I am astonished at the costs that people don’t factor in to their calculation about the savings of off-campus vs. campus housing. The biggest item of course is the 12 month lease- paying for an empty apartment if you can’t find a tenant, or the lease doesn’t allow for a sublet. But other costs add up quickly- internet (you don’t pay extra in a dorm, depending on the apartment/location you likely will have a monthly fee just like you do at your own home), utilities if not included, even modest furniture, etc. Lost key? Not the $18 charge you get from university housing, but the cost of an actual locksmith. Rodents in the kitchen? $200. Broken window over the fire escape??? You can spend a few months arguing with the landlord over who pays for it, or just write the check to fix it.
We quickly learned- if the leasing manager/owner does not require the parents financials, the place is likely to be an absolute dump without working smoke detectors, broken windows, and rodents.
But my kids were in cities-- I’m sure you can find less expensive/safe apartments in more suburban areas. But the cost savings in a big, expensive city can be really temporary once you start seeing those monthly bills.
My daughter is at NYU. Firstly, dorm room prices vary widely there (by thousands of dollars a year) so the comparison base can vary widely too. That said, they are usually in a fairly similar range to private accommodation available- especially taking into account the added costs of private as others have noted. Right now, because rentals in NYC have plunged over the past year, off campus accommodation seems mostly cheaper, but this is not always the case, especially for apartments in as good locations as most of the dorms are.
The economics of on-campus housing vs off-campus housing is always college/location dependent. There’s no uniform rule. However, there’re some tangible benefits (such as more interactions with fellow students, more convenient access to classes/food, etc.) living on campus if those benefits are important to you.
In Boston off campus apartments generally not only require first and last month’s rent but a security deposit equal to a month’s rent and often a brokerage fee that may also equal a month’s rent. And many of these off campus apartments are dumps. Although that is sometimes due to abuse by previous tenants.
My sister asked me to look over her son’s lease for the basement of a house in Boulder (on the Hill, so desirable area). For 5 bedrooms (and I use that term loosely as they weren’t all what we would call bedrooms), the lease was for 11.5 months, and about $50k. They’d let them pay monthly, for a fee. There was a security deposit of about $8k, of which they’d get about 1/2 back if they did everything perfectly. There were a bazillion rules about trash and parking and snow removal and any violation came out of the security deposit.
He later lived in another house, closer to the engineering school, and it was a lot more reasonable - plus we could park there for football games so that was worth $25 to us.
My D1 lived in the sorority house which was cheaper than the dorms and no hassle for me.
My D2 lived in a house just off campus. Much cheaper than the dorm, even with internet and electricity. She had a meal plan through her athletic scholarship so no cost/no savings there, but it would have been a BIG savings if she’d had to pay for the plan.
I think a lot of it depends on the location, the university and what is available. At my D’s school there was a wide variety of university housing at a decent price. Her last year she lived in a university owned apartment which cost as much as some a lot of the nearby off campus apartment complexes. But the nice thing about the on campus apartments is that furniture, internet, cable. utilities are all included. All repairs are included as well. Plus if a roommate moves out, you aren’t on the hook for your rent…and as long as you don’t trash the place it really is a pretty good deal!