That’s not exactly true.
You can either go to a school without an on campus requirement - or you can go to a school that has - for example - if you go to a U of Alabama and are in the Honors College - you WILL have your own room and a shared with one person bathroom.
Other colleges have similar Honors or otherwise.
And many have no residence requirement.
This really isn’t that big a deal but you’ll need to be flexible on where you are willing to go.
Not necessarily, not charged at Rutgers, I believe, UDel not charged but they need a meal plan for longer breaks. I think they can stay at BU too?
Some of my kids’ colleges required students to live in campus freshman year if their home address was a certain distance away. At all of them, singles were hard to come by, medical reasons came first and then upperclassmen. Same goes with on campus apartments, no way freshmen get them. My son commutes to a large public school, finding off campus housing is very challenging, and there are no student complexes or neighborhoods, and most options are in neighboring towns, nothing furnished. At most of them, leases are signed 10+ months in advance.
For many colleges that is essentially correct, if they cannot guarantee single housing.
You have to decide if “single housing” truly is a make-it-or-break-it factor for you while making your (then much reduced!) college list?
Either you decide now if you are willing to “deal with it” (that you might get your preference, or very possibly not), or else, only apply to colleges that do not mandate first-years to live in their dorms.
Well…you are international unless you have citizenship or permanent resident status.
Do your parents live in the US also? If so, would you consider commuting from their home?
Closed at OP’s request.