Interestingly, that is not necessarily the case. S15 is at an Ivy and his living accommodations the past two years have been horrendous, but the room cost is certainly no lower than schools with posh housing. There are a range of rooms and somehow he has managed to get the short straw 2 years in a row, yet everyone pays the same. His rooms have not been large enough to unbunk the beds to give an idea of the size, no closets, a hall bathroom, and no fancy common spaces. Upperclassman housing doesn’t get much better. Even though the school is swarming with students from 1% families no one seems to complain and almost everyone lives on campus all 4 years. The reality is that applicants would line up at this school even if they had to spend 4 years in sleeping bags on a gym floor; the majority of schools have to find ways to appeal to applicants however, and fancy housing is just one way they try to differentiate themselves.