My 'apartment' when I was at university was 100 sq ft with 3 apartments sharing a bathroom and kitchen area. Sure I wouldn't have wanted to live there forever, but for the 2.5 years I was there it offered everything i needed, and it was 5 minute walk from campus and a ~20 minute walk to downtown. I also had the choice of a real 500+ sq ft apartment 30 minutes by bus from the campus, but I never even seriously considered swapping.