FeelTheBern

So I didn't attend Tufts or Northeastern but from my understanding Northeastern tends to have more funding available for its students; additionally, Northeastern is located relatively close to a downtown area with all the stores (e.g. Copely square) and would be a much more expensive area to live in/around. Tufts on the other hand is actually located in Medford, which is north of Boston and Cambridge and is substantially cheaper. Now, I don't know if its $9k cheaper but it is cheaper. For instance, you could live really far north of the city in commuting distance to Tufts and find very affordable housing I would expect (compared to the rest of the city, anyway). So to answer your question, it's both, ha. But then again, I haven't lived in either of those areas so take my advice with a grain of salt

That's a pretty big difference between the two.  My roommate after college went to Northeastern Law and we lived in Somerville.  It was a bit of a schlep but really not that bad.  I don't know what your budget is, but I was just looking at Craigslist the other day and saw a number of nice apartments over Davis Square or Porter Square.  Basically, I think that you could probably find good rents for either place.  Boston is a relatively small city and there are some good bus lines along with the subway that gets you where you need to go.  I think it just depends on how long you're willing to commute, etc.

The communities outside of the city are much more reasonable - i.e. Somerville, