The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2 - 53

Why Students Move Off Campus

Predictor Variables for Students
Wanting to Move Off Campus
Another way of looking at the data is to ask
how well each factor can predict whether a
campus resident plans to move off campus
the following year. To answer this question, I
conducted a logistic regression to determine
the greatest predictor variables for planning
to move off campus. Other than the housing
factors, the variables included were the respondent's gender, whether they were an upper-division (junior/senior) or lower-division
student, and whether their campus housing
was a traditional residence hall or apartment
housing. As displayed in Table 2, the greatest
predictors of an on-campus student wanting to
move off campus were placing importance on
the cost of housing, ability to live there during
summer break, access to a private bathroom,
available parking, and ability to cook one's own
meals. The greatest predictors of an on-campus student wanting to stay on campus were
placing importance on the support of in-residence staff, ease of making friends with other
students, and ability to pay for housing with a
scholarship.

Top Priorities of Students Who Chose
Off-Campus Versus On-Campus Housing
The on-campus student survey took place prior
to the time that students had to commit to returning to campus housing. As a student's
future plans only provide part of the picture of
what differentiates on-campus and off-campus
students in their housing preferences, I conducted a chi-square test to compare students
currently on campus to those currently off
campus in terms of whether they considered a
particular factor as one of the most important

There may be valid reasons
for maintaining more traditional
residence hall structures and
policies at a given institution,
but if retention in housing is
a concern, then the approach
to improvement should involve
the consideration of multiple
factors that influence students'
housing decisions .

in deciding where to live that year. As seen in
Table 3, for every factor on the survey, it was
either significantly more likely to show up in
on-campus students' lists or significantly more
likely to show up in off-campus students' lists
of the top three factors influencing their choice
of housing. The biggest differences were that
off-campus students were much more likely to
include cost of housing, ability to have a single
room, ability to live there during summer break,
and ability to cook their own meals in their top
three factors, while on-campus students were
much more likely to include ease of making
friends with other students and support of inresidence staff in their top three factors.

DISCUSSION
This study used three different approaches to
examine the weight of various factors when
students consider moving off campus or have
already chosen to live off campus. Where previous scholars had chosen either to look at
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2

Contents
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2 - Intro
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