A life in common: exploring the causal effect of living on campus

Every fall, millions of students move onto college campuses, often for the first time. Housing students is not a new phenomenon for colleges and universities; rather, within the United States this practice traces back to the founding of Harvard University in 1636. However, the belief that living on campus is positive for students and has a direct effect on their lives has not been completely decided by research. Prior studies are often limited by analytic samples and research methodologies in the ability to draw causal associations, meaning that living on campus is the reason for these differences. This dissertation sought to apply advanced statistical techniques to estimate the potential causal effect of living on campus on various student outcomes.

Overall, this three-article dissertation found evidence that living on campus does have a direct effect on some outcomes. It is beneficial for students’ social connections, co-curricular involvement, and interaction with student affairs staff. Moving off campus after their first year led to decreased peer connections and lower amounts of co-curricular involvement for students. Additionally, living on campus during the first year led students to consume alcohol at higher rates in addition to more frequently binge drinking. However, these specific behaviors did not appear to persist past the first year. Finally, collegiate residence had no direct effect on students’ psychological well-being, academic achievement, retention, satisfaction with college, nor did it increase the probability of graduating within four years.