When Heidi Beideman enrolled at UC Davis in fall 2022, she had a number of need-based grants to help cover her tuition.
The grant didn’t cover her housing costs, which can add up to more than $10,000 a school year for a “triple” room she shares with two other students — about $1,250 a month to rent a third room.
“There was a single bed on one side and a bunk bed next to it. It was very small. And it didn’t have its own bathroom,” Beideman recalled. “I thought it was a rip-off.”
Ms. Beideman, 20, said she had to borrow money to pay for her room and board in full. Faced with the prospect of mounting debt, she left Davis after one semester. Two years later, she’s living with her fiancé’s parents, 400 miles away at the University of California, Irvine.
“You always hear people talk about the cost of tuition,” she says, “but the dorms themselves are another issue.”
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College tuition costs are rising. Housing costs are rising at an even faster pace.
While students and their families worry about rising college tuition costs, housing costs are rising at a faster pace.
According to federal data, the average cost of dorms at four-year colleges has risen 37% over 10 years, from $5,433 in the 2012-2013 school year to $7,456 in the 2022-2023 school year. During the same period, tuition and fees have risen just 26%, from $14,099 to $17,709.
Data shows that, when adjusted for inflation, tuition and fees have actually fallen over the past decade. Housing costs have risen.
“People are so concerned with, ‘How much is tuition?'” says Robert Kelchen, a professor of education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, “but oftentimes, especially if you’re attending a public university, the cost of room and board is more than the cost of tuition.”
Some prestigious universities charge more than $10,000 a year for dorms. For two students sharing a dorm room during the eight-month school year, it can cost more than $2,500 a month to rent a room. (The calculations assume that students live on campus for two semesters, about four months each.)
Luxury dorms can cost more than $2,000 a month.
At the University of California, Berkeley, the flagship of the California State University system, students currently pay at least $12,675 a year for a triple room, or about $4,750 per month per room divided by three.
At Georgetown University, a private campus in Washington, DC, annual housing costs range from $11,616 to $22,916.
At Arizona State University, a public university, annual housing costs start at around $5,000 and range up to $21,492.
At the privately funded New York University, annual housing costs range from $10,240 to $26,720, with the highest cost exceeding $3,000 per month.
The cost of university housing “isn’t just about rent”
Many of these fees sound high, but experts in academic finance say universities don’t make money from the housing fees they charge students – they’re simply covering their costs.
“On-campus fees aren’t just about rent,” says Oran Bryant Garrett, vice president of student affairs at Temple University in Philadelphia. “Utilities are usually included. Maintenance is usually included.”
Also, keep in mind that many dorm rooms are only used eight months out of the year, meaning that the university must essentially collect a year’s worth of rent for those months.
Experts say dorm fees include not only utility and maintenance costs, but also personnel costs that far exceed the staff costs of a typical apartment building.
“The dorms have resident assistants and student support staff,” Kelchen says, “so there’s a lot more support and assistance.”
Some experts worry about a caste system in campus dorms
Still, some worry that the wide range in college housing costs perpetuates the divide between the haves and have-nots.
At Temple University, a public campus, annual housing costs range from $9,576 to $16,360. The highest rates approach Temple University tuition, which starts at $18,864 for in-state residents.
“Colleges across the country offer a variety of dorms, ranging from old cinderblock buildings to fairly luxurious ones, and students whose families can afford it end up in luxury housing,” Kelchen said.
According to the College Entrance Examination Board, the average combined cost of housing and board at four-year public universities for the 2023-24 academic year will be $12,770. Currently, room and board costs exceed tuition and fees, with the average tuition for in-state students that year being $11,260.
At private, nonprofit institutions such as Georgetown University and New York University, the average combined room and board cost for the 2023-24 academic year was $14,650. Tuition and fees averaged $41,540.
“As things stand, the majority of college costs are housing,” said Jason Kohn, a research associate at the Urban Institute’s Education Data and Policy Center. “If we want to make college more affordable, we need to put the cost of living at the center of that discussion.”
State legislatures and university boards of governors pay close attention to annual tuition increases, but “on-campus housing is typically not part of those discussions,” said Justin Ortagus, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Florida.
The off-campus housing market is tough
To some extent, the academic housing market mirrors the broader off-campus housing market, and that market can be tough.
According to a Zillow report, rents are now one-third higher than they were before the pandemic, making off-campus rents seem cheaper than on-campus rents in high-end neighborhoods like New York City, Boston and many parts of California.
University spokeswoman Julia Ann Easley said that when factoring in additional costs such as utilities and Wi-Fi, UC Davis housing costs are “about 25 percent lower than the market average for Davis.”
Some universities in high-rent areas, including Berkeley and University of California, Santa Cruz, are building new dorms to create more on-campus living space, according to a report from the education journalism nonprofit Hechinger. The University of Texas at Austin is offering housing scholarships.
Colleges can help students afford housing costs by offering more need-based grants instead of loans, Cohn said.
The federal government could help by increasing Pell Grants given to students with special needs, which currently have an annual maximum of $7,395.
“There’s been a lot of talk about doubling Pell Grants,” Kohn said, or the government could create “another grant program that’s really just a cost-of-living stipend.”
Earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill that would nearly double the maximum Pell Grant amount over five years, but the bill has yet to reach a vote in the House or Senate.
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Experts: Know the full cost of college
Meanwhile, experts say students and their families should understand the full cost of college — and remember that making the wrong housing choice could cost them thousands of dollars in extra fees.
“The newer the dorm, the more likely you are to be living alone and the higher the cost tends to be,” says Temple’s Garrett, who is also vice president of the International Association of University Housing Managers.
“Most people want the Taj Mahal,” he said, “but think about whether you can afford the Taj Mahal.”