New School Dorms Are Nation’s Priciest

The New School has the most expensive dorms in the country for the second year in a row according to Campus Grotto’s list of the top 20 most expensive dorms in the United States. The remainder of the list was comprised of other urban schools in both New York and California.

“I definitely think that the price for dorms is way too high,” said Ashley Hefnawy, Lang sophomore and Stuyvesant Park resident. Hefnawy has her own bedroom, the most expensive option provided by the university.

According to The New School’s website, a single room costs $16,490 per year at the Loeb, 13th Street, 20th Street and Stuyvesant Park residence halls. Campus Grotto, a national college news site, lists the total cost of room and board at $17,110, which isn’t listed in New School material.

Rounding out the list’s top five is University of California Berkley, Suffolk University, and dorms at both Fordham University campuses, ranging from $14,491 to $15,308.

There's nothing extravagant about The New School's Stuyvesant Park dorms, except their rating as the most expensive in the country (Courtesy of Ashley Hefnawy)

According to Campus Grotto’s article, during the 2010 - 2011 school year, the price of room and board has increased by 4.6 percent at public colleges and by 3.9 percent at private colleges. Lang was listed at $15,990 in last year’s list.

While the price of dorms seems high in comparison to those in other parts of the country, many students in Manhattan aren’t surprised with the high costs. “But I think that at the same time, the neighborhood I live in is probably the nicest I’ll ever live in within Manhattan,” Hefnawy said.

According to Peter Taback, senior director of communication and external affairs at The New School, room and board is so high because the location and amenities of each dorm are very expensive. “Housing at The New School reflects the stark marketplace reality, which is that New York is an expensive town,” Taback wrote in an e-mail to the Free Press.

The New School’s dorms are more expensive than those for New York University, which has residence halls in the same areas. Taback explained that The New School’s dormitories are relatively new, while New York University has had leases on a majority of their buildings for decades. If you are Columbia and buying land in the 19th century, it’s different than when you’re starting in the real estate boom of the last 20 years,” Taback said. “New School is trying to secure space in an extremely competitive market.”

“It’s important for students to keep in mind that the university does not make a profit on residences,” Taback wrote. “Our goal is to break even, so non-resident students are not subsidizing residents.”