Hostels are a form of accommodation for students living far away from home where you share your room with other students. There are many advantages and disadvantages to them as explained in this article. These hostels are better known as dorms and are usually same sex and are basically like apartment buildings. The rooms themselves tend to vary in shape and size and have two or more occupants.

Pros of hostels
It’s very easy to make friends and meet new people as you are sharing a living space, a bathroom and even a kitchen at times. This forces interaction with your peers and more often than not, you end up making friends. You might meet your new best friend or make friends for a lifetime as sharing living space makes you get to know the person you’re living with very vividly. Living away from your parents helps you become independent and you tend to do more things by yourself. This helps you overcome your fears and helps you become more sociable also. An added benefit is that you can go out with your friends at any time you want and have late night or early morning adventures. This is an amazing way to make memories that will last a lifetime and you will make the most of your youth. During finals and mids, you can have group study sessions with ease. This will also help you stay organize your schedule and assignments and will help make sure you don’t miss deadlines. Getting to class is easier as well if you live on campus and you may even get precious hours of sleep instead of wasting time having a long commute and there is less of a risk of being late to class. Moreover, you have a lot of freedom whilst living away from your parents. You don’t have to ask for their permission to go anywhere and are free to do what you want whenever you want. Coming and going as you please and whenever you want with your own living accommodations and you never have to be alone as someone is almost always doing something. Common rooms with televisions are available and you will never have to be alone so you don’t feel like a loser.

Cons of Hostels
The biggest disadvantage of living with someone is the fact that you have no personal space and the fact that you might not always get alone with your roommate. Maybe they prefer talking while you prefer the quiet or maybe they prefer music while studying and you don’t. Whatever the reason, misunderstandings are bound to happen living with someone for extended periods of time and in close proximity as well. Privacy is just no longer a thing. There might be bathrooms that are not always clean and you might even be sharing one bathroom with a few people. Not everyone cleans up after themselves, and it can be a really gross experience for you overall. Sleep might be a precious commodity too as your roommate might have friends over or the people in the next room might be having a party while you have a test tomorrow. These instances will make your dorm life more annoying than pleasant. Space to put your trunks and bags might be sparse too as dorms are usually really small and have tiny closets. You cannot expect to put all your stuff into them. There are tons of distractions as well. The amount of responsibility suddenly placed on your shoulders might be too much for you to handle and the lack of a parental figure just makes you more lazy and unwilling to attend classes for the sheer fact that no one is nagging you to go. You might never feel lonely but your studies might suffer. Your friends might stop by at different times of the day and this will cut into your studying time. All the activities around you can be pretty tempting too. Attending a party almost always sounds more fun than picking up your books. Some colleges have extremely long lists of what you can or cannot bring with you to the dorm like air conditioners or cooking appliances so you have a lot of restrictions placed on you and your level of control decreases. Your college might even close the dorms during breaks and if you want to take summer classes, this will hinder your living arrangements. Young students living in hostels get into all sorts of bad things as they are easily influenced and the lack of parental guidance makes it easy to get into bad habits.

Author Bio: This article was written by Patricia Grays, part time writer at US Assignment Help Company. She is a student counselor and also devotes her time to parent counseling.