I certainly don't dispute that - it's borderline criminal what the University-sanctioned housing charges - particularly when they stack up to 5 people in a single unit!

However, in my experience, most students live off-campus these days. There's just not enough student housing, and it's a terrible deal anyhow.

> However, in my experience, most students live off-campus these days.

Can you source this statement? I know at UCB there were some students that lived off-campus but the vast majority lived in campus dorms IIRC.

My experience is with UC Davis and CSUS, both of which have dramatic shortages of student housing for their over 35,000 student population at each school.

At UAH (University of Alabama in Huntsville) they have started requiring first-year students to live in the dorms. Not sure if they require second-year students to.

They require that here too. If you live in town or within a certain area you can get exempt from it if you're parents sign some papers.

Maybe it’s different now, but when I went to university, costly on-campus housing was mandatory up until your 4th (Senior) year.

It varies greatly from school to school.

Where I went, they didn't even guarantee housing to Freshmen, where my wife went, first 2 years were mandatory on-campus living.