I came here to alert people to their elite perspective. For first-gen students with low-income families that may not have great credit to qualify for an apartment, 4 years of campus housing is critical. And you are forgetting the added expense of furnishing this apartment and paying the rent for 12 months even though you're back home or elsewhere doing an internship for the summer. My father had a civil service job that paid about $38K back in the late 1980s when I was in school. There's no way he would have qualified to rent an apartment for $1K/month in addition to covering the mortgage and our family expenses. And as others have pointed out, it's the parents who rent these off-campus apartments, not the students with no income or credit history.

"There’s another word for college kids who must have four years of housing: poor.

If you’re on scholarship and in a city with expensive housing, it can be very difficult or impossible to rent an apartment for the cost of attendance housing allowance covered by financial aid.

Must be nice in your bubble."

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know about MIT or UPenn?

Penn guarantees 2 years. But the students have no problem finding on-campus housing if they prefer to stay on-campus for the 3rd and 4th years.

Columbia.

Their housing rate is cheaper than other comparable colleges.

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine being a 21 or 22 year old senior, still living in a dorm with an RA and visitation hours, showering in a hall bathroom while that weird guy from down the hall is taking a dump and farting, and being pestered to attend dorm activities in the common room with stale pizza and bad movies? No thanks. Live on campus long enough to meet people and then grow up and get an apartment.

I was the 21 year old in the dorm at a school mentioned on this thread where almost all students stay on campus all four years. Most of my friends stayed on campus too. It would have been isolating and expensive to move off.

Your perception of dorm life is a little off. I was the RA. We didn't have visitation hours, everyone came and went as we pleased. There were no pesky dorm activities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many issues with finding off-campus housing, lease issues, landlord issues, big PIA and doing it as early as sophomore year was not a plus.

I like the campus camaraderie of schools that require on campus living longer. My kid will be attending one with a 3-year requirement. The upperclassmen have more townhouse like on campus accommodations. Sophomores more apartment style and Freshmen traditional dorms.

FWIW that kind of requirement can signal economic issues. My LAC went from a laissez-faire policy to mandating 3 years living on campus (I had moved off after first year). But the reason wasn't to encourage camaraderie - as the tour guides like to say - it was because the college was in very bad financial shape .... and this was pre-covid. The Board realized it was losing too much money in meal service so made the students live on campus. Some double rooms became triples. It was not a good situation and had nothing to do with building camaraderie.

What school?

I don’t know if this is still true, but when I was at Williams only seniors could live off campus and only those who were allowed to via a lottery - there wasn’t much off campus housing so they required the other three years and most the seniors to live on campus. My husband and I (met in college) both were on campus all 4 years. I’d be surprised if that’s changed.

Vanderbilt. They have to live on campus all 4 years, although some kids get a waiver to live off campus senior year.

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine being a 21 or 22 year old senior, still living in a dorm with an RA and visitation hours, showering in a hall bathroom while that weird guy from down the hall is taking a dump and farting, and being pestered to attend dorm activities in the common room with stale pizza and bad movies? No thanks. Live on campus long enough to meet people and then grow up and get an apartment.

You should take some college tours. Every college I am familiar with that has actual upper class housing has apartment-style dorms or at a minimum, suites with private baths and kitchen areas.

Anonymous wrote:There’s a word for college kids who must have four years of housing: nerds.

There’s another word for college kids who must have four years of housing: poor.

If you’re on scholarship and in a city with expensive housing, it can be very difficult or impossible to rent an apartment for the cost of attendance housing allowance covered by financial aid.

Must be nice in your bubble.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lived off-campus except for sophomore year. Let the kid grow up. Teach them how to sign a lease.

Can they sign a lease without any proof of income?

No. A parent needs to cosign nearly all leases unless your DC is living in real low quality housing. In our town these rentals are called the student ghetto.

Anonymous wrote:So many issues with finding off-campus housing, lease issues, landlord issues, big PIA and doing it as early as sophomore year was not a plus.

I like the campus camaraderie of schools that require on campus living longer. My kid will be attending one with a 3-year requirement. The upperclassmen have more townhouse like on campus accommodations. Sophomores more apartment style and Freshmen traditional dorms.

FWIW that kind of requirement can signal economic issues. My LAC went from a laissez-faire policy to mandating 3 years living on campus (I had moved off after first year). But the reason wasn't to encourage camaraderie - as the tour guides like to say - it was because the college was in very bad financial shape .... and this was pre-covid. The Board realized it was losing too much money in meal service so made the students live on campus. Some double rooms became triples. It was not a good situation and had nothing to do with building camaraderie.