That’s a good point, @ucbalumnus . A lot of us can’t live with family. I got to live with my grandmother for two years while in CC, but that was a gift above and beyond what was originally offered. Doing it in university was out of the question, and my parents neither want me around (nor I them, as we’d spend so much time screaming profanity at each other and threatening estrangement that I’d never have the emotional energy for school) nor have the money to pay their own rent and food costs, much less mine.
Plus, they live in Colorado, and I’m not a Colorado resident, and couldn’t be one off of their residency because I entered university at the age of 24. If I had moved in with them instead of going off on my own (I rent a room in an in law unit off campus, which is cheaper than living on campus by a large margin), it would have increased my debt quite a bit, not reduced it.