By Taylor Bandy
Majority of college students live at home with their parents as shown in recent poll of College of Southern Nevada students.
During Oct. 25 and 26, an informal poll of 100 students on North Las Vegas and Charleston campuses showed that 86 percent lived at home while 14 percent lived on their own.
This trend is not unique to CSN students. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center’s study titled “For First Time in Modern Era, Living with Parents Edges out Other Living Arrangements for 18-to-34 year olds,” many people are living with family for prolonged periods of time for many reasons.
Approximately 32 percent of young adults are living in parents’ homes, according to the study. This is the highest percentage since 1940, which marked World War II, and is slightly above the 1880’s statistic of 30 percent living at home.
Reasons for this, according to Pew, deal with a variety of factors including the following: postponement of marriage, under-employment status, low wages, the Great Recession that resulted in a lot of people losing their jobs, in addition to prolonged educational attainment for higher degrees, which can take years.
“I live at home with my parents because I am not quite ready [to move out],” said Lashawn Durant, CSN student. “I also don’t want to take on all the bills that would come along with moving out right now.”
Melissa Yanez, CSN student, who also lives at home with her parents had the same idea as Durant. “I am not financially stable on my own. CSN is a lot cheaper than UNLV. I do work so it helps me pay school because I don’t qualify for financial aid so going here is cheaper and living with my parents helps a lot.”
According to the U.S. government’s Census Bureau’s report dated April 2017 titled “The Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood: 1975 to 2016” more young people today live in their parents’ homes than in any other arrangement. One-in-three young people or approximately 24 million 18-to-34 year olds live at home.
There are some that manage to live on their own and go to school.
Alodia Lumasag, CSN student, said, “There’s an advantage and disadvantage. You learn to live independently and manage your time because of all the homework. If you’re working and going to school it gets tough because you have to work to pay your rent and bills plus balance your time with homework.”
When asked if she thought school would be easier living with her parents Lumasag said, “It would definitely be easy because you have no worries to pay for anything. You don’t have to work as much as you do living by yourself. Your parents are physically there to support you.”
Nicole Duna is a CSN student who lives by herself. She is also in a different state from her mother who currently lives in Chicago. “Going to school and managing an apartment is a lot of work. It would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to work so much and pay rent. My grades would also be better because I would have more time to study. I could also finish school a lot faster because I wouldn’t have to work as much and could take more classes a semester.”
Coyote Student News at the College of Southern Nevada 