The Pros and Cons: Comparing College Life for Single and Married Students

A student like me is one of the thousand students in MSU-IIT who strive for the future in an institution which is renowned for its excellence when it comes to its graduates. Just a normal college student with a normal life living in a dormitory which is quite far from the campus vicinity and a teenager from Pagadian City went to Iligan City to pursue the dream of becoming an engineer with all the things that my parent gave me and the will to fulfill the chosen path what drive me to really stand for it because it is for the future and the future of my family.

What matters the most to me is my way of living inside the campus in every day for in every single second that I will be inside the campus means a second of progress towards my very goal of becoming an engineer. As a student of MSU-IIT (Mindanao State University Iligan Institute of Technology) I have my day to day living inside the campus especially when it is school days.

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I encounter every day the usual life of a student attending his studies at one of the top university in the Mindanao. What is life inside the campus is the question which I want you all to know and I want to share to you.

Well my life inside the campus always starts at the dormitory which I lived which is at a distance from the school vicinity and I used to have a walk in going to the campus but sometime I will take a ride in times of emergencies.

When I’m already inside the campus my first destination every Monday will be the CSM (College of Science and Mathematics) where my physics lab class took place and every Tuesday and Thursday my destination will be CSM again for the whole day where my CHEM12 class happen in the morning with Prof. Barredo and in the afternoon is my MATH51 class with Prof. Tubo. After that day my schedule for tomorrow is quite fearsome for in the morning I will be in the College of Arts and Social Sciences attending my two subjects which are History 3 and English 2 with Prof. Montesclaros and Prof. Villabona accordingly and after that I will go to the CON-NCR room beside the building of the CSM to attend my physics 21 class with Prof. Sambo and after that my math 51 class follows.

Every Wednesday is my PE class at the gymnasium at 4:30 pm up to 6:30 pm with Prof. Alcuizar and every Friday my schedule will be from 9:00am up to 7:30pm because after my math51 class I still have a class in the SET which is the chem12.1 or chem12 lab with Eng. and every Sunday is the schedule for our CWTS class for straight 3 hours of lessons, activities and seminars with Prof. Napoles. That’s how my life goes every day in attending my classes. Just somehow attending classes is not that really the whole thing about my life inside the campus it is the way of dealing with the subjects. The quizzes, oral participation and the departmental exams that really gave me a headache especially to the subjects where I usually failed to understand at the moment of discussion not to mention for my own good. In every subject that I had right now since it is already my second term in IIT seems always new to me.

The usual thing that I do when I don’t have classes is hanging out with my friends and talk on almost everything. My circles of friends are my day to day comrades in almost all of my subjects right now on this 2nd semester during my 1st year in college. When times that I have no class yet I used to stay at one place with my friends usually at the Himantayon Avenue at the CASS LOUNGE where we used to talk about the recent happenings of our studies and the results of quizzes and exams and future plans in life if time requires. Together with the older ones we share our ideas and share our thoughts in studying the lessons and inspiring each of us to pursue our dreams and especially me for I really want to graduate at my course right now in this very school so that my parents finance on me and their dream for me will came to life and I can have a brighter future for me and my family. During our vacant time we sometimes play basketball at the twin court right beside the gymnasium with varsities of our year.

During weekends we sometimes play together with different games like basketball and Frisbee. Joining school activities is a must if one is a student of MSU-IIT because it one of the requirements for it will serve as the general attendance in computing the liabilities in the College at the end of the semester. Assemblies, Palakasan, school, college department acquaintance parties are the main event in the school where we are obliged to attend. I join also to organizations and campus ministry which was located outside the campus and I engaged myself to a larger thing to explore myself more. In every life of a student mostly spent inside the campus and the activities within mainly contributed to the development of the learning that will help to fulfill my dream.

The main flow of my activities inside the campus explains how I manage the time and how I spend my time in order to achieve my goal and the expectation of my parent who support me in my endeavor here in Iligan City in MSU-IIT. My life inside the campus does not really focus on all academic also I joined the activities and programs that the school offers. My life outside is a important as the inside but inside the campus still I am not limited because I can do the things that I cannot do outside and all those things really contributed a lot in the development of my learning. The main flow is the dealing process and how I manage to get a hold to it. That’s how I manage to deal with my life inside the campus and my life right now still going on for I am still on the way to my dream of becoming a licensed Electrical Engineer.

College Life of Single Students versus College Life of Married Students

The college life of single students is much easier on different levels as compared with the college life of married students. A majority of people are of the assumption that when married and in college, your social life will go down the gutter. While this is true to some extent, it paints a bad picture of the whole idea of marrying while in college. For a college-going single student and a college-going married student, their chances of learning are all the same. The difference, however, comes in with issues of residence, social life, hardships, university experience, and issues of finance. When these issues are compared between a married and single college going student, the fact remains that being single while in college offers a lot of opportunities to the student. College life of single students is generally less-stressful compared to college life of married students.

