Choosing a place to living is a problem for students at the beginning of the semester. Some students choose to live in the dormitory, the others want to live off campus. Choosing to live where also has its own advantages and disadvantages. I prefer living in the apartment or house off campus than living in the dormitory. These are some advantages of living off campus.
First, living in an apartment is cheaper because you can share with your friends the payment fee. Every apartment has two or more bedrooms, so it is suitable to share with two other students. The monthly fee you have to pay will be less than living in the dormitory with a fixed fee. The fee of dormitory is often more expensive than an apartment because you have paid all the living including: meals, living fee and safety fee.
The second thing is you will feel free to do everything you want when living in an apartment. You can learn how to handle your life such as: bills payment, buying furniture, cleaning and maintaining house. Once everything is managed, you feel be growing up and get more experiences. That is the best way for international students to be acquainted with American lifestyle. Even you can hold a party and invite your friends to the apartment without restriction of time.
Another advantage of living off campus is that students often feel more comfortable and more independent. We are often watched of the security unit when living in the dormitory because of the secure. The students who are old enough to do everything they want and they want to be respected by the society. So they want to be responsible to what they do and face with them. After all, they want to be more independent.
There are also some disadvantages for students to live in an apartment or house off campus. For example, they don't have enough experience to manage things happen to them such as: thief, safety, even managing the time between studying and relaxing. They are easy to be attracted by the bad lifestyles of drugs, drinking or sex. But living off campus also helps students to save money from the living fee, give experiences about life or make a more comfortable life. Moreover, it makes the students grow up for the future life.
