<p>There is a lot of information in the U Mass Boston website:
<a href="http://www.umb.edu/students/housing/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.umb.edu/students/housing/index.html</a>
<a href="http://www.umb.edu/students/housing/What_Type_of_Housing.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.umb.edu/students/housing/What_Type_of_Housing.html</a>
And as Chedva says, the admissions office would be the best place to ask questions.</p>
<p>From what I know:
1. They have an office of student housing and various schemes in place to help people from out of state, but it isn't their responsibility to find you somewhere to live.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I wouldn't say it is easy, but there is a lot available. If you have a clear idea of what you want, and especially begin to look early, you will find something. If you look late and are willing to take anything, you will never be homeless, but you may find yourself paying a lot of money for something that is not very good, far away, and has unfavorable terms.</p></li>
<li><p>There are people who are not from Boston, or MA generally since some people commute pretty far, but it's not many. It's a state school, and not even the highest ranked state school, and it's quite clear in its mission to educate people from Boston who would otherwise not have a chance to go to university, so it doesn't attract, or try to attract, many people from OOS. I think I was told that it's less that 10%, but this was at a talk when they were trying to encourage people from Boston to go there... But you have the whole of Boston, and all the students there, to find friends, and it's not uncommon to find people who room with someone from another school through craigslist, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>I don't really know how much it would cost to rent somewhere. Maybe $600 per month? A lot of people live at Harbor Point, even some people who have parents living in Boston anyway, but it has kind of a bad reputation. Tuition is whatever it is OOS. Most of their scholarships and merit awards are only for MA residents. For everything else, Boston is one of those places where it is very tempting to live very expensively, because there is so much to do, but once you know the place, it is also easy to entertain yourself and shop very cheaply.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I would recommend that if you have a chance, you go visit properly. I applied there, partly because they would give me money, and partly because of its reputation in things I was interested in, and I would have been happy to go there if other choices had fallen through. But it is not a school for everyone. It doesn't fit with the preppy, white, middle class, ideal of a lot of Boston schools, and it's not ashamed of that.</p>