<p>Students want to take advantage of all the city has to offer. Great internship opportunities but go out to lunch with your coworkers and its 10 bucks easy. A concert or game at MSG or other venue could cost over $50. Nurse 2 drinks at a hip club - even if you got in for free and its close to $40 (without the cab- from Columbia to downtown will run around $30 each way). If your friends are playing a gig a dive bar, there’s probably a cover and drinks. Sample sales from famous designers are a steal- but only only if you can afford spending $150 for a $400 dollar dress.
Yoga class is $20 It just really adds up.</p>
<p>My D just went to the new Trader’s Joe’s that opened yesterday on the upper westside which is closer to her school than the one in Union Square that she had to take the subway to. Prices at Trader’s in NYC are the same as here in SoCal. My D also takes advantage of the little fruit/vegetable stands in the city that have good prices. She has only been at school for a month, but is able to find plenty of activities that fit into her budget in the city.</p>
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<p>My daughter is a singer/songwriter with solo gigs of original songs at various clubs in the city (among other things she does). Some places do have a cover. But not all. Her next gig coming up at a club has no cover at all, and has a full back up band. She also is an actor/singer and is in another original show at a comedy type club in the city and there are no drinks served and the tickets costs $10. Just saying. </p>
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<p>My daughter has taken yoga numerous times at Yoga to the People and it is free / donation (any amount you wish to give). Just saying.</p>
<p>My D attended Barnard and paid all her own living expenses beyond room/board/tuition (which we took care of) through work/study.</p>
<p>My S attends Williams (W’town couldn’t be less like NYC) and pays all his own living expenses beyond room/board/tuition (which we take care of) through work/study. </p>
<p>Therefore, NYC is no more expensive to us because DS is not giving us a rebate. Both spend/t their own earnings, no more, no less.</p>
<p>The FA from their schools was very similar so our cost for their schools was about the same.</p>
<p>I know Monydad’s D was not happy, but my D was ecstatically happy at Barnard. She is back in NYC going to law school. </p>
<p>(By the way, for a frame of reference about how expensive housing is, she is spending $1100 mo for a huge bedroom in someone else’s apartment. The kitchen and half the living room are shared space, and the other young woman has set up the other half the living room as her bedroom.</p>
<p>It’s a stunning neighborhood, but it is a fifth floor walk up – no laundry or amenities.</p>
<p>Some posts back, it seemed I created a wave of disbelief quoting rents of $700. to share a 4-bedroom student apartment. Those were prices my S paid in neighborhoods in Harlem and Brooklyn. He did not live in Midtown or the Upper West Side or the Village near NYU but has lived in NYC since 2005, always in shared quarters. </p>
<p>You have to remember that students on really tight budgets live all over NYC, including Manhattan neighborhoods north of Columbia University and in various boroughs of New York City, mostly Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens. They commute to school and work by subway. They do what they have to do.</p>
<p>My oldest D goes to college in NYC, granted it is expensive but H is happy to pay for it since she’s happily actively involved in and out of school and it is his alma mater. I do think it could’ve been cheaper if she’d attended another school she was accepted to which is near Boston, but in the end, daddy’s girl is taking full advantage of NYC so it’s worth it!</p>
<p>My D is doing a semester in NYC , classes at or near NYU, and living in “student housing” at the New Yorker. She usually goes to school in Durham. H and I are from NYC, but live and pay taxes in California,and would have saved money if she’d gone to a UC, but so far, we are impressed with how she is handling it. NYC is losing money on her train pass!</p>
<p>@paying3tuitions
For NYIT freshman dorms are located in Brooklyn. There are no meal plans. My cousin lived there last year. We come from the suburbs of the city where things are not as expensive as in the city, but expensive for everywhere else.
The price of him eating was so ridiculous that he came home every weekend to work at his old high school job. And during the week his mom would separate out a portion of whatever she made for dinner and freeze it so he could take it back with him.
With all this it was still too much and this semester he got his classes restricted to three days and lives at home.
Brooklyn is not cheap. Washington Heights and Harlem areas of Manhattan will be a little cheaper, but ridiculous compared to most other schools. The Bronx is cheaper as are some areas of Queens.
Honestly I know nothing about Staten Island and have never been there.
