Dorms and meal plans at many colleges now cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per year. For many families, that number feels impossible. While some justify high price tags for education, it’s harder to justify the cost of cinderblock housing with thirty strangers. Should you?
One of the biggest worries I hear from parents is about housing. “Tuition is one thing, but how can we possibly afford room and board?” It is a valid concern. Dorms and meal plans at many colleges now cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per year.
Colleges know parents expect to pay for housing, and they often package room and board as a required part of the freshman experience. The truth is, housing costs can add up to nearly half the cost of a four-year degree. If families do not plan carefully, they may end up borrowing just to cover rent and food.
But here is the good news: you do not have to follow the traditional “everyone lives on campus” model. In Creative College Funding, I share multiple strategies that families can use to cut or even eliminate the cost of college housing dramatically. These are practical solutions that shift the numbers in your favor.
Solution
Here are five strategies from the book that can help you overcome high housing costs:
- Become a Resident Assistant (RA). Many colleges provide free or heavily discounted housing and meal plans for students who serve as RAs. This can save around $15,000 per year, which works out to the same as earning $18 per hour for 20 hours per week (p. 97)
- Live at home while attending community college. Since most community colleges do not offer housing, students usually live at home and commute. This can wipe out thousands in room and board expenses during the first two years (p. 55)
- Use online learning to eliminate housing. Even if your student’s degree will not be 100% online, strategically bundling online courses can reduce or eliminate years of on-campus housing (p. 67)
- Adopt a hybrid model. Your student can live at home and take online courses for the first two or three years, then transfer to a university for just one year of on-campus experience. Since dorm living often costs $10,000–$15,000 annually, this strategy can save that much every year (p. 112)
- Choose a college that allows off-campus living. By never moving into a dorm at all, families can bypass room and board altogether (p. 178)
Encouragement and Next Steps
If the cost of housing is what keeps you up at night, I want to encourage you: you have more control than you realize. Colleges often make it seem like living in their dorms is a requirement, but it is not the only way. Whether your teen lives at home, studies online, or works as an RA, there are real ways to cut costs without sacrificing the college experience.
If you’d like to learn a smarter way to pay for your education, my new book, Creative College Funding: How Smart Homeschooling Families Get Through College Without Debt, is dedicated to this topic!
I’ve always been willing to find creative ways to get through college without debt, and my family is on degree #14 without debt. You can do this too!
