Does living on campus support learning and student success?
As families consider the living options available to their college students and look at the costs of college education, what might not be as evident to them is how on-campus living can actually maximize their college investment.
The truth of the matter is that campus housing provides a great deal of return to the students who choose to live in the residence halls. This has been demonstrated through multiple studies over multiple years.
Evidence for Living on Campus
Most notable is the research conducted by Alexander Astin, founding director of Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. Astin’s work with the CIRP Freshman Survey (a survey spanning five decades that has covered millions of college students before they start their college careers) shows that living in a residence hall has a positive impact on degree attainment.
Astin’s research highlights the importance of the peer group and involvement with campus experience. These findings help explain the ways in which on-campus living supports learning.
