OT MGoUndergrads/Alums High Rise vs Single Family Homes

Go the house route.  She and 4-6 of her close friends should rent a house and enjoy the hell out of the best part of the college experience.

We had dozens of BBQs and parties that I don't think would have been feasible in either an apartment or dorm (we lost a lot of kegs to RAs the second semester of senior year).  These are the times that I cherish from my college experience.

I don't see how apartments are much different from the dorm experience.  Don't get me wrong, the dorms were a great way to meet a lot of people freshman year and my circle of friends still revolves around that group of guys from over 25 years back, but the general lack of freedom in the dorms (and probably in the high rise apartments) put a damper on a lot of the social aspect.

Agree w/ the content of most posts, kinda hard to go wrong, UM life is a great experience and campus life is a huge pice of the experience; that being said, I graduated years and years ago (70's), but had three daughters recently (one still there) each graduate and experience everything but high rise. One major thought is to consider the relationships your daughter tends to form. My girls are still close to the many roommates they had while sharing larger apts or houses. A single apt. Or double will limit interactions with roommates/friends later in life (as a side note, I'm still close with 4 of my 6 housemates) Something else to consider.

Living in a high rise doesn't seem very college-y to me. You can do that after college anywhere you live. Live like a college student while in college.

While we're all kinda getting off topic, I didn't go to U of M (WMU, dorms freshman year, slightly off campus apartments every other year, best times of my life), I lived in a sublet on South U the summer after my sophomore year. It was the little apartment complex across the street from Maize n Blue deli that was torn down to make way for that new high rise. Anyways, first place I lived in with my now wife. some football players, including, Carson Butler (or at least he was there all the time), were my upstairs neighbor directly above me. We were partiers, but even we had to try our hardest not to call the police every damn day.

There are a lot of out-of-staters who seem to think that NYC or SF rental rates apply to AA, and this has driven some insane rents in these days.  The rates in these high-rise buildings are often over $1000 per month per room.  Moreover, the dirty secret is that the buildings are not well maintained, and some have major outages (elevator, hot water, etc).

These buildings tend to be a social status thing, with students feeling like they absoulutely MUST be in a certain building with certain people or their life WILL end.  For better or for worse, I regularly work with college students and it's amazing how much they stress (often at the expense of academics) over who they will live with and where every lease-signing season.

My kids are still young so it's easy for me to talk but personally I'd set the budget and say live where you want on "x" dollars.

Finally, I live on North Campus and a 2500 sq ft colonial just sold for about $250,000 in a nice area.  If your're ready to drop $1000+ a month on rent, why not get a whole house for about as much and she can rent it to her friends?  Not to mention you can rent it when you're done for over $2000 a month.