The process of gaining scholarships or college financial aid is difficult for married students than for single students. Single students have a much easier access to scholarships as they are taken as students without a flowing income. In registering for financial aid, they will only have to state their parent’s income. However, for married students the situation is different. The government ceases recognizing the couple as under their parents. They are now independent individuals. They, therefore, state their spouses’ income as a prerequisite for receiving government financial aid (campusexplorer.com). In addition, financial aid for married students does not come easy as various regulations are placed for them to acquire a loan or aid. Unlike single students, married students will have to account for every dollar they will receive, and they are required to write this down on the application form. This is despite the fact that the financial aid handed down to them caters for only a marginal portion of their financial needs. Single students rarely expend their full financial aid in education, and some are used elsewhere. Money handed to them by their parents also for purposes of school related expenses is quietly diverted to some other cause that the parent does not know about. It is safe to assume that they are given too much cash that they do not know what to do with the rest. Lastly, on the issue of financial reliability, it is easier for married college students to call-off a semester for lack of college fees. It is common that married college students rarely rely on their parents for monetary needs. Being mature, taking they are married, they are allowed their freedom. Hence, the majority of them face a stumbling block when it comes to raising fees for their academic needs. However, for single students, excluding those that are financially independent, they have fewer chances of quitting school or taking a semester off. They are funded by their parents and completely rely on them for academic as well as other financial needs. This makes their chances of suspending school slim to none.

A married life in college is full of hardships as compared with a single life. A married life in college is not as rosy as a single college life this considering the many responsibilities heaped upon married individuals. Married individuals rarely find time to engage in the idle activities that most single individuals have as they are busy handling issues that come with getting married (andybox.com). Some married individuals have to concentrate on their families, find alternate ways of getting income, spend time with their spouses or generally spend time at home reading or researching. At the end of doing all these activities, they are expected to regularly attend classes. On the other hand, a number of single students often find a lot of free time at their disposal. They have no urgent issues to attend to, thus mostly live a freer lifestyle compared with their married counterparts. For those that are married while in college and have a kid to look after, life is too hard. Having a child and still have to juggle between going to classes and taking care of the younger one is one hardship that a majority of married couples finds it hard to bear. Women especially are denied that one chance that most mothers dare not miss, to bond with the child so when classes are over, they have to rush back at home. Men too as fathers, join in the activity. They will rarely miss being at home with their children. Single college-going students, of course, have no such hardships that take their total attention and time. Another hardship common of college going married couples is accommodation. Mostly, accommodation within the campus is preferred by single students that have no issue sharing rooms with total strangers. For married couples, this is unacceptable for they will prefer off-campus accommodation where they can comfortably live with their spouses. In some cases, most married couples live far off campus and have to drive or commute to school on a daily basis which can be hectic for a majority. The issue here is not being provided with on-campus accommodation, but rather the fact that they have to lose hours driving, a period of time they can otherwise expend doing useful class work.

A married life in college is socially limiting. Most married men or women in campus are in a life of their own. They have a lot to think about and many places to be at the same time that they rarely have time to socialize or engage in events that run within the school. It is acceptable considering that they have families to think about (campusexplorer.com). On the other hand, single students are everywhere quite literally. They are to be found in whatever events that happen on the campus whether academic or not. This places their socializing level at an extreme high. Secondly, since most married couples stay off-campus, they live in seclusion to the going-ons within campus. Once class breaks, the majority will rush to their cars and zoom off campus only to reappear in the next class. This gives them a limited time to interact with the students or with the campus environment. For single college students, however, their whole campus life is within the campus. Although they may take some time during the day off-campus, they mostly spend their day inside the campus since they live there. While in campus, they interact with their fellows and also the campus environment, and in the process getting to know more about their college and the students in general. Such knowledge escapes those that are married. Lastly, there exists a notion among most students that married students are boring or are not hype given they are like “our parents” or are taken. This rumor has made most married students being given the cold shoulder or just plain avoided. Their interaction with the students in such a case has been hindered by the attitude the students hold towards them just because they are married (andybox.com). For the single students, however, they highly socialize amongst themselves. Some believe that college is the best place to get a suitable wife or husband; hence, if one is not married, one should expect to be accorded a lot of attention by the students of the opposite sex.

In conclusion, single life on campus is easier compared with married life. Single life in college offers freedom while when married, one has to juggle a lot of responsibilities. For married individuals, attending college can be stressful considering that they have to drive daily to school, they have to balance school and family, and at the same time have to think about money to pay bills back at home. In addition to this, married students have a difficult time getting financial assistance and when they do, the money is regulated. This occurs while single students are sponsored by the government and their parents or guardians, hence have enough money at their disposal, have nothing but books to think about, and generally have sufficient time to interact with their friends, peers, and environment in campus. With this in mind, I recommend that students rethink their stand on early marriage. Considering the discussion, students should choose to marry and settle once they have completed their degree or their course on campus. This is in light of the fact that they might make their experience in college hard to go by should they choose an early marriage and continues their course while married.

References

AndyBox.com. Students who Marry. Nov 1999. Web Dec 4 2014. Retrieved from http://www.andybox.com/?page_id=74Campus Exlorer. Married College Students. 2014. Web Dec 4 2014. Retrieved from http://www.campusexplorer.com/college-advice-tips/CF0064F6/Married-College-Students/

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