By Rena Ketelsen– Being a student is expensive. Not only do students have to pay for tuition, but they usually also have high living expenses.
Most students at Morningside live in dorms on campus. The costs for that depend on what is included with the room. Typically, a dorm with air conditioning costs around $5,610 per year.
Living in a room without air conditioning is a little cheaper. For instance, Freja Rasmussen, a Danish freshman, lives in Roadman North where there is no air conditioning and pays $5,010 per year to stay there.
Another option is to stay in an apartment on campus with fellow students. There is anything from two-people to eight-people apartments. Depending on the size of the apartment and the building it is in, the cost can be higher than it is for dorms.
Megan Messersmith, a junior from Nebraska, is staying in an eight-people apartment and explained, “I live in Poppen Apartments and I pay around $5,600 per year to live there.”
There is also the option to live off-campus. This option is typically only taken advantage of by seniors, as younger students are encouraged to live on-campus.
Sarah Finn, a senior from Florida, moved off-campus with some friends after the end of her junior year and is still living there. Rent costs her around $310 per month or $3,720 per year. However, this doesn’t include utility bills for electricity and water.
All students who are living on campus must purchase a meal plan as well. Rasmussen said that she has to pay $4,800 per year for that, which increases the price of living on campus significantly.
Like many other students, she also purchases other groceries like snacks. While the cost of that varies from student to student, it typically is about $200 or more per year.
In contrast, Finn explained that commuters are required to purchase at least $50 worth of flex points per semester. In addition to that, she pays approximately $70 every 2-3 weeks for groceries which amounts to about $1,456 per year.
She explained, “For me, it just works out to be cheaper to live off-campus than to live on-campus because the meal plans and residence hall fees are very expensive.”
Other expenses for students include sanitary things like toothpaste, shampoo, etc. Students who don’t live in dorms also have to buy other supplies like cleaning utensils and toilet paper that are not provided by the university. However, Messersmith pointed out that these expenses get shared in the apartment which makes it a little cheaper for the individual student.
To make life on campus as inexpensive as possible, Messersmith suggested to “only buy the things you absolutely need. The only times I go to the store are when I’m out of essential items like shampoo or toothpaste. I try to limit the number of snacks I’m buying by only going to the store when necessary. This also saves me gas money.”
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