Room and board at U.S. universities has climbed 11% over the past three years, nudged along by expectations that dorm rooms will have amenities like heated pools and plush lounges.
Those costs have helped contribute to the nation's outstanding student debt— at $829.79 billion— overtaking outstanding credit-card debt— at $826.5 billion, as the Wall Street Journal reports.
But students at some colleges are stuck with particularly high bills for room and board. Forbes took a look at the charges in the 2008-09 academic year, the most recent available on a federal database. The magazine learned that Sarah Lawrence College in New York had the most expensive room and board fees, averaging $13,000. This coming year, room and board at Sarah Lawrence plus the cheapest meal plan total $13,820.
Forbes looked only at schools that require freshmen to live on campus, which cut out places like the University of California at Berkeley, where room and board expenses can total more than $15,000 this upcoming academic year.
Second-most expensive on the Forbes list was Georgetown University in Washington DC, where room and board cost $12,750 in the timeframe. Third was Pomona College east of Los Angeles, at $12,220. At least students get a little bang for their buck there— it ranks #13 on the Princeton Review's "Dorms Like Palaces" index.
Topping that list: Bryn Mawr College west of Philadelphia, where room and board ran $12,000 last year.
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