It’s still more expensive to live in any of these places than most other places that students would live.</p>
<p>My D’s university housing is, IMO, outrageous at more than $13,000 for the school year–less than 9 months, kicked out at Christmas break, apartment-style with shared bedrooms and very small common area, and a 25-minute walk to classes. Only thing special is that it has really nice kitchen appliances. She is planning to move out after the first semester and has an offer to share an apt. for $1100 a month with her own bedroom. So the monthly cost would be much less even with paying utilities.</p>
<p>On the other hand, she has no meal plan and is spending very little on food, as she buys at Trader Joe’s and prepares all her meals at home. She’s a small but healthy eater and cook, and says she’s been making do spending less than 50$ a week (obviously that doesn’t include her rare meals out). In any case, much cheaper than a meal plan. I give her a $2,000 semester stipend for food and all other expenses and she is determined to save some of that for travel. I guess I’m saying it all depends on how one chooses to live and spend their money.</p>
<p>My D found feeding herself much cheaper than the meal plan, too. In Morningside and way down town (near a lot of NYU housing) there are many places to get a meal out for under $5.00, which is less than a meal plan charges for dinner. Of course, it one cooks it can be even less.</p>
<p>Paying3: I would never doubt you, nor do I doubt that your S can find housing for that prices. D’s friends in Brooklyn and Queens are all paying at least $950.00 to $1100 for their shares, though. Some bedrooms are smaller than hers, more common space.</p>
<p>Perhaps a young man feels safer than a young woman. D’s requirement was a place she’d feel absolutely comfortable coming home alone at 2 am (in a cab of course. Our deal: after 1:00 am, cab.)</p>
<p>My daughter is supporting herself (she is 21 and out of college). She lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, just two stops out of Manhattan in a nice apartment. It is a walkup in a brownstone. The inside is all modern. There are three bedrooms, plus living, dining, nice kitchen, bathroom. Four people share it as two are a couple who share one bedroom. She is paying $725/month plus utilities. I think the total rent for the place is about $2800. Her share is less than half of what we spent in college for housing (NYU) and apartments in the city.</p>
<p>NYC is one of the most expensive places to live. Why - they simply have more jobs, other than that it is not my favorite place at all.</p>
<p>I agree.</p>
<p>It all depends on your life style. If you are looking for high and fly, NYC is a place to spend your money quickly. You can stay in CPS, clubing and eat out every night attend every show at openning party, buy first class clothing on Madison and spend over $20,000/mo easily. It is a city for the rich.</p>
<p>OTOH, there are plenty of ppl spend less than $1,000/mo for living, go to college and work full time. I was there for 20 years and I know how difficult it is. Hoboken($90/mo full apt), PATH and walking used to be my refuge, but that has been ionated long long time ago.</p>
<p>Williamsburg has become quite the destination for the newly-colleged, it seems.
We heard friend’s kids left NYU housing and they scattered all over, wherever they found they could afford it, some to Hoboken IIRC. When I was doing similar I commuted from Yonkers for a while. Needless to say when many students are living no place near one’s college it leads to a very different type of “college” experience.</p>
<p>I don’t really consider Williamsburg in Brooklyn to be “commuting” to college if you attend, say, NYU. My daughter is out of college, though she lived in another apartment in Williamsburg in her senior year of college, not the one she is living in now. She is two stops out of Manhattan on the subway. She could live as many stops as she is now from NYU (or more) if she lived in a different part of Manhattan. She actually has a couple of jobs at NYU right now. This is nothing like commuting from NJ or Yonkers! Williamsburg in Brooklyn is closer to NYU than some other Manhattan neighborhoods. Also, NYU doesnt’ have a campus in the first place really. My D lived in NYU dorms her first two years in Union Square. Junior year she lived in an apartment in Nolita. Many dorms at NYU require a subway ride. While she was not in university housing, she could walk from Nolita or take a subway. Tisch students also have to walk far or take the subway to various off campus studios for their conservatory training. Being in Williamsburg is not much farther. She is not a student but just saying. But NYU students live over a wide area of the city if off campus but even if in dorm housing, it is spread out, requiring the subway to go to classes for some dorms. So, even when in the dorms, I never thought of my D living “on campus” as the dorms were in Union Square and the school is spread out over a wide area and she had to walk far and she also used subways and she also trained in conservatory studios that Tisch contracts with that are not in NYU buildings. This is what attending NYU is like. Also, their dorms are very expensive (about $13,000 for the school year, though are apartment style). Many upperclassmen do not live in dorms. It is not like some regular colleges with a campus at all. Students are spread out over various parts of the city, including Brooklyn. Many graduates move to Brooklyn or Queens. </p>
<p>The part of Brooklyn my D lives in is not far away at all. She may go into the city a couple times in one day. Just the other night, she went into the city on the subway to see a concert at a club since her friend was the performer. Upon arrival at the place in Manhattan, she realized she accidentally forgot her ID which she had left in her copier at her apartment in Brooklyn (was scanning it for her employment for one of her jobs). She took the subway all the way back to her apartment in Brooklyn to retrieve it, and took a cab back to the venue and still made the concert. :D</p>
