<p>Housing is a consideration but academic excellence overwhelms it. A thousand years ago, I hated dorm life; every weekend there seemed to be one or more drunks in my quad interferring with studying, and when I wasn't one of them it was annoying. When I moved off campus I found myself walking two miles back to the library almost every night and had to find a safe place to stash my books so I wouldn't have to carry so much up Libe slope.</p>
<p>Access to the campus is key if the campus has anything going on and most do. Living off campus a shuttle ride away can be an excellent option. The further away from home the more important on campus or near campus available housing is to me, especially in the Northern states where snow and ice can be such a bother. </p>
<p>Food service varies from place to place but if the food is good usually off campus students can still get some meal plan.</p>
<p>Good advice from all. One of my daughters moved off campus at BU after her freshman year, because a housing crunch meant that only crappy dorms were available to sophomores. But her apartments were no farther away from her classes and the library than the dorms would have been, and the price was roughly equivalent. I think she would have preferred to stay on campus all things considered, though. For instance, the dorms had fast ethernet computer connections whereas the apartments did not. The "experience" of coping with apartment life is somewhat overrated, I think. Kids will figure it out fast enough once they graduate.</p>
<p>At my daughters school if you live off campus your financial aid is different.
Her school meets 100% of need but if you don't have room and board expenses ( on campus) you get a smaller allowance than if you did.
The way it was explained to us, it is a difference of several thousand dollars.
Now your off campus expenses may be lower, and if you receive loans or pay out the money in August it may still be a good deal to live off campus, but you probably want to check with finaid at your school to see if the package would be much different.</p>
<p>Depends on what the "prevailing" culture is. For freshmen, and probably sophomores, bills,etc are things they really shouldn't have to worry about. As someone else said, 20 or 21 it is time to start thinking about some independence. I moved out of the dorm as soph, the first year was not good, but I moved to a different place for the last 2 years and it was much nicer, although there were roommate issues - roommate with an abusive boyfriend. My school had a strong "apartment" culture, though. There were a minority of true commuters, but most kids were at least an hour or 2 from home, so they tended to move out of the dorms and live in student apartment complexes. I think these were actually more like coed dorms are now, but with cooking and single sex bathrooms. There was always something happening, wasn't terribly quiet, and everyone knew everyone else - this was a small, semi-rural college town.</p>
<p>The availability of on campus housing was VERY important for DS. He was only looking at colleges in very expensive urban areas. The cost of an apartment for 12 months is something we didn't want to have to worry about. One reason he didn't choose a school which was VERY high on his list was the lack of affordable housing in the area of the school and the fact that only freshmen live in the one dorm. The costs would have put him (and us) over the top. Now...DD is looking as schools in much less expensive parts of the country. She also is not looking at expensive urban areas. On campus housing MUST be guaranteed for freshman but beyond that a lot will depend on the specific schools.</p>
<p>Housing was very important to us because we felt freshman housing was part of the college experience. Our son really didn't care and didn't consider housing in his choice-he was right. Son's school has housing for all 4 years-they have beautiful apartments for upper classmen. I realize now that with our son's major-music performance and his personality he would not have a problem joining in and participating in the college experience.</p>