College towns are often expensive to live in. Many colleges require students to live in dorms with a food plan for one or two years. The dorm plus food plan is generally much more than a budget conscious person would otherwise spend on housing and food.

My oldest is currently living at home and attending community college with the hope of transferring to the local university after 2 years. We will pay nothing more for his housing and food than we did when he was in high school. His brother hopes to go straight to a 4 year college anywhere but near home. We will save nothing on housing with him gone, have modest food savings of roughly $2000/year and shell out probably $10k-20k per year for food and housing depending where he goes and whether he stays in dorms or rents a room off campus.