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<li><p>It pretty much is the equilibrium price, apparently. In case you haven’t noticed, the dorms are full, but there isn’t any kind of clamor from people who wanted to get into dorms but couldn’t.</p></li>
<li><p>There are a lot of services associated with the dorms that off-campus apartments don’t have, or that kids living off-campus have to pay for. There are not a lot of “doorman” buildings in Hyde Park that rent apartments for less than the dorms. Ethernet connections are nice, too. And the university generally is much more responsive on maintenance and common-area cleaning than local landlords. Plus, there are RAs and RHs and whatever they call the resident faculty.</p></li>
<li><p>Off-campus apartments generally require a year’s lease. While people can often sublet during the summer, they can rarely sublet at their full cost, and finding subletters can be difficult. So the appropriate comparison is 11-12 months off-campus vs. 9 months in the dorms. Also, don’t underestimate the value of being able to drop your “lease” if you take a quarter abroad, or of not being on the hook to your landlord for double rent if your roommate drops out and stops paying. And the convenience of not having to look for an apartment.</p></li>
<li><p>The dorms are often more attractive locations for Chicago students than cheaper apartments.</p></li>
<li><p>Not all apartments are as cheap as the ones you found on Craigslist. (None of them is south of the Midway, where rents would not be that high. Two are much farther north of campus than most undergraduates like to live, especially as far west as the 2-b.r. is.)</p></li>
<li><p>All that said, there’s little question that off-campus apartments are cheaper, especially when you take square footage into account. That’s why a large majority of students permitted to live off campus do. But the realistic all-in cost difference is probably in the range of 10-15%. Not ginormous.</p></li>
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