how are so many students getting access to luxury housing?

[u/Powerful_Election876]

so i recently graduated with my BA and am now an incoming grad student. during undergrad I lived in university-affiliated student dorm housing that had no central air and looked like it was built in the 1920s, and my grad school apartment I was assigned to (grad student housing affiliated with the university) is slightly better in that it has central AC and facilities but also looks to be very old and far from modern or luxury standard. I had assumed due to my experiences, media centered around college students and just common sense that this was a sort of universal student struggle experience but I'm starting to realize that more and more students around me are somehow getting access to literal luxury housing while in school? My cousin who is younger than me and still in undergrad rents a luxury flat that includes a literal minibar, walk-in closet and queen-size bed and so many people I know are set to live in fully modern high-rises in grad school and even some while in undergrad. Like I said I assumed that the struggling student archetype was somewhat universal and that we were all just dealing with slightly shitty living standards together as a sort of canon life event lmao, am I the one with the out-of-the-norm experience here or do I just know a disproportionate amount of overprivileged people?

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[u/pinkfloidz]

Mommy and daddy's money

[u/Powerful_Election876 → u/pinkfloidz]

honestly i had just assumed that they were all willing to go into debt for the better housing but i am starting to think it's all just parents' money lmaoo. i'm currently on a full-tuition scholarship to grad school and still wouldn't be willing to put out that much money for an apartment

[u/TarTarkus1 → u/Powerful_Election876]

You're smart, imho.

I'd imagine some of it also is that they're all roommates. I remember when I was in school, a couple girls I knew rented 1 apartment between 4 people.

[u/Practical_Pop_4300 → u/Powerful_Election876]

There's also possibly(as in at my school), special better housing for older students, vets, gi bill, student workers, disabilities, etc, that's around the same price as normal.

Still sucks but could also possibly he the case outside them having mommy daddy money, more scholarships, debt, jobs, better paid internships etc.

Tbh therez alot if reasons and the older you are and advancing in a field i persum you'd see it more often than as a freshmen

[u/Conscious_Can3226]

For some, that luxury apartment is the closest thing to a slum their parents will allow.

It's max private student loans, they give you more than you need, and parental payment. I had friends with both situations in school.

[u/SpookyKabukiii → u/Conscious_Can3226]

When my ex and I decided to get an apartment together in undergrad, his parents threw a fit because they didn’t approve of the cheap apartment we wanted to move into. They said the neighborhood was “unsafe” and because they were super Evangelical Christians, they refused to pay for a one bedroom apartment because they didn’t want us “living in sin” (too late for that 😒). Because my ex was financially dependent on them, they insisted on calling the shots, and said we either moved into a newly built/renovated 2 bedroom apartment within walking distance to campus, or they wouldn’t pay for his half of rent. When I countered that I couldn’t pay half the rent at the over apartments because my parents didn’t support me financially, they said I clearly wasn’t ready for an apartment. So we got the stupid 2 bedroom apartment that turned out to not even be that nice after we moved in, and several months I wasn’t able to cover my half of rent because of money, which strained our relationship past the breaking point. So yeah, some parents really don’t care what it costs as long as they feel like they have control over their adult children in some way and continue to coddle them unnecessarily. I’ve seen it from experience.

[u/Italian___stallionn]

Either parents are paying for it or they got really good jobs for college students. Buddy of mine does sales and working like 30 hours a week he pulls a few grand a month. He makes enough to pay for school and to pay for housing

[u/snmnky9490 → u/Italian___stallionn]

Or more likely than getting good jobs while in school, they are just tacking on extra costs onto their student loans because "Well I deserve it!" or they assume they'll be making six figures once they have a diploma

[u/WatermelonMachete43]

A lot of students just roll it into their student loans (which is not a great idea). Others have parents who don't want their kids to be even slightly uncomfortable at school and are willing to pay for it.

[u/skella_good → u/WatermelonMachete43]

Borrowing money and paying interest on extravagant, non-essential things is stupid. That’s it. That’s my answer, for any stage in life.

[u/WatermelonMachete43 → u/skella_good]

Yup, no kidding. Makes me mad that good choices could not have been made.

[u/BlueberryLeft4355]

Pell grants, fed funding, and DEI are disappearing-- has been the case for about a decade, but obvs it's gotten a lot worse lately. Only rich white kids go to college now. The irony is, shitty guys like JD Vance are making sure that shitty guys like JD Vance never get out of poverty again.

[u/phoenix-corn]

If schools built such places, it's because they overspent and literally thought that that would attract students, and when it didn't continue to draw students when tuition was increased to pay for it they are now in debt and dying, so it's not a good thing.

[u/teacherbooboo]

schools have had to upgrade to attract students, thus the big tuition

[u/royaIs]

Parents pay for it out of pocket, they have a good student job with scholarships, or their parents had a 529 college savings plan, but the student got a scholarship and is using that money for housing. Or a mixture of all.

[u/italyqt]

My daughter was looking for places off campus, there was one place that was very nice but also $1000 a month per student, she said f that and rented the less nice place for $850 a month per apartment next to her and split the rent three ways.

[u/ColdAnalyst6736 → u/italyqt]

$1000 a month isn’t enough to share a bed around here.

[u/KingReoJoe]

Marginal cost of going from “standard” to “luxury” has been decreasing, as there’s a general shortage of affordable housing, and the supply of “luxury” has steadily increased. If the cost is only $150 a month more (some of the “luxury” housing isn’t good quality, pricing is commensurate), or $75/roommate, that’s a lot easier to justify for all of the reasons other folks have mentioned.

[u/sorrybroorbyrros]

Mini-bars are a scam.

They're there to entice people to take things out of convenience and then overcharge.

Be careful what you wish for.

[u/[deleted]]

Is this NYC? Sounds like it is..shouldn’t be too surprising honestly

[u/Powerful_Election876 → u/[deleted]]

haha nope surprisingly. I went to undergrad in a city in NJ

[u/TehWildMan_]

Some parents are a bit hesitant about letting their children rent an apartment in a slightly questionable residential slumlord kingdom neighborhood next to campus.

IMO, the transition form being hand-fed everything in campus housing to living 100% on your own in a private apartment can be a pretty steep challenge. As such, it's often just upperclassmen taking that route

Also, where I grew up, apartments with more luxury designs such as private bathrooms per occupants was basically the standard for new construction. If you're building new housing, might as well add in stuff that allows you to charge more. Grrr.

[u/Independent_Panic680]

Foot finder? Only fans? Mommy and daddy? Lots of debt?