<p>I'd much much rather sublet/rent in the suburbs with a car, and a maximum of 10-15 minute drive to campus rather than live in the more urban areas near Yale.</p>
<p>What are some possible suburbs I should look into? Cost isn't a big factor, but safety and quality of life are. I will be working primarily at the medical school and engineering department.</p>
<p>not sure what you mean by quality of life. In Branford and Guilford you would get good beach access. They’re fairly popular with faculty and staff at the medical school. The popular grad school areas near East Rock have a pretty good balance of safety, quality of life, and convenience. You don’t have to live in grad student housing - there are lots of nicer apartment buildings and 2-3-family houses in the area.</p>
<p>Im coming from an urban area, and having lived in urban areas, I would prefer to live in the suburbs, for my personal quality of life. Less worry about parking, crime, traffic, etc.</p>
<p>Basically, what are some upper class suburbs around Yale? The logic being that renting from an upper class suburb is only marginally more expensive. </p>
<p>Consider Stanford University, where renting from super nice neighborhoods is not much more expensive than living in a small palo alto apartment close to campus. This is often because only those who have cars can take advantage of the former.</p>
<p>Id recommend Orange. Its to the west of New Haven, and actually closer to Yale than Branford. Its pretty rural from what I understand so you should be able to find a nice suburban area that fits your needs. The houses there will be more affordable than Branford as well since Branford houses are more pricey due to being closer to the Sound.</p>
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<li><p>Don’t people live in Hamden anymore? Back in the day, that is where people like latecoder went. </p></li>
<li><p>Guilford is going to be a lot more than 10-15 minute drive to campus during popular drive-times. </p></li>
<li><p>I suspect latecoder hasn’t spent a lot of time around New Haven yet. The actual “urban” area is really very limited, and things get suburban fast. It’s totally different from Palo Alto, in any event. Palo Alto doesn’t even have “urban”, hardly, but it does have mile after mile after mile of suburban housing people have bought on spec and are desperate for cash flow with which to service their mortgages, tons of employers, and tons of people moving in and out all the time. That’s just not the case around New Haven.</p></li>
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<p>Hamden offers a wide variety of housing - much of it every bit as ‘urban’ (if by urban you mean apartment or rental-house living where your car is subject to theft, your neighbors might be sketchy, section-8 housing in the neighborhood, etc.) as New Haven. There are also more expensive neighborhoods, and also streets of relatively modest bungalows with a neighborly feel. Kind of like New Haven itself.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses guys. I’ll go do some craigslist hunting and post here again with my findings.</p>