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One of the things I really hate about school is when they decided to make campus accommodation compulsory to student, I never stayed in one during school days but have seen lot of student complain about it. I attended a state university and there was no accommodation in campus during out time, we all stayed off campus and it was fun, you get access to lot of things, do as you like, have as many visitors with no one preying on your privacy and you get to stay alone in your own room and if you like away from people, almost close to my final year, the school decided to build hostels within the school premises and decided to make it compulsory for the fresh student and the worse part was you have to fight to secure a space, even though off campus journey to school is far, going from school campus to town especially market is also far.
The worst one I saw was when I went to greet a friend who was doing his masters in a private university, since he is master student, they are allow to have their own accomodation and were to do anything they like, cook, leave school among other things, but the undergraduate section was really strict, school hostel is compulsory to everyone as long as you are a student, you are not allow to bring any cooking utensils to the hostel, no stove, no gas, you can only bring in snacks but who will survive all day with just snacks. They have cafeteria where you get to purchase food everyday and trust me this food aren't cheap, at some point, I had to even pity the average student, if you need to eat just one good meal in a day and you have to really manage, you will be spending like 3k in naira and you won't get filled, and at least you need 2days meal to be sane and imagine doing that for a whole semester.
Too me, staying off campus has more impact on school life in various ways, firstly is the freedom to live, if you are staying off campus, you can live freely without anyone watching you, in this uni, some area are out of bound for student, if you are caught, you have to face the penalty, no odd hour movement, you cant leave the premises without signing in and out with the school security especially at the last gate and those people will keep asking series of questions like giving them 1000 reasons why they should allow you to go out. Second part is the Food aspect, food is important in a student life, ability to eat what you like without being questioned, at times you will be craving for stuff and you just have to dead such thought on campus but you are free to do so off campus and lastly getting to see anyone you like, it is likely campus will be very boring, it is like secondary school hostel, it is always the same face after school every day, most of your friends will mostly stay off campus and all you chance you get to see them will be doing lectures hours, stay off campus is still the best option.