Hi All!
For those in Cali and elsewhere,
If you do decide to attend NYU and cannot afford the campus based housing, anything within that section of NYC will be rather astronomical...and that holds true for the rest of the city, believe my I've tried to find housing for summer employment I had there...but ended up commuting from NJ.
If you decide to live within a vicinity that allows you to commute, consider checking out craiglist for roomies, or potential 15monthers as well....hopefully they will be many.
-certain sections of Brooklyn and Queens (Sunnyside) are slightly more affordable (my friends pay $550.00 per month, including utilities)
-even some areas in the Bronx are nice as well
-a commute from Jersey City in NJ is not bad (it's a matter of perhaps a bus ride, ferry, or path over into the city..depending upon your location)
-even Guttenberg, Fairfield, Hackensack, and Fort Lee, NJ are very doable commutes if you plan it out accordingly with mass transit
Although, coming from out of state, there is nothing I imagine like living in NYC!
Good luck to us all!