<p>Craigslist, UCLA CHO, Daily Bruin. </p>
<p>And its certainly possible to find a studio under 900, it just might not be easy. People who were referring to $1500 were most likely referring to the area directly west of campus, where many studios do, in fact, run around $11-1300. As long as you're not stuck on living in that area, which it seems you aren't, you should be fine. </p>
<p>My suggestion is to start looking at Craigslist in the West LA (310) section. Areas like Palms, Mar Vista, Culver City, and other parts of West LA are all likely to have studios in your price range. The UCLA Community Housing Office website has a really helpful map that shows how far these areas are from campus. Other maps will help explaining the buslines once you have an idea of where youre going to be.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cho.ucla.edu/housing/chotypef.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.cho.ucla.edu/housing/chotypef.htm</a> If you go here, and click on the Publications and References section, you'll find the map, as well as charts that display rental averages for different property types in the different areas. You can also use their listing services to find a place (although you may need to be closer to Fall quarter to gain access...I don't remember).</p>