Written by Paulina Ukrainets
College, supposedly, is a time for independence—for some, it is the first time they live away from home, and this often coincides with the legal and mental start of their adulthood. They are now responsible for their own decisions, their own well-being, and, perhaps, their own living and learning environment—or are they?
In recent years, psychologists in the UK have altered the “official” age of adulthood from 18 to 25, mostly because of the social conventions around independence—it is now considered normal to be dependent (somewhat emotionally and financially) on your parents up until the age of 25, and a growing number of the young adult population (i.e. twenty something) is moving out of their parents’ houses later and later in life. Colleges often market themselves as an oasis of independence, but how accurate is that representation?
If we look at Colorado College, for example, at first glance it may seem like the students here are fairly independent, and in some ways perhaps they are—there is a lot of academic and creative freedom given to students here. Last year, Forbes named CC the third most entrepreneurial college in the United States, which seems promising for independence in terms of future careers.
However, if we look at CC in terms of student life, the perception of independence shifts somewhat—students aren’t allowed to live off campus until, technically, senior year, and realistically, junior year. As well as this, for the duration of your life on campus, you are required to be on a meal plan. While the residential aspect of CC can potentially be helpful in creating a community, it also entails, for many students, less control over their living environment, and thus, less independence.
The presence of a hierarchical framework of staff (RAs and RLCs) within the residential community encourages students to solve their personal or interpersonal problems by involving quote-on-quote adults, while they themselves have supposedly already reached adulthood, or at least the college stage of independence.
With the recent increase in both tuition and residential fees, the ability to pay for the CC experience is increasingly becoming an important factor in decisions to attend, or stay, at the college. If students were allowed to live off campus, though, their cost of living would substantially decrease—the standard double room price on campus works out to roughly $850 a month, whereas it is easily possible to pay around $500 for a single room in a house off campus. Not only does the residential requirement allow less independence mentally, it also can hinder the students’ and their families’ financial independence, since many likely have to take out loans in order to afford the CC education.
Realistically, not everybody entering CC is ready to live independently—for many, college is the first time that they live away from home and the comfort of parental authority. For many others though—those who have attended semester and/or boarding schools, for example—college seems like the logical next step in controlling their individual living environment.
College is supposed to be an individual experience—at CC, students are able to design their own major and pursue personalised research and interests, yet in terms of housing options, only the length of time on campus and their amount of credits is taken into consideration. CC claims to recognize the different backgrounds and upbringings of applicants when admitting them to the school—why not recognize these factors while they are here?