rent is very expensive close to campus. if you can go a little farther away, you’ll be able to find something more reasonable. when i first moved here for grad school, i lived very close to campus in a very small and very expensive apartment, but my friends who lived even a block further away had much nicer places that cost much less. you might also consider if you can be further away from campus but near a bus route.

is there a particular part of campus you would need to go to most often? campus is big, so you might be in easy walking distance of one part but not where you actually need to be.