The cost of housing has risen sharply in recent years, including for college students.

Living in a dorm or renting an off-campus apartment can be the single largest expense a student faces,

even more than tuition.

Laura Barone Lopez reports on how

students are coping with the high cost of living and how some universities

are responding. It's the first part of our fall series, Rethinking College.

Senior Adrian Agular is studying civil engineering,

but one of the biggest stressors during his time at the University of Texas at Austin

has not been academics.

It's how much he has to pay in rent.

When you left home to go to college,

did you ever expect to have to worry this much about housing?

Not at all.

I didn't think that it was customary for each person

to be paying over a grant for decent apartments.

I just didn't know.

Aguilar was raised in a rural city south of Houston by parents who immigrated from Guatemala.

He has scholarships and financial aid to cover tuition and get some help from his parents.

But it's never been enough to cover his rent.

I definitely need a job now to afford housing here, which it does eat it into my time, but that's just the reality of the

situation.

Last year, Aguilar paid about $1,000 a month for a room in an off-campus apartment that had no natural light in the common

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