Difference in Academic Performances of Students Who Live In Dorms

College students normally suffer many challenges throughout their years in pursuing their chosen college career. Their choice of programs does not alone add up to other difficulties they face as students. In fact, there are many factors that affect and make an impact on their academic performances such as, personal or financial problems, strict professors, peer issues, and even the time they spend going home after a long day in school. This chapter of the study will compare factors and reviews of the literature on how students academically perform differently when they commute and from when they live in dormitories near their school.

In 2012, Alicia J. Horvath noted that “college students who share an off-campus residence with 1 or more roommates will report the highest amounts of stress; those who share an on-campus residence with 1 or more roommates will report medium levels of stress; and those who commute and live alone on or off campus by themselves will report the lowest levels of stress.

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Research has shown a correlation between one's living environment and stress.” This indicates that the living environment contributes to more stress therefore can be disrupting of one’s performance as a student.

There are great differences and benefits between students who reside near their campus and those who are considered as student commuters. The most common struggle of both is time management. Some students are working students; some are very much engaged in their school organizations, while some are preoccupied with their personal life. Velez (1985) and Alfano (2013) as cited in Badger (2017) says that there are assumptions that commuters tend to invest more in their work rather than school, unlike those who live close by from which they’d have enough time to build good studying habits and co-student relationships that would help them in having an enthusiastic productive stay in college.

Travel and distance. As freshmen, when enrolling in a good university one must consider the travel time. While others choose to live in dormitories regardless of how far their houses are from their school, some students are very meticulous about how much time they’re going to travel back home. Badger (2017) stated that there is a common theme of dependencies from mode of transportation to how far it takes to travel using a specific mode.

For instance, those who chose to have one bike ride away shed a minimum of 5 minutes of their time giving them enough to assess and prepare themselves on their way to their classes. Unlike those who choose a one hour bus ride and another type of mode that would take them to school. Given the thought that a student who spends a minimum of one hour of travel time make him unable to bring 100 percent on the table due to the fact that he have already wasted some of his energy intended for school. Also, going home after class would also be draining thus making him incapable of reviewing his notes and doing homework at home.

Though travel and distance don’t gravely demote one’s student capability, it is how the student makes use of his time. It is still a lesson for any student to organize and plan ahead of their schedule and even accept the consequences of such time constraints. While commuters are known for having less time to study, not all turn into procrastinators. It is believed that those who actually live near campus tend to stress over how they are going to manage their time for having too much of it on their hands.

One famous cause of stress is procrastination, which is normal in student life nowadays. There is research from Mueller (2017) stating that to beat procrastination, one must apply study time management technique, where smaller sub-goals and sub-tasks are created rather than dwelling on the big picture that cannot be easily solved in quick time. Accomplishing smaller tasks one at a time is more productive than having not achieved anything at all. Discipline is needed to be correlated in your routine. Applying time management will get any student motivated and finish tasks without having to overly stress oneself.

Mental Fatigue and Physical Fatigue. Chen et al. (2015) discussed sleep deprivation, fatigue, and depression as some of the effects of academic pressure. With no demand on having to commute for more than two hours, a student has the greater advantage to enjoy one’s leisure time and to relieve stress from school. Having more time is not just the edge of students who live in dorms; it is also about how well they take care of themselves. Given enough time, they get a chance to detoxify from the toxicity they experience in their college life. Being stress-free makes students more energetic and enthusiastic to study the next day. Chalder T, Berelowitz G, Pawlikowska T, et al. (1993) as cited in Chen et al. (2015) defines “fatigue as a subjective feeling and its ill effects are frequently seen in many ways, such as task performance decrement, cognitive impairment, and emotional disturbance”. Commuting leads to an unhealthy lifestyle. Besides the pollution, anxiety, and depression get the best of students if they get overwhelmed learning of their level of academic performance.