This is normally what I consider the cost of a university.
> mandatory dorms/meal plans, and if not dorms/meal plans then rent/food/car/etc
That's not fair to lump in, because all of that needs to be paid for just to exist. While I don't like the trend towards mandatory on-campus housing and meals, you still have to live somewhere and eat something, so I don't really think tacking the entire cost of those into the cost of a university is fair.
I don't think it's unfair at all. Not everyone needs a place to live: some college students just live at home for free. I had some friends like that when I went to a major state university; they just commuted from home. They certainly didn't need to pay for a dorm or a meal plan because they lived off-campus, and luckily that school had no requirement to do so. Personally, I think they missed out on some of the "college experience" doing so, but still, I can't deny it was a lot cheaper for them.
On top of that, if living in a dorm and eating crappy cafeteria food is much more expensive than living off-campus in an apartment and getting your own food from a grocery store, I think it's fair to include those mandatory costs into the "cost of a university".
