College dorms are the pinnacle of what represents the college experience.But for me, this dream to dorm in college has become a grim reality—it’s too expensive and the price tag is only getting bigger each year.
NSU may have great housing options for students to choose from to fit their needs, but these housing options only work for students if the price is affordable.When I entered my freshman year I paid $9,000 for the Commons Residence Hall. My family and I were able to afford it,I was able to go to the school I wanted and stay in the dorms I preferred— everything was fine. When next year rolled around, I decided to stay in Commons again and the price changed— a $480 increase. For my friends, this meant finding new housing options that were more affordable for their financial situation.
Fast forward to this semester and we are at an impasse. I thought I had my decision in mind to choose one of the apartments or maybe even the new Mako Hall, which was and still is a construction zone. I expected a certain number in my head based on the prices for options last year and rounded a little for some wiggle room and I was ready to make my decision. Then March rolled around, and an email was sent out to announce the new prices of the dorms for next year and all of us were a little stunned to say the least. Constantly, people were checking the housing website and calculating costs. Understandably so, since everything was a good $500 or more than it was last year and Mako Hall is the most expensive option with $14,350 for a single studio.
It makes sense why Mako Hall was considered the top tier with all the amenities within each apartment style unit but it left a lot of students wondering is it really worth the extra $2,000+ if some of those amenities were offered off-campus or even available in the other existing housing options but just in a different capacity and price. The jury is still out on this answer, but I think it varies student to student. For me, it didn’t. After an offer with a friend to live off campus and some time to crunch numbers, I decided to live off campus. But what if I wasn’t afforded that luxury like many other students probably weren’t. Based on the systemic categories the school put in place for housing, my only options were to live in Mako Hall or Rolling Hills. Both options cost more than Commons with about a $2,000 difference for doubles or quads and roughly $1,000 difference for singles with Mako holding the higher price tag. Bottom line, that wasn’t something I could afford and not something I was willing to spend if there were other more affordable options available to me.
When I went on a tour of this school a while ago, I was told that I could live on campus for all four years and maybe even into graduate school. A lot has changed since then, namely we don’t offer graduate housing anymore. I still hear tours advertising that students can live on campus for all four years. I think that should come with an asterisk: only if you can afford it and the steep price-hikes that might come with it.
