The 9 Most Expensive Dorms: Campus Grotto List

As tuition climbed an average of 7.9 percent at public colleges and 4.5 percent at private ones this fall, room and board costs weren't about to be left behind. According to Campus Grotto, the price of year's worth of dining hall meals and campus roof over one's head increased by 3.9 percent and 4.6 percent for private and public institutions, respectively. On average, public school students pay $8,535 for college housing; private school students must cough up $9,700.

So at which schools must you reach the furthest into your pocket to pay for a standard double room? When taking into account Campus Grotto's new list of the 20 most expensive college dorms, odds are the school will be in an urban setting in New York or California. Surprised? Us either.

See which school took the top spot below -- and check out the full list at Campus Grotto.

Should students (and their families) have to pay this much for a dorm room? Would you? Weigh in below.

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Eugene Lang College (The New School)

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Room and board: $17,110

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Room and board: $17,110

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Comments

[NYC-CatLover]

10:43 PM on 11/05/2010

Whoever is paying this kind of money to live in NYC gets an F in personal finance. You can live with roommates in Queens or Brooklyn for $600-700/month (or more/less depending on neighborhood). The meal plans at these schools are rip offs too, live in an apartment that has more space than a private dorm anyway, has a private bathroom, and buy your own food.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

04:53 PM on 11/07/2010

who really wants room mates and have to deal with the 7 train

[jayded]

04:13 PM on 11/08/2010

it depends, maybe the experience of living in a trendy part of manhattan is worth it

[talietash]

04:40 PM on 11/03/2010

Explains why I will be in debt till 2030. I have to say living at FCLC spoiled me for city living afterwards. Which is why I live in Brooklyn now. Still it was an amazing experience to live next door to Lincoln Center and it was worth every penny. Go Rams!

[Tom Schnurr]

02:58 PM on 11/04/2010

It's hysterical that the picture of Rose Hill shows Martyrs Court; the worst dorm at Fordham.

Still ridiculous how expensive Fordham dorms are.

[tdotbird]

03:43 PM on 11/03/2010

I pay less for my room and meal plan plus tuition then these kids are paying just for room and board. Kind of disgusting.

[emmybee]

10:04 PM on 11/03/2010

Room and board is room and a meal plan.

[QueenMum]

03:25 PM on 11/03/2010

As the parent of a child who goes to school in NYC I can tell you it is cheaper to have them get an apartment with a roommate. My daughter lives in Queens in a great neighborhood and pays less for yearly rent then these kids are paying to have 9mths of dorms. And she has her own space. The commute to her school is 20 minutes by train.

[emmybee]

10:41 AM on 11/03/2010

As a parent of a college student, I can tell you that the person who wrote this article didn't really do their homework. One of the dorms on my son's midwest campus runs nearly $15,000 for two semesters and that does NOT include the meal plan. That rate is for a double occupancy suite (two rooms, each with two roommates that share a bathroom). The standard double which has a community bathroom and that is around $10,400 and once you add a meal plan it is easily in the range quoted for Sarah Lawrence.

And yes, I think this is outrageous. I gave my son two options - live at home and commute or find a way to pay for it himself. He works as an RA to pay for his room and board.

[jayded]

04:18 PM on 11/08/2010

maybe these figures are an average/median

[Rogan]

08:05 AM on 11/03/2010

I guess Emerson is no longer as expensive as it was, when I was there, twenty years ago...

[Sara Lira]

05:45 AM on 11/03/2010

The cost of dorms + food is 5,000dlls per year. Nothing better than going to a state University.

[lastliberalintx]

03:51 AM on 11/03/2010

At the New School (Parsons) it was around 1200 a month and we were in quads. Some of the dorms in Union Square didn't even have air conditioning.

[pydbl]

05:27 PM on 11/19/2010

I lived at William Street. Frigging expensive, given that I had to share my room with people

[Sighedeffects]

02:45 AM on 11/03/2010

Go Bears?

[pydbl]

05:27 PM on 11/19/2010

Yes Go Bears :D

[Douglas90723]

11:40 PM on 11/02/2010

I stayed one night in a uni dorm this past summer......a nightmare of noise, claustrophobic room size and inadequate bath facilities.

These dorms are nothing but a money machine for the colleges.

[bruinlover09]

09:48 PM on 11/02/2010

Non-campus housing is just expensive as campus housing in UCSC. A friend spend his freshman year in sharing a hotel room with two other people because the scarcity in housing and the high cost.

[Sighedeffects]

02:48 AM on 11/03/2010

Berkeley is more expensive really. And the landlords are rentiers. I was told once "Stand outside between 1 and 4 and we will show the studio to people one at a time, but do not make noise or you will be asked to leave.". This to give you my money? It is between $900 and $1100 (and up) a month for a studio within walking distance, and they pick and choose because there are so many students, if you don't rent, someone else will.
In effect, students without means are forced to relocate and commute.

[funistrada]

12:24 AM on 11/04/2010

As a current UCSC student, I will say that it is definitely less expensive to live in non-university housing. I don't know how valid your friend's claim is either, considering that Santa Cruz is also a tourist town and has some pretty sky high hotel rates. I think that your friend must have lived at the University Inn, which is still owned by the UC and comes with the necessary price tag and required meal plan. You should compare this (http://housing.ucsc.edu/rates/rates10-11.html) to Craigs's List.

[johnmorgan]

07:42 PM on 11/02/2010

Wow! These add up to $1000 per month! How can it cost that much? That's more than I pay in rent and groceries.

[grod805]

08:24 PM on 11/09/2010

No, its actually nearing the $2,000 range. At Berkeley you really only go to school for eight months because you get three months off for summer and one month off for winter break. So at $15,000, you would be paying $1,875!

[Cody McBurnett]

06:43 PM on 11/02/2010

I actually lived in that Eugene lang dorm and I can tell you, it's no better than any college dorm in the world... Except that it's two blocks from Union Square. Four people to a "suite" the size of a sardine can... That's why no one stays in the dorms past their first year.

[lastliberalintx]

03:54 AM on 11/03/2010

I lived there too. Living with 3 other girls and sharing a single bathroom was... challenging.

[th am]

06:18 PM on 11/02/2010

In at least one well-known private school in NYC (not in the above list) triples - not doubles - are the standard. In a price comparison of the lowest end option, that school would clearly be one of the most expensive. Also, some "board" plans, AKA the cafeteria, are only one meal per day. So, I suspect that the list above is quite skewed if it doesn't deal with these differences.

[LynnyC]

06:17 PM on 11/02/2010

wow, I don't care what the building looks like... show me a floor plan. How is a picture of a building going to show what that is actually getting you with that money? I mean, come on. You got me interested in what's so special about these dorms and wont show me a dorm room? ugh.

[grod805]

08:25 PM on 11/09/2010

You'd be surprised. I lived at Bowles Hall at UC Berkeley my freshman year (the dorm shown in the picture) and all I got was a bunk bed.