Well it wasn’t the only reason, impacted majors and price also played into the equation, and he had a fine list of eight colleges in the end, but I couldn’t imagine this particular kid ever wanting to live off campus. He hates cooking and cleaning. Ironically although Carnegie Mellon does offer four years of housing - he moved off campus with friends junior year. The house he lived in that year got sold, and his friends were seniors and it was a horrible scramble getting him an apartment senior year because CMU won’t give you housing once you move off campus.
And you have also never met a large research university you didn’t like. I went to one, and found the housing situation quite frustrating and annoying as an undergraduate. It is a perfectly legitimate item to look at when selecting a school. I’d prefer that my kids not have to worry about cooking, cleaning, full year leases with roommates that skip out, providing furniture, and some of the safety issues that can come with living off campus. It isn’t the only reason my kids didn’t attend large research universities (not even the main reason), but it was on the list.
Oh yes, plan ahead. You won’t be sorry. Spontaneity is great in some things, but not when you’re talking about spending large amounts of money. As for the on-campus housing, it is quite important to some of us. I passed on the two big NMF schools (OU and UA) partially because of that - I will be better off with a 4-year scholarship that covers room and board the entire time than a 5-year scholarship that only covers part of housing the first year. To live on campus (which is what I want) would be very expensive at some schools, and transportation costs are going to be bad enough. Yes, dorm life will probably get tiring after the first year or two, but it is convenient and sensible.