Housing for SAs?

Last year I tried to sign up for NYU housing a few weeks after they opened it and it was already full. I think they have an email alert system that will tell you when they start accepting applications, so if they have that this year - sign up for it and do it right away. Columbia, if I'm not mistaken, only has housing wayyy up town so factor that into your plan (ie. if you're working downtown a ML, living on Water St for NYU would be convienent enough for you to walk to work, but upper west side would be a long commute). I had friends last year who rented via Educational Student Housing and lived in The New Yorker, but they really didn't like it. I knew someone who lived there for a full year and also was not pleased - limited laundry facilities, strict sign in policies (ie. to have a guest you have to registar them 3 days ahead for over night), as well as no kitchen in the rooms and there room smelled like mold. I would recommend nycintern.org if you don't mind having several roommates. It's a really touristy location, but its easy to get to many locations so if you don't know where you're living you can't go wrong. As far as NYU, stay away from anything that specifies "unairconditioned" and if you're working downtown aim for Water Street, and if you're not sure, then do Palladium in Union Square because you can kind of go anywhere easily from there.

Here's my recommendation: Sign up for NYU's student housing as soon as it opens up for applications in January. You can always change your mind later on and get your deposit back, but it's immensly popular and the housing fills up in a matter of weeks. It's pretty easy to secure a good location as long as you get your application in before it fills up.

Not sure on Columbia's housing, but I like NYU's location much better. As I said, if you find a better deal on craigslist later on, you can always get your deposit back. The good thing about living in school dorms is that you'll be living with other summer bankers, consultants, and accountants.

Finally, once you figure out which bank you'll be with, be sure to ask HR about housing. Almost all BBs in NYC have housing agreements guaranteeing you housing at NYU for the summer (although you pay for it). Hope this helps. Here's the link (remember to keep an eye out for the application date - they'll update with an exact date once they finalize it): http://www.nyu.edu/summer/housing/

great, thanks for your help!

I'm currently a Junior at NYU, so I can shed some light on their housing situation.

During my Soph year and summer between Soph and Junior year I lived in Palladium, which is located about a block from Union Square. It's a good choice, especially if you're not sure where you'll be working, since Union Square is a smaller hub for several subway lines. You can get to the Financial District or Midtown in 15-20 minutes maximum during a typical rush hour. Also, Pallidum has a gym directly underneath the residential housing part (you don't even have to leave the building), so that is a major plus if you're concerned with working out while in NYC.

If you know that you'll be working downtown, then the Water Street dorm would be your best bet. You could probably walk to work as previously mentioned. Both of those dorms are pretty modern, apartment style facilities, where you'll have a kitchen, a private bathroom for your suite, and typically a common living/dining area to share amongst other roommates.

NYU students are given preference for housing, so many spots are filled before non-NYU students are even assigned rooms. If you can't get into Palladium, other good choices for NYU housing around Union Square would be University Hall, Carlyle Court, and Coral Towers (in that order, in my opinion).

The NYU dorms at Canal street are passable and quite convenient to the lower half of the island, east side at least. Location isn't the best for night life (Chinatown dies at around 8pm, and you're right next to a detention facility and a courthouse). Water Street is gorgeous from what I saw of it (friend had a beautiful view right over the Bridge, and somehow lucked into paying for multi-occupancy and getting a spare bedroom) though inconvenient to anything uptown and the subways were rather unreliable past the Brooklyn Bridge.