when you calculate your true costs of going to college, what portion of your room-and-board expenses should be included?

Include all of your room-and-board costs that are added because you’re going to college, but exclude what you would have had to pay to live and eat anyway if you weren’t in school.

In other words, when you calculate the true cost of college, you include only the extra housing and food costs that are above your normal living expenses. For example, if campus room and board is 12,000 per year and living at home would cost you about 4,000 in rent and groceries, the true “college” portion of room and board is the 8,000 difference.