College Life: Benefits of Living On-Campus

Numerous studies all over the world have made assumptions about the academic performance of students staying on campus and those who commute to campus every day. Some studies suggests that those students who live on campus tend to have an advantage over those who don’t (Peterson, 1975). In this literature review we will look at the different views of people who researched the subject.

Peterson (1975) suggested that those students involved in activities on campus “are better off financially, educationally and in other ways to begin with. Then, largely because of their greater involvement in various educational and developmental activities, they make significantly greater gains, particularly in non-academic personal development” (p2). Understanding group differences between the commuters and non-commuters is critical, as the commuter population nationwide continues to increase and universities are forced to compete for the patronage of these commuter students: (Newbold, Metha, & Forbus, 2011, p. 142)

Research indicates that “70 to 80 percent of students work while they are enrolled” (ACE Centre for Policy Analysis, 2006; p.1). Newbold, Mehta, and Forbus (2011) examined demographic differences between 108 commuter students and 345 residential students at South-western state university to determine student’s attitudes, opinions, and reasons for being in a university, involvement level and participation in various activities, social life and relationships, time management, stress, and how they cope in the environment. They came to the result that 51% of commuter students reported working over 21 hours a week, while only 37% of residential students reported the same. Commuters were significantly less active in on-campus activi...

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Forbus, P., Newbold, J.J., & Mehta, S.S. (2011). A study of non-traditional and traditional students in terms of their time management behaviours, stress factors, and coping strategies. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 15 (Special Issue), 109 -125.

Pascarella, E.T. (1991). Using student self-reported gains to estimate college impact: A Cautionary tale. Journal of College Student Development, 42 (5), 455.

Pascarella, E.T., and Terenzini, P.T. (2005). How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Peterson, G. T. (1975). The learning centre: A sphere for non-traditional approaches to education. Hamden, CT: The Shoe String Press.

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving College: Rethinking the causes and Cures of Student Attrition. (2nd Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.