With all the stories of crazy rents in the bay area - how can you estimate housing costs for a prospective student’s year 2, 3 and 4 housing cost?
http://financialaid.berkeley.edu/cost-attendance indicates that the school’s financial aid office believes that off-campus housing and food will be less expensive than the campus dorms ($10,170 for housing, utilities, and food, versus $14,992 for that in the campus dorms). Of course, off-campus housing can vary hugely, so some students may be in significantly more expensive housing.
To go really cheap, there are the BSC co-ops. Housing, utilities, and food are $6,768 for the academic year according to https://www.bsc.coop/index.php/academic-year-rates . But the waiting list is long, so interested students should apply as early as possible.
^^ The campus’ views on housing costs are pretty conservative, which is one of the biggest reasons people file cost of living adjustments each year. They have an unrealistic opinion of what people pay off campus. Not sure if they list it lower than what people actually pay so as not to scare off prospective students but the housing market is pretty terrible, as I’m sure you’re aware of.
My son lives in his fraternity house, which is quite reasonable (approximately $8,000 a year) compared to the dorms or apartments. Although living with 37 other guys would not be my first choice.