<p>Living in Brooklyn is equivalently connected in subway only, in other ways it is somewhat less connected IMO. You are far less likely to walk home over the bridge, and it’s sometimes a struggle getting a taxi to take you there (watch the "off duty signs pop up). There is not the same level of taxi service in the area either. Not anyplace I’ve been, anyway. When you’re living in Manhattan you just feel more connected to Manhattan, somehow.IMO.</p>
<p>When I lived on the lower east side I walked all over the place, all the way up to 14th street quite often. This would not happen If I lived in brooklyn.Walking feels different, in terms of connectedness, than taking the subway. Also I took buses, which I imagne are on a more constant and useful frequency there.</p>
<p>But generally yes I agree NYU is just like that, I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. And going to Brooklyn or Hoboken is only incrementally different than living at a dorm in South Street seaport. IMO.</p>
<p>my son goes to NYU. I am subletting my brother’s rent stabalized studio apt (not sure of sq ft) a few blocks away from Washington square for $1100 month including utilities. my brother lives uptown with his partner but refuses to give this apt up that he got 20 years ago. If this apt were on the open market it would easily be $2500/month.</p>
<p>this is my son’s last year of school and since he was working in NYC last summer, it made sense to sublet this instead of doing NYU housing. My son has expensive taste. This year he’s doing an internship (and gets about 45/wk stipend) 3 days a week, 3 classes on 2 days and tutoring/babysitting a rich person’s 12 yo son for food and play money. I don’t know how much he’s making, but he just bought a pair of $175 Diesal jeans and he’s not starving to death so he must be doing ok. My only expenses this year are for the room and books (his scholarship and stafford/perkins loans cover all but $129 of tuition!)</p>
<p>my EFC has been 11-13K for each of the past 4 years. I will have easily put out 60K by the time this is over. my son will have just under 29K in subsidized loans to pay off and the rest was covered by NYU’s scholarship $$ (125K over 4 years, yes you are reading that right, NYU DOES give big $$ to some people and we were blessed!)</p>
<p>Boy that would be nice if they would throw my son some bucks, maybe he would reconsider looking there. Otherwise it’s looking Geneseo here we come! He thinks he wants a campus, but he should at least look.</p>
<p>Somehow I don’t think he will be among those blessed though.</p>
<p>Monydad, my kid still walks a ton. Truly her trip of four stops on a subway is not all that different than if she was going four stops within Manhattan. She has various jobs and they are not all in one location and so she would have to use the subway no matter where she lived. And if she were still an NYU student, even living in Manhattan and not in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, she still would have had to use subways for some things, as not all NYU dorms are in walking distance of everything, and particularly for Tisch students. She gets her groceries in Brooklyn by walking and then after a few stops on the subway, goes to the multitude of other things she does, really not all that different than say, if she lived in midtown and had a job in the village (actually she is closer than that). She also does private coaching and in fact, right now has a client who came to her apartment for coaching (music related). These people have no problem going to her apartment location. Going a few stops on the subway is the norm for her and for her peers. She still walks a great deal in the city though. </p>
<p>By the way, my D rarely uses taxis. She doesn’t take busses. She both walks and uses subways (has a subway monthly pass).</p>
<p>Sue, that is a great deal your son has for the sublet in Washington Square as you know. And it is cheaper than the NYU dorms! My D also had a substantial scholarship from NYU, though not as high as your son’s. I know NYU is not known for being generous but they were generous to my kid (and to yours).</p>
<p>Obviously people in the outer boroughs walk in their neighborhood, they just don’t walk to/from their house to places in Manhattan which realistically, IMO, are where most people would rather go, often. Subway service in the outer boroughs can also be spottier and have fewer lines stopping there, therefore less frequent service and more likely to have to change trains. And there may be longer walks to the fewer stations, or not even readily walkable, at least in some parts of the Bronx this is certainly the case.</p>
<p>Some people may also find subway travel in some areas of the outer boroughs to be somewhat less comfortable some times at night, depending on which line you are on and where it goes before & after you. I’m flashing to the guy sitting across from me, looking at me and playing with his knife when I was commuting on the #4 train from the Bronx, but I know there are times my relatives in Crown Heights don’t really like taking the subway either.</p>
<p>All of this may not apply to Williamsburg, all I’ve heard about that is they have one stop there that is severly overburdened since the area has been gentrified.(also bad parking). I’ve been there a couple times by train and had to walk a pretty darned long way from the station to where I was going, that’s all I recall. And had these Satmar guys call us goys behind our backs, thinking we didn’t understand them. Or not caring. (but that’s OT). And also by car, to have an instrument repaired, and had trouble parking FWIW.</p>