Many university students live with their families while others need to live away from home because their universities are in different cities. What are the advantages and disadvantages in both situations?
Is university simply a place you go for a few hours a day to get a piece of paper? Or is it a place where you grow and change intellectually, socially, and emotionally? In this essay I will explain why I think it’s much better for most students to move away from home when they are in college.
Living at home while studying has many advantages. It’s generally more comfortable than college dorms or student accommodation. You have free laundry, free food, and free rent. There’s no need to learn to cook: your mother knows exactly how you like your Milo. You can keep watching your favorite cartoons and television programs, the same ones you watched while in kindergarten, primary school, and secondary school. You have your own room, so you don’t have to worry about your stuff, and you can enjoy the same posters that you had on your wall when you were 6, and 10, and 14. In addition, you have the same friends you had then, and the same games and social life as you did back when you were a girl guide. Your Hello Kitty collection is there, along with a tooth you lost when you were six and the the pyjamas that your embarrassing aunt bought for you on your 14th birthday.
Meanwhile your new college friends far away on the other side of the city may be cold and penniless, but they are sitting in cafes for hours discussing history or politics and playing guitar and talking to that cute Korean guy from the same class. Their beds are small and the dorms are noisy, but there are always new people to meet and new clubs to join. Some of your new college friends have signed up with a Japanese conversation club; others are going abseiling this weekend. And they seem to get more study done too: when you are snoozing on the long bus ride back to your parents’ place, they are in a big group in the library or the canteen finishing next week’s assignment. While you sit with your mother watching television and talking about your day, they are off exploring clubs and giggling during poetry readings.
Clearly, college is about more than the grade at the end. It’s about learning – not just academic learning, but learning about yourself and other people and the way you view the world. It doesn’t mean forgetting your family and friends, but it does mean opening up to new ideas, new experiences and new people. Give it a try! You can always go home at the weekend!
431 words, 20.5 average words per sentence. Very long for IELTS, and with far too many words per sentence on average. Have a look at the same essay, with the same ideas and structure, but in 258 words here.
jasleen says:
hi
can i get some good vocab ,,and get my essay writings checked by some critic ,
thanku.
writefix says:
Hi Jasleen
Thanks for your message! I’m afraid that the forum closed just yesterday, and we are not accepting any new essays for the time being.
You are welcome to have a look at the 500 essays there from people from all over the world. You will see a lot of great ideas and some of the same problems, and I hope you can learn a lot from the comments there.
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ShahNawaz says:
plz give me sum piece of advice so that i am able to write essay of band 8.
writefix says:
Hi ShahNawaz – have a look at the essays in the forum (http://writefix.com/?page_id=2722). Unfortunately the forum is temporarily closed, so we are not accepting essays now, but you can find over 500 essays there, and a good few of them are Band 8. It’s a tough band to get!
Houston DWI Lawyer says:
Fantastic. I agree.
sri says:
Nice essay
Mari says:
It is true that some university students live away from their home. This could be for a several reasons, such as because they want to do so or because the course is only available away from their city. In the other hand, there are students that stay in their own town for the same reason perhaps they want to or because they did not have a chance to choice where to study.
There are several advantages for students that have chosen to live away from home. Firstly, they became more independent and mature, as many universities has people from different parts of the world. Basically, the students will learn to deal with different people and culture compared to their own background. Second, they will learn to deal with time management and short of finance resources. Many students when live abroad need to start working to pay their bills and necessary needs, such as, rent, public transport and food. Last, they will be more prepared to overcome
challenges and problems than others that never was away from their family.
Definitely, there are disadvantages for the ones that have chosen to be closer to their family. First of all, usually the students will have a support from their relatives for most of the problem they face. So, they will not have the experience to decide from their own point of view. Also, they will not have to work to pay their bills. Consequently, they do not learn how to manage their finance and how the bills work.
In my opinion, living away from family have a several advantages as students will learn the other side of the coin and be more sensible to the family expenses and needs.
writefix says:
Hello Mari
Unfortunately the forum is closed now and not accepting any new essays. We hope that it will open again soon, but in the meantime, check out the forum where you can see over 550 essays from other IELTS candidates, and check the IELTS public descriptors. What band do you think your essay would get?
Halim says:
Hello
It’s nice writing and easy to understand
Thanks a lot