Impact of Residence to Academic Performance of College Students

Disagreement is present in the literature in relation to the impact of residence on the academic performance of college and university students. Almost all studies reported in the literature report on investigations of firstyear collegiate experiences. Some of the reported studies investigated narrowly defined segments of student populations, and many failed to assess intervening variables such as academic ability.

Brody (1988, pp. 347359) found that earlyentry freshmen who commuted to classes performed at a higher academic level than did students who lived on campus. Earlyentry students, however, are younger (at times substantially so) than the typical firstyear college student. Thus, it would not be prudent to generalize this finding to the broader firstyear collegiate population.

Schroeder and Griffin (1976, pp. 159161) found that firstyear students living on campus performed better academically than did commuter students. The resident student sample, however, was comprised of students enrolled in an engineering education program who were housed in an on campus residence hall specifically dedicated to engineering students. Again, therefore, it would not be prudent to generalize this finding to the broader firstyear collegiate population.

A wide variety of factors hold the potential to affect the academic performance of firstyear students. These factors include acad

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bjects. Depression stems from a variety of factors, including isolation, loneliness, despair, boredom, separation from loved ones, and a sense of loss of purpose and meaningfulness in life (Lester, 1991, pp. 447449). Depression is possibly the most serious of the psychological problems which are faced by college students (Siegel and Alloy, 1990, pp. 361373). Depression in college students often results in suicide attempts and dropping out of school (Westefeld, 1990, pp. 464476). Graduation rates for incoming freshmen students are quite low across institutions. This attrition has been attributed to a variety of factors ranging from poor preparation by the student to insufficient application on the part of the student to an inability of the student to adjust to a new social environment to overt discrimination by institutions to a long list of additional factors. It is also known that the consumption of alcohol among college students remains relatively high (Meilman, 1990, pp. 389395). It is further known that alcohol abuse may be manifested in decreased cognitive performance, loss of control, serious social problems and anxieties, and a variety of psychological problems, including depression (Dixon, 1991, pp. 5156). Ex
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Approximate Word count = 1992
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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