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Swimming Pools and Granite Countertops: How College Dorms Got So Expensive
- spicybbq 3y agohttps://archive.is/JK2YJ https://archive.is/JK2YJ
- jdksmdbtbdnmsm 3y agohttps://archive.fo/JK2YJ https://archive.fo/JK2YJ
- randomdata 3y ago> Housing is one of the biggest drivers of rising college costs in the U.S. While some people might otherwise choose to live in the middle of nowhere where they have to pay you to take a house, the data suggests that most people (especially young people most likely to take an interest in college) already live in the places where the colleges are found. For all intents and purposes, isn't the housing cost expended regardless of college enrolment? In other words, it is not a college cost.
- the-dude 3y agoStudent housing is a distinct class of real estate. At least, it used to be.
- randomdata 3y agoBut hosing for students is not limited to student housing. At least not at any legitimate institution.
- happytiger 3y agoHere is the data. It’s interesting to see how much is varies by type, but with only 25 percent of students attending undergrad programs living at home it does seem like it’s a major part of the college expense. https://collegeaffordability.urban.org/prices-and-expenses/room-and-board/#/ https://collegeaffordability.urban.org/prices-and-expenses/r...
- randomdata 3y agoThe data does not answer the question of whether or not housing is reasonably considered a cost of college. Only human analysis can answer that question.
- happytiger 3y agoIndeed. It does answer the question of housing costs and type for college students, but you’d have to design a conclusion for what “reasonableness” actually means to answer the question: it’s a deeply subjective terminology. For one person spending 6,000 a year on housing may be profoundly difficult. For another, 26,000 a year is no problem. And it is especially interesting that 25 percent of students live at home — that’s a lot higher than I expected. But of course what makes that “reasonable” is entirely in the eye of the human analyst which is why I provided the source data.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- randomdata 3y ago> It does answer the question of housing costs and type for college students It would answer that question, but why would anyone want that question answered...? The question in question asked whether or not housing is a college cost. We could ask the same of food, clothing, entertainment, etc. If you buy a new Ferrari while attending college, does that mean your college bill went up hundreds of thousands of dollars more? Or, if you want to look at this from a different perspective, is housing an employment cost if you have a job? If you volunteer at the soup kitchen, is housing a soup kitchen cost? If you like to race cars, is your house a racing cost? If the answer is yes, does that mean students who do things other than study have lower college costs? As in, if rent is $500 per month, also having a job means the cost would be divided between activities; let's, for the sake of discussion, say $250 attributable to college and $250 to employment. Whereas someone who only goes to school is paying the full $500 in college costs. Meaning that, all else equal, the person with the job pays $250 per month less for college than the person who has dedicated all of their time to school. > it’s a deeply subjective Of course it is subjective. That's why we are asking people about their subjective takes. If it were some kind of cold hard truth, what would there be to say about it?
- compiler-guy 3y agoThe article does a fairly detailed analysis of this: Housing affiliated with universities has gotten much more expensive relative no housing unaffiliated with universities over the past twenty years. Combine that with requirements to live on campus and such, and it is more expensive. Yes, everyone needs a place to live. But not everyone needs to live in a fancy and expensive dorm room like those that come with universities.
- randomdata 3y agoWhat is the relevance of university affiliation with respect to the assertion? Housing cost is merely a function of what the buyer is willing to bear. They could spend the same amount on an off-campus house – the cost would be the same. But is that actually a cost of college?
- compiler-guy 3y agoUniversities often require students live on campus. So yes.
- randomdata 3y agoSo, in that case, that's like a quarter of a million dollar loss (based on the article's figures) just on the housing portion of college alone. How does one ever recover from the financial hit? Especially if we assume that the cost of housing continues to climb like it has (maybe not, but let's go with it for the sake of discussion). The person who didn't go to college and bought a home instead will be likely end up half a million dollars or more richer without lifting a finger. I suppose you're going to college because you don't already have the basic life skills to figure that out.
- mrguyorama 3y ago>The person who didn't go to college and bought a home instead What fairytale land do you live in that a high school graduate can purchase a home?
- jvanderbot 3y ago> isn't the housing cost expended regardless of college enrollment For an article about specifically those arrangements that include dorms, this is overly general. Dorms used to be the defacto, cheapest living arrangement.
- randomdata 3y ago> Dorms used to be the defacto, cheapest living arrangement. Has that changed? The article suggests $500 per month for a basic room. There is no way I could find anywhere to live for that much around here, not even in a crack shack, and I live in a small town where housing tends to be cheap compared to the cities where colleges are found. In which cities is $500 per month for rent above market? Sure, you can opt to spend upwards of $2,000 per month (per the article) if you want to live in what is effectively a mansion, which may be something new, but you're going to spend more than that to live in a mansion off campus too, surely?
- karaterobot 3y agoWhy would they be building so many new dorms if most students live at home? Where do all those people in the middle of nowhere go to school?
