The Real Reason College Dorms Have Gotten So Expensive

The universities brag about fancy dorms but ignore the reality that most students just want a basic room they can afford without going into debt. I started college almost 20 years ago when these new “apartment style residence halls” were just starting to take over. The older dorms I lived in had vibrant social communities because you couldn’t help but interact with other students. The newer style buildings were always much quieter and people kept to themselves. Aside from affordability, people seemed happier and more social in the cheap dormitories because the design encouraged students to leave their rooms during the day and go to common spaces.

Imagine getting robbed and told you’re receiving a great life lesson

The overall housing supply shortage in these college town and cities is a huge part of the issue. The low supply of off-campus housing drives up the cost of on-campus housing. The president of Virginia Tech said explicitly in the State of the University address that they will be limiting admissions specifically due to the lack of housing.

I live in a tower style dorm constructed in the 1960s, and while I wish I could have a private living space, there is no denying the fact that $700/month is much easier to stomach than the $1500+/month dorm costs that you're seeing in new-build apartment dorms at an increasingly large number of state schools.

Virtually everything in university has gotten expensive. One of the main reasons is because administrative staff somehow realized they need to make $500K a year. Not faculty we’re talking administrative.

Yep these leases are designed to last up to 85 years...by which point, when the land returns to the university, the buildings will be practically condemned, because they were built as cheaply and quickly as possible by a developer who was basically handed free access to the pockets of the students by the school that is supposed to be bettering them.

Because tuition and books weren’t gouging enough. Congress needs to look into all of this. Why do we keep saying “oh, well the kids will get loans or something” ???

Had to live on campus for my freshman year at Clemson. $6,000 for a shared room that was probably 400 sq ft and a required meal plan purchase of over $4,000. I wish they didn't force people to live on campus for the first year of college but I can see why they do it, but to compare, I was able to live 5 minutes from campus in a 4 person apartment for $400 a month and ~$3000 a year in food and fun costs.

As a child, I used to live in a university-owned campus apartment at LSU that was later torn down to build the Nicholson Gateway facilities. The apartments were aimed at married students and students with children (who obviously couldn't live in dorms), as opposed to the general student population. Rents for a 3-bedroom apartment, with utilities included, were under $200/month. Yes, the apartments had basic cinder block walls and linoleum tile floors, but they were affordable and convenient. Of course, back then, students still lived in un-airconditioned dorm rooms in the football stadium building itself!

I have two kids in college right now. They are in different cities. What I have noticed is two things both campuses have in common, one, the lack of new construction around the campuses they are in. Not IN campus; but around, where students can rent. Two, the new dorms inside the campuses look more like a resort than a college dorm and somebody has to pay for all those amenities. Competition has created that. Colleges competing for students have created this new standard and parents keep paying for it. So of course prices continue to jump.

There should be no notion of a "high end" dorm. Everyone who stays in dorms gets the same dorm. You want luxury, stay off campus.

American campus communities is associated with UCI, and they literally just raised their prices another 200$ a month, despite the original statement from the university saying it was a form of “affordable housing”

Publicly funded universities need to be student oriented, not profit oriented. Ridiculous.

I studied in Russia, Germany, and Canada. In early 2000th, a typical room on campus in a large city in Russia cost about $30-50 (you read it right), in a university city in German about 200-300 euros, and in Canada (Montreal) around $400-500. FYI: higher education in both Russia and German is either free or almost tuition free. In Canada, it was around $2000-2500 per year for Quebec residents (aka in-state) at prestigious McGill University. Tuition in the US is insane.

The models at 4:54 have washers and driers! No sharing machines in the basement with a handful of quarters and either sitting there for a couple of hours or hoping you still have clothes when come back.

My university has insane tuition before grants and aid, about 45K per year, the one thing I will give it credit for is that they give us decent housing options well below market rates, around 6K per year, versus local market rate of 11K plus summer fees of around 3K. In addition the dining options are reasonable as well at around 2K, rather than the 2.8K at my local state school. Neither food nor housing were costs I considered when I was applying, but in the end even if the tution was more expensive, I think it might've been about even with some of the more local state schools for me, due to the lower housing costs. I don't know if this comment will reach students who are choosing their universities, but make sure you know the full story when picking your university, when it comes to cost there is more to it than just the tuition fees, DO YOUR Research!

morning brew could literally cover a topic on anything and make it interesting

I started at OSU in 1981 and most dorm rooms looked more like prison cells compared to even your "before" pic. After my freshman year I was allowed to move to private "off campus" housing. I rented a basement bedroom for $60/mo and it was tolerable because I had access to an efficiency apt (arguably the best in the house) I shared with my brother. We both had engineering CO-OP jobs so we worked out of town every third Q. We had to swap to keep this sweet $130/mo apt. The real mind blower looking back is that both of us could work our way through school! While I was at OSU my parents and some of their friends considered buying rental houses near campus for investment. Even with the low rents, these houses were great, cash flow positive investments with incredible tax advantages. This didn't go unnoticed because soon a large outfit (DeSantis) began buying over 90% of properties for sale in the area, then started working on buying houses that were not for sale. You guessed it! After mild upgrades, rents started rising exponentially.

Oklahoma State University...... I was certainly expecting them to make this list, but not be the first mentioned. I have stories to add to this clip that would horrify most. I arrived at OSU fresh off of an Iraq deployment; was a student and a building maintenance tech. This was during the T Boone Pickens era of attempting to terraform Stillwater to (the only obvious reason) own all real estate within a 10 mile radius in order to monopolise housing, to include demolishing off campus housing... The only other reason to do what OSU did would be in preparation to host the Olympics. The quality of housing and other issues, I could go on forever. Long story short: I did not fit in, could not see why (other than for OSU, a non profit state entity, to actually earn a profit) OSU deliberately would reduce housing in general, let alone affordable housing, and anything new was a rat nest with malfunctioning equipment.

College is such a sham. And this is coming from a person with two degrees. I'm curious how colleges will cope with declining enrollment rates and after that, declining birthrates. I hope the taxpayers don't get stuck with the bill for subsidizing developers losses when they inevitably start complaining and try to exit their contracts with the universities because there aren't enough students to fill the dorms to pay rent because college becomes too expensive for folks to attend or the students simply don't exist to fill the slots. A lot will change over the next 65 years in terms of higher education if current trends continue.