<p>“Room and board is a huge expense. Take NYU for example, which ranks in with the 42nd highest tuition, but with room and board added in it gives NYU a total cost of over $50,000, placing it as the 3rd most expensive school in the nation.”</p>
<p>[CampusGrotto</a> - Most Expensive College Dorms](<a href=“http://www.campusgrotto.com/most-expensive-college-dorms.html]CampusGrotto”>America's Most Expensive College Dorms - CampusGrotto)</p>
<p>A number of these universities listed are in dense urban areas… the property taxes they probably have to pay possibly explains why.</p>
<p>NYU has dorms in which each students have their own bathroom. Thats whats one of the causes for the booming room and board fee. Columbia is in the same range if not more. GWU is in the same boat because their dorms are like palaces.</p>
<p>Can anyone inform me of which schools have the CHEAPEST room and board?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Be careful what you wish for. Some dorms are cheap, but they smell and are pretty yucky.</p>
<p>I prefer mid-priced dorms. Remember, you have to LIVE there!</p>
<p>^Well…regardless of conditions, which colleges have cheap dorms?</p>
<p>Sometimes, though, you at least get what you pay for. My D is at NYU and I would without hesitation be happy to call my D’s dorm on Broome street home. (For REAL!!!) It is in a converted apartment house with a common area that is well sized, with a decent decent kitchen and bath. Newly renovated marble lobby with security. A block from Little Italy. Two blocks from Lower B’dway (Soho) in one direction and Chinatown in the other. Surrounded by restaurants and clubs. The shopping is unbelievable! Apartments across the streets are in the millions. Seriously at approximatley $13,700 ( if I remember correctly) NOT a bad deal.</p>
<p>Yeah, NYU dorms are expensive, but I live ON Washington Square Park. Rubin, another freshman dorm, is on Fifth Avenue. We’re talking about some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that NYU housing costs might be a little higher than average.</p>
<p>I lived for a summer in an NYU dorm on Mercer Street. I had an 11th floor city lights view and my own bathroom. It was the greatest dorm room I ever lived in!</p>
<p>siglio…</p>
<p>I think many public U’s have at least “some” cheaper dorms. Go to websites of the colleges that you’re interested, go to housing, look at the various rates.</p>
<p>Typically you’ll save if you pick…</p>
<p>Older dorms that haven’t been recently remodeled</p>
<p>double or triples</p>
<p>dorms with “community bathrooms.”</p>
<p>If I had to specify a price…I would say “cheaper dorms” are about $3500 per year (perhaps triples are cheaper).</p>
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<p>Uhhh . . . I don’t think it’s property taxes. It’s the market. An acre of land in lower Manhattan, where NYU is located, would be worth tens of millions. An acre of land in rural Iowa, where Grinnell is located, would be worth maybe $3-4,000, depending on how well suited it is for agriculture. NYU has to spend a small fortune to build a dorm, not only because land costs are high but because it has to pay an architect more to design to a small and highly constrained site, construction costs are higher, it’s harder and consequently more costly (after paying all the lawyers, lobbyists, and p.r. people it takes to get the job done} to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals, etc. The cost difference is not driven by property taxes, as most not-for-profit educational institutions don’t pay property taxes—though this varies with state law.</p>
<p>Ditto post #11. ^Per square foot it is extremely expensive to build in Manhattan. All costs are high - maintenance (labor), utilities compared to places outside of metropolitan areas. I don’t think they pay real estate taxes. Labor costs for all services are high in Manhattan.</p>
<p>The hardest part of graduating from NYU is having to move out of the dorms and find an apartment in Manhatten half as nice and twice as expensive as the NYU dorm.</p>
<p>Does it really matter what the cost of the individual items is that much? If anything I’d prefer higher dorm costs for a nicer dorm. You’re still gonna pay ~50k/yr (before FA) for the most expensive private schools. </p>
<p>The itemized cost isn’t what matters, it’s the total bill…</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I agree that I would rather pay “a bit more” for a newer or remodeled dorm. However, there are some schools that are charging a LOT for dorms that it does affect the total “bottom line.” And, many of us don’t qualify for F/A - or don’t qualify for F/A without loans.</p>
<p>You can’t blame the UC’s on the list. You get premium location at subsidized prices, even at those prices.</p>
<p>The question is do you need and can you afford a premium location. It could be a big add to the college loan balance at graduation.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>If two of your college choices are relatively equal, it can make a difference to look at things like Room and Board - to see quality of facilities and to compare prices.</p>
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<p>I agree. That’s why comparing colleges on the price of tuition alone, as someone on CC did recently, is an equally pointless exercise. What matters is the total cost. But colleges don’t mesure total “Cost of Attendance” the same way, so you need to be careful with that. Tuition & mandatory fees + room & board gives you a pretty good approximation of the relative costs of schools on your list. Books should be pretty similar everywhere; transportation will vary a great deal depending on where you’re coming from, so the school-wide averages some schools give you are not very helpful. Some schools include “incidentals” to COA in an effort to be realistic; much of this is discretionary with the individual, though you do need things like laundry detergent, change for the washer and dryer (maybe), and toothpaste. But location does play a role here as well. When I’m in New York, I feel like I’m handing out a steady stream of $20 bills. If you’re at NYU and you have an active social life, you’re almost certainly going to spend more money than you would in, say, Grinnell, Iowa. And you may get more out of it in a certain way, but as barrons suggests, you’ll have to decide whether you can afford that luxury during your college years.</p>
<p>The dorms in the OP’s link are not only expensive, they are hideous too.</p>