I spent an entire year living in the same building as friends, with a five-minute walk separating me from unlimited food. Everything I needed was at my fingertips, it seemed. This year, however, I made the daring move to be a sophomore living off-campus.
I have joked to friends that that living off-campus should be renamed to “sleeping and eating off-campus,” but this is subjective to my major and credit hours. Because I major in music, I opted to take 20 hours this semester.
Considering I do work-study and have a decently strict practice schedule, I rarely get to relax at home outside of sleeping and eating. The breaks I do have in the day between classes hardly ever exceed an hour, making runs home for forgotten items a time-sensitive operation.
In my opinion, the school’s policy on sophomores being forced to live on campus reflects this concern for time management. I think they doubt the ability of 19 and 20 year olds – legal adults, mind you – to conduct time in a way that doesn’t affect their academic standing.
From a first-time commuter’s perspective, there are only two instances that really consume extra time. These are biking to and from school, and cooking.
However, if you are like me, these are two very enjoyable activities. And even then, the time these activities take hardly make a change in my daily schedule. The 10-minute bike ride and 20 or so minutes one spends cooking shouldn’t deter anyone from the off-campus lifestyle.
However, there is one blatantly obvious consumer of time that I overlooked: work.
For many, a job would seem kill all of their remaining free time. If you are lucky like me and receive assistance from your parents, you can get a job in a field you enjoy, with good pay and extremely flexible hours.
I work as an audio-visual technician for conferences and other events, so it is easy, albeit specialized, labor. Without this, I am not sure it would be worth my time, money and effort to live off-campus. While I could get by off of government assistance from student loans, this would be barely scraping by. I do not recommend this, but it can be done.
Given this information, it is my opinion that living off-campus as a sophomore can easily be done. The option should be available to all sophomores-as is par for the course at a typical university. Loyola should still talk to sophomores about the changes and new requirements it presents, but should remove the dozens of hoops they have to jump through to get permission to live off-campus.
As it stands, a rising sophomore has little hope to gain commuter status without getting on their knees and begging. This is nothing more than a story or opinion from your average sophomore proving off-campus housing is not only possible, but should be a viable option for all sophomores.
Seth Scott is a music performance sophomore and can be reached at
