Once upon a time, the statement “I still live with my parents” had a negative connotation. Today, it is becoming less so. More and more millennials are either finding their way back home, or simply never left, after high school.

A 2015 Pew Research Center study of 18-to-24-year-old college students shows that despite improved employment among young adults, the number of them living at home is on the rise. The number of people in this age group living independently – for example, by themselves, with a spouse or non-relative – has decreased by 4 percent.

Those who choose to live at home are not necessarily doing so because they don’t have a job. This study also shows that the unemployment rate among the college students who were polled is steadily dropping and is now close to what it was during the Great Recession.

I am attending college, working and still living at home. I help my parents out as much as I can, whether that is paying for my expenses the best I can or just helping out around the house. I know that I am still leaning on them, but I made a promise to myself after my high school graduation that I will try my best to not become a burden.

I think staying at home (at least for a while) is typically beneficial for both college students and their parents, if only on two conditions: the student has to pull his/her own weight and be proactive in planning for the future. If students decide to stay home after high school, they should either help out while going to college or help their parents in any way they can while they try to find out what they want to do with their lives. I happen to know a few peers who have done the latter with lackluster effort, making their loved ones continue to take care for them even though they are well out of high school.

While I do not necessarily know what job I want in the future, I plan on moving out as soon as I have sufficient funds to do so. This is another reason why more people my age are staying at home. They do not have the money to live on their own. Factor in the increasing student debt each student incurs and it just deepens the problem.

Advantages to living at home during college range from saving money to being in a supportive environment, while disadvantages can range from gas costs for commuting to losing the independence you would gain by living on campus or in your own apartment or house.

Students may not want to live at home during college, but it is a way to save some money that would otherwise be spent on a dorm and meal plan.