Assisted Living for Young Adults

If only Nursing Homes were like this!

Earlier we talked about how tuition is just a small part of the picture - in our particular case only 40% of the $12,121.00 bill and the rest is all about the fees, insurance, and room & board.  Fees and insurance add their share, but dorm life and cafeteria are 50% of the cost.

$6,018.00 is for room and board this semester.  Semester.  As I have to continually remind myself, this not the cost for a year or even have a year - but a semester which only runs from late August to late December.  This is four months.  

Living off campus is not an option, particularly for Freshmen.  Very Big University (VBU) requires that incoming Freshman Students live on-campus for two semesters. Ostensibly this helps the transition process and incorporation into the VBU Community.  It also creates a captive rental market.

Off-Campus housing is much cheaper.  According to the Craigslist Postings, rental prices hover around $500.00 a month.  This amounts to $2,000.00 for the semester.  Food for the college student - Ramen and plus - lets figure about $400.00 a month.  Off campus room and board totals $3,600.00 a semester or $900.00 a month.

At VBU Dorms, for $1,504.00 a month, the living is great.  Walking around last week, visiting A, my wife commented that it looked like Teenage Day Care.  In the lobby there is a stocked kitchen, lounge areas with trampoline like furniture, huge projection screens with movies, connected to X-Box, volleyball and racquetball courts outside.  The dorm, we are told, received the Gold Star Rating for "greenness" from the LEEDS.

I thought, if only assisted living can be like this, then maybe I wouldn't dread the nursing home so much.  Maybe the costs are about the same.  

The average cost of assisted living in our state is $2,800.00 a month.  The bottom rate is $1,400.00 a month - slightly less than hanging with the dudes and dudettes on campus.  Upscale Assisted Living in the same city as VBU costs about $4,100.00 and up to $5,500.00 a month for the truly prepared.

One wonders though, sixty years hence, will the staff at the Nursing Home marvel over the cute seniors insisting to play the antique X-Box when gaming met something, rather than the new-fangled hologram rooms?