As a current broke college kid at a college where it got to -14 outside last week, i am no help with the warm location!
However, I HATED dorms. Ended up with NYC ghetto kids my freshmen year, a dreadful roomate who's dirtbag boyfriend stayed over every night and trashed the place my sophomore year, so my junior year i moved off campus with my fiancee.
We live in our "250ft of awesome" 365 days a year though. We both work full time and go to school fulltime. We save about 25000 combined in room and the required 3000 a semester meal plan! We eat off of $25 a week each now, and we split all inclusive rent. I keep myself AND a horse here for $550 a month! All i pay is cable, do all my own farrier work, most of my vet work, the rest of the bills are covered in rent/board for my little man.
However, it is much harder to "keep up" with studies, and an apartment, and a horse, and a job in middle management on a 500 cow dairy. Some days, homework just doesn't get done, or the house just doesnt get clean, i usually only get to the barn 3X a week tops, and 2 days a week i go from 5 (am) to 9:30 (pm) with a 15 minute break between classes, work, and teaching freshies.