Blog 4

Himang Patel

Professor Goeller

Research in the Disciplines: College!

Feb 28, 2017

Research Proposal

Working Title: The Impact of Commuting vs Living on Campus on GPA

Topic:

In this paper, I will discuss the impact commuting has on students GPA as opposed to living on campus. I will explore the different factors that contribute to the GPA trends among those commuting and living on campus.

Research Question:

What factors impact a student's GPA and how much of the GPA outcome can be attributed to their living situation?

Theoretical Framework

There are many factors that contribute to a student’s GPA in college and their living situations seems to be just one of them. It was noted by Bozic that the first years of college are a transitional time in students life and their living arrangements can impact daily living skills, time management and personal accountability on top of their GPA for students who live on campus (Bozic, 2008). On the other hand, living off campus is a challenge because the student might have other obligations for their time which interferes with the student ever find a place to belong (O’Toole, Peterson, Wetzel, 1999). The student integration model was founded by Tinto which assesses the impact of off-campus and on-campus residency. He argues that students who have had the chance to adapt to the norms of the university may feel like they fit in better with the culture, and that sense of fit brings about the sense of belonging which motivates that to finish their degrees.

Besides this, there have been other studies done. Newbold, Mehta and Forbus analyzed commuter students vs residential students and their academic performance. They found out that commuter students are usually older and come from blue collar families. This brings about the idea of social classes and their success in college.

A study done by Kuh, Gonyea and Palmer showed that residential students have an advantage over commuter students because living on campus was closely correlated to social and personal competence and this competence helped them be more successful in classes. On the other hand, commuter students have lower levels of interaction with faculty and participate less in extra curricular activities. They feel inferior when it comes to their peers in skill development which hinders their educational performance.

Research and Plan

I have found many articles and studies that address my question. Some of those studies are mentioned above. Each one focuses on a different factor about commuters vs residential students and says how it impacts educational performance. I will narrow down these factors and try to formulate my paper after those factors.

Next, I will need to go through all these studies again and find the most impactful factors based on the data in the studies.