity. For a student, becoming emotionally mature is as important a task as is pursuing academic excellence.

Students will graduate from their universities sooner or later. By empowering them to become physically more independent and emotionally more mature, living off campus makes students fully prepared for future challenges when they do leave the ivory tower of their universities.