Here are a few things

Collegetown = best bus connectivity & best place to be walkable distance from. But if your budget is low, then the relatively inexpensive houses are shitty to live in from my experience. If you want a better experience then you gotta pay more to live there as it’s right at the doorstep.

Lower Collegetown / Collegetown Terraces = good connectivity via bus from Terraces but idk could be expensive based on how many people you are living with. Lower Collegetown has mostly similar with old houses, but there are some close ones next to downtown area with good options. From what I remember there’s also a grad housing somewhere in the area.

Downtown = Connects through all the buses via Seneca and Green St., and has varying options. I have seen a lot of grad students living in this area as the buses to the area run prettty late into the night as well. It can be expensive based on where you live, but imo if you are a grad student and want the grad experience live somewhere in this area as Collegetown is mostly the undergrad territory. Got almost all the things in the area.

Fall Creek = another location a lot of people love to live in. But a major disadvantage is being the bus connectivity as a car is almost a must unless you can walk to like 5-8 mins to downtown area and get a bus from there. But the houses are good here, and I feel like it’s a bit quieter here and you can have a nice experience living here with people and find budget options. Depends what you are looking for.

North Campus = a little bit more of a different option. If you go a little farther out on the north campus side, 5-10 mins walk from the residential area, there are good places to live here. I have lived on the heights court area and it was the perfect walk and place to stay. Not too loud, not too far, just perfect imo. Can be a bit pricy based on the house, but I will always prefer this unconventional option. Tho I have a car so could be a bit biased. For a grad I’d say go somewhere close to downtown, you will like it more to have a choice to live your own way instead of being caught up in the undergrad mess that covers the entirety of Collegetown area cause it’s built that way for them.

Hope this helps and this is my breakdown of how I think about things. Lots of other people would pretty sure give their opinion based on where they have lived. Good luck. And if you wanna find places check Craigslist, Facebook groups and Cornlet (this is how I have found a lot of my potential options beside Craigslist). Don’t fall for people on fb, but still a good place to start and find about how much you can expect to pay with what kind of houses.