Considering how connected most folks are, online and commuter schools seem like the best situation for people wanting to get a degree. What is the modern benefit to leaving your family home for several years to learn when you can bring that learning to you more easily? There’s no widespread stigma to moving out just to move out now; it’s no longer taboo for unmarried women to live away from their families, unchaperoned.
I have never enrolled at a residential school but have visited many times and also attended both commuter and online classes. I don’t see the need for residential schools when it comes to learning or networking for one’s future job; there’s other ways now.
What do you think?
Living in a college dorm can teach life skills as a partial step toward independence - you have to deal with more than when living at home, but not quite as much as living in your own apartment.
There are also plenty of kids of who are ready to move out of their parents’ homes, and there are plenty of parents who are ready for their kids to move out . I think there is certainly a place for it now, and there will be as long as there are people who can afford it.
Because part of it is move out ‘lite’. Your letting a teenager out on their own, kinda-sorta.
There are prepaid meal plans, which means they’re more likely to eat as they don’t need any money (that they spent on beer). There are RA’s to help chaperone dorm life.
Simple. For one thing, many of the best schools are not going to be local. If you can get into Harvard or MIT, and are not fortunate enough to live in Cambridge, you are going to have to be a resident.
Second, a residence college makes you meet lots of people you would never have met otherwise, from all parts of the country and the world, and from many social strata. I would never have met my wife if I hadn’t gone away to college.
If your goals are to get certification in something, something a community college does, then a local community college works. Though we visited an awesome community college in Western Wyoming which was a resident college because of the long distances its students would have to travel.
I’m not knocking local colleges. In New York, lots of people of my mother’s generation went to different parts of CCNY and got a great education. But there are real pluses to being semi-independent in a dorm environment.
Yep, there is more to an education than coursework. Being away and on your own can be very valuable. One can learn a lot about oneself that just isn’t really the same being at home with the parents. Frankly, I feel just a little sorry for the kids that don’t have that luxury.
Undoubtedly, online or commuter colleges are good options for many students, especially ones who come from certain demographics (older with a family, low-income, etc.) It’s also true that students from these demographics make up a larger share of the college-going population than they used to. However, these programs are not the best fit for every student, and the higher education landscape would have to change a LOT for residential college to go away. Many students want to go to a specific school that isn’t close to where they currently live; many are involved in activities like athletics or performing arts that require them to be physically present on campus most of the time; many just plain want the residential-college experience. You, personally, may not have cared that much about the social aspects of college, but most students – particularly traditionally-aged students – do.
Also, online and distance-learning programs require a level of self-discipline and academic preparation that not every student has. Face-to-face classes are simply more forgiving – it’s easier to ask questions, easier to form study groups, easier to come to the professor’s office hours or a tutoring lab, and it’s more likely that someone will notice and step in if you’re struggling. There are also some fields of study that are not a good fit for this mode of delivery, like lab sciences, culinary arts, fine and performing arts, and foreign languages. Online programs are great options for some students, but they’re not going to take over the world. People were predicting ten years ago that all but a handful of colleges would be replaced by MOOCs; it hasn’t happened, or come even close to happening, yet.
Being a commuter student, OTOH, is pretty much on par with being a residential student in terms of the types of educational experiences that are available and the skills that are required, but this option has been around for decades and it hasn’t driven residential programs out of business yet.
It is an enhancement to a traditional university, not a competitor.
Besides, there are still courses that require your presence: A chemistry or biology lab, for instance.
It’s a half-way house for teenagers. Of course, nowadays few people can afford to live on their own even after college. But I think int he world of increasing home-schooling and cocooning, it’s vitally important to get the kids out and among their own kind for a while. If we don’t, the human race will die out with a couple of generations.
Do you think there are kids who would never move out if not for a residential college? B/c I know at least person I believe would still be at their folks’ house if they hadn’t gone away to school; only reason their mom let them leave!
Absolutely not. You learn quite a lot from the late night dorm bull sessions which you’re not going to get in an online class. Also, in class discussion can be invaluable as well. And, quite frankly, it’s just helpful to be around other smart people. Not to mention all the campus organizations.
This is why I adamantly oppose students going to community college their first two years unless it’s absolutely necessary. Being around someone who just pulled a long shift isn’t as likely to inspire a lot of academic debate in the classroom as being in a 9 am class where you’ve just had breakfast together at the dining hall.
Oh, I don’t think online courses should/will ever completely replace classroom courses. I’m talking about it being easier to leave home now w/o needing a reason like going away to college.