- randomdata 3y ago> Why would they be building so many new dorms if most students live at home? There is no implication that the students live at home (assuming that means a parent's place). If you mean home as in where one lives, doesn't everyone live at home? > Where do all those people in the middle of nowhere go to school? This was already covered. But in an effort to try and salvage something here: Never underestimate the unreasonable effectiveness of the highway. Quite often people living in the middle of nowhere can get to places in the city faster than those who live inside the city. I know it is common misconception, but living in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean you have to be permanently affixed to it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- AlbertCory 3y agoExactly. Many college towns (esp. Big Ten) are in cities well out of commuting distance for most students.
- ksherlock 3y agoSure, you have to live somewhere but: "While rental prices rose nationwide in this period, an analysis of Census data shows median rates increased at a slower pace in the areas immediately around all 12 schools than the pace for the least expensive options on those campuses." ie, the cost of living in a dorm is rising faster than the cost of living off campus. Some colleges require freshman to live in dorms.
- randomdata 3y ago> ie, the cost of living in a dorm is rising faster than the cost of living off campus. And the article is about how there is now more choice in dorm rentals (i.e. from basic accommodations to mansion-living). Generally there was no mansion option in the past, and now there is, and that means some students will opt to pay more for the nicer accommodations – and that is going to reflect in the numbers. If a neighbourhood with 100 modest houses sees construction of 100 mansions, the median value of houses in the area is going to skyrocket too. That doesn't mean the modest houses suddenly cost more. The same article indicates that a basic unit is $500 per month. I'd love to know where you can rent an off-campus place for less than that. You would never find such a thing around here – not even if you are willing to settle for a crack den.
- oh_sigh 3y ago[flagged]
- qwerpy 3y agoOk I've gone to the trouble of imagining this but now what? Did this actually happen and we're supposed to be mad about it? Maybe I'm out of the loop.
- x0x0 3y agohttps://www.fastcompany.com/90740511/heres-what-its-like-living-in-a-windowless-dorm-built-by-a-billionaire https://www.fastcompany.com/90740511/heres-what-its-like-liv...
- Macha 3y ago> but better for the people who would live in them Assuming this is about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munger_Hall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munger_Hall , that is incredibly debatable.
- hutzlibu 3y ago"not only cheaper, but better for the people who would live in them." Better is apparently subjective: "94 percent of the students would not have had windows in their bedrooms" So maybe they lived worse before, like deep underground?
- tialaramex 3y ago> So maybe they lived worse before, like deep underground? Not everybody thinks windows (aka, large holes in the wall, with just a thin piece of glass or if you're lucky two, between you and the hostile outside environment) are a must have. I recall I opted for a room without on holiday some years ago, and they wanted to offer a free "upgrade" to a room with a window on checkin. Um, no, that's not an "upgrade" you fools, yes I came to your city to look at a variety of wonderful things, but none of those things is visible from the hotel window. So in exchange for it being slightly less secure and slightly drafty, I get to look at the carpark whenever I want? No thanks.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoOne under-discussed aspect of this is that so a few of these children have shared a bedroom due to lack of many siblings and oversized houses that they demand their own space in college. This cultural change has doubled the square footage required in dormitories.
- bb123 3y agoFor what it’s worth, the cultural expectation to share a room in college is not universal. In the UK, Australia and many parts of Europe are often horrified to find that American students share a bedroom.
- Ekaros 3y agoFor Finland, private bedrooms are standard and have been for years. Other spaces might be shared between 4-10 people. Still, even that arrangement has been losing popularity for a while. Even if there is lot of cost savings.
- tialaramex 3y agoAlthough historically my University (in the UK) did still have some student halls with double rooms, they were already uncommon to the point of vanishing by the time I attended almost thirty years ago. I don't see how this doubles square footage though. You can obviously provide significantly smaller study bedrooms for individuals, I'd have expected this to mean maybe the space for 1000 students (sharing, blergh) now has capacity for only 800 (single), something like that.
- tedunangst 3y agoDoubles in the US are barely largely than singles. Imagine your single, but with another bed in it.
- lern_too_spel 3y agoA triple is a double with one of the beds turned into a bunk bed and the other bed raised to stick another desk under it.
- daemonologist 3y agoMy experience was that of the Arkansas student in this article. Freshman year we were required to live in the university dorms, and they were bad - two to a room, poor ergonomics (for example, the bathroom sinks were too small to fill a glass of water - I did dishes in the bathtub), the per-room HVAC had constant issues, and all that while being far more expensive than off-campus housing. A few years later I was paying less than half as much for a private room in an apartment two miles down the street with a kitchen, much nicer furnishings, in-unit laundry, included parking, and a pool. All of that is to say: our dorms were expensive because the university had a de jure monopoly.
- drewcoo 3y agoIs this the 21st century equivalent of Reagan's "welfare queens?" Get back to be when see a sudden rise in "non-traditional" older students who just want to experience such opulence. Student life is so fun that everyone is in a hurry to leave and, despite many misty-eyed stories to the contrary, nobody wants to return to it.