I have no choice but to establish a room/board component for my school’s COA. I have students of all ages (23 - 52), from all walks of life and all cities of the world. Their living expectations are wildly different. I tell students who are concerned with costs to research the area - the internet is a wonderful too; use it. You can look up rent, you can look up grocery store ads, etc. There are areas around my school that are very expensive, and there are areas that are very inexpensive. A motivated student can often spend less than the estimated room/board costs off campus.
I have seen COAs in urban areas of major cities that are almost laughable - it would be very difficult to spend that little on room/board. Maybe they do PJ for living costs … they can advertise a lower COA & then increase it case-by-case to help those who need a loan increase to afford the actual costs. Or maybe the DON’T do PJ for COA - maybe they keep it low to keep available borrowing eligibility to a minimum.