I went to community college classes after working all day and I never had anyone complain about my contribution to debate or lack thereof.
Connectivity can be a wonderful thing, but it is only quite recently that quality courses have been widely available online. When I went to uni, I used e-mail, back when most people did no idea what that was and few had accounts.
Coursework is important, but it is exciting to move away from home and meet tons of people and learn how to budget, clean, drink, cook and the million other life skills that residence helps develop. It’s an exciting time of life, and much more than mere classes. That said, it has become much more expensive and online stuff will continue to gain in popularity.
Getting the hell out of your parents’ house.
Were you older? Community colleges are great resources for people who want to change careers or get an extra credential.
My daughter took a community college class in high school, and my wife took one considerably after high school. They both found that the college age kids often didn’t show up, but the older people participated and really cared.
When I was in college we had a lot of problem sets, and the peer pressure to do your homework was useful for a lot of people. You don’t get that living at home.
I begged the lil’wrekker to stay home and do online school. I wanted to retain my baby as long as I could. And I was concerned for her safety. She balked, big time. I couldn’t even bribe her. Believe me I tried. But she held her ground. Now I see how wrong I was. I was the classic heliocopter Mom. She needed to get out from under me. And I needed it too. I just didn’t know it, at the time. I thought my heart was broken forever. And she’s doing fine. Now, if I could just get her spending under control. This is an ongoing problem. We’ve made some progress. Tiny. But it’s veering in the right direction.
She’s in upper classman dorms at her University this year, and they are much better she reports.
A baccalaureate degree from a reputable college or university is all but a required credential to most upper middle class careers. As long as that’s the case, those institutions and their four-year degree programs won’t be going anywhere.
And as long as that’s true, and being part of a residential lifestyle centered around such a four-year degree program is a lot more effective for young people making the transition from childhood to adulthood and a career - effective in terms of their obtaining degrees in 4-6 years and subsequently getting employed in a field that expects you to have such a degree - then residential college/university isn’t going anywhere.
It’s an American thing.
The only kids who can afford to live on campus here in Aus have wealthy parents who are likely farmers and graziers living in rural or remote areas.
Kids who live within coo-ee of their college or university either live at home, or they move into a doss house with a bunch of friends (ahhh, the memories). 
It’s pretty common in the UK as well- some uni’s have virtually all students on campus, though the nearby doss house is also pretty common. Typically students here will live in official residence halls the first year, then move into some dodgy rental nearby for the rest of the course. There are big pluses IMO; the supervised independence is good, as well as access to student societies and the like. It’s not as though you can’t get involved if you live with parents, if you live commuting distance, but the people that commute are generally a lot less active in extracurriculars.
As a student in a place with no onsite accommodation, where students are spread over a pretty big area and everyone commutes, I can vouch that it’s a lot harder to get people together for meetings and clubs than in a traditional campus, to the point we barely bother trying. We have one student society, and we’ve not even managed to get the whole committee together yet.
If the premise is that living on campus has run it’s course because you can go to school online, then no. Online classes, IMO, will never fully replace going to class in person. Whether it’s because of the back and forth discussion, talking with other students before/after class or courses that require hands on experience (ie labs), you can’t replicate the college going experience through a computer.
If it’s about the ability to commute, sure, a lot of people do that, but it restricts what school you can go to, to what’s close to your house (or apartment if you rent) AND having reliable transportation.
Living on campus is also a big part of the college experience. In fact, many colleges require freshman to live on campus and some don’t allow them to have a car. I’m sure it’s partially about getting them to pay for room and board (extra money for the school), but it also all but forces new students to get to know each other, hang out with each other…study with each other.
Regardless of the reasoning, living on campus isn’t going away any time soon. In fact, a relative of mine is a residence hall director down in Texas. 5 or 10 years ago she built a new set of dorms on the campus and this year she’s having more built because they need the extra space.
That back and forth bonding and learning from each other? That’s all changing. Most of the incoming freshmen today are bonding thru social networks, not personal ones. How many kids on campus today are talking to each other vs. being on their phones?
Lab courses? What we had even 30 years ago was an “open lab” where you went in and did the lab and had to do it by such and such a date/time.
Courses requiring questions, interaction with professors, and fellow students? That can be done online. In fact the courses I’ve seen its better because students are REQUIRED to submit questions and respond to say 3-4 other students questions. They cant just sit in a class and take notes.
What I’m seeing is a student today can take most of their coursework on line, even discussion courses, and only need to go to campus maybe once a week.
Not all colleges requires students, even freshmen, to live on campus. HERE is a list of some.