<p>I saw some people who saved on rent by converting a sunroom into a bedroom (thereby making a place for two into a place for three) and saving a bit on rent when a third was paying a piece of it and feeling that they were paying “the real price” when a third was abroad. It’s all about framing, I guess!</p>
<p>But back to the larger question: student apartments can be attractive, they can lead to a better (or at least more intentional and self-directed) social life, and people in apartments still tend to be as (or even more) socially inclusive, as things go from “house-specific social event” to “first and second-degree friend network general social event.”</p>
<p>Not to mention that the social ties continue years and years out! Friend of a friend mentioned to me that she met a UChicago alum recently, I asked who, and she looked at me with an expression of, “Why do you care, the likelihood that you know this person is infinitesmal anyway.” She gave me his name, and it absolutely was somebody I knew- he was a fourth year when I was a first-year, but I knew him from a similar social network of sorts, and we were not housemates.</p>