Residence VS home

[amino_acid]

Hello all!

Is living in residence a better choice than living at home? Does it help you make more friends, get more academic support etc....?

Also, does living at home make you less involved at school? As I want to have lots of ECs to put on my Med school application in 4 years or so.

 

($$$ is NOT a factor, neither is distance)

 

Thanks:)

[Jochi1543]

I would say yes to all of them. It also makes you more independent.

[VitaminC]

You'll definitely meet more people and yes, there are usually tutors/help programs in residences. However, that doesn't mean living at home WON'T make you be involved on campus. I'm a commuter, but I'm involved in a ton of stuff and I stay quite late to study. You just have to be able to factor the back and forth time of commuting in your schedule and it makes your time-management that much better. I find just as many commuters/on-rez people who are very active - it just depends on you.

 

That being said, if you can afford to live on rez, go do it - my friends are having a blast and I think I'm going to apply next year just for the experience.

[Guest begaster]

If money is not an object, be a resident. I commute to save money (and I probably saved close to $40k), but I hate it. I wish I could go back in time, accept at U of T or Mac and live on campus. I've missed out on A LOT of great stuff.

[Jochi1543]

You'll definitely meet more people and yes, there are usually tutors/help programs in residences. However, that doesn't mean living at home WON'T make you be involved on campus. I'm a commuter, but I'm involved in a ton of stuff and I stay quite late to study. You just have to be able to factor the back and forth time of commuting in your schedule and it makes your time-management that much better. I find just as many commuters/on-rez people who are very active - it just depends on you.

 

That being said, if you can afford to live on rez, go do it - my friends are having a blast and I think I'm going to apply next year just for the experience.

It's rather exhausting, though. I commuted in my 3rd and 4th year (lived in the rez in my 1st and 2nd), and this whole thing about being on campus from like 8 AM to 7 PM - that's if you are not going to parties in the evening! - gets old FAST. I definitely found that I socialized less as a commuter - however, most of my friends were moving off campus in my 3rd and 4th years, so it's not like I was missing on my established social networks as an off-campus student. My undergrad actually required ALL students to live on campus for the 1st and 2nd years (I went to a small school) for community-building purposes, and I'm definitely in favor of that approach. Living off-campus has its benefits, but I think this is the choice to be made once you're fully adjusted to university and to the concept of independent living. I had left my parents' house at 16, so it wasn't an issue, but for many others, it's a huge change.

[mrsweasley]

moving away from home also helps you grow up, which is part of what university is all about!

[Ève]

Staying at home, however, saves time, assuming you don't have to cook, go grocery shopping, wait in the basement while your clothes are getting washed, do lots of cleaning and dishes and stuff like that. I live on my own and I find all these activites a lot more time-consuming than I would have expected. I really enjoyed going to school all day, studying with my friends at the library, participating in clubs, etc., to eventually go home, at the end of the day, to find my meal waiting for me. So, living at home can also provide a lot of freedom. Depends how you look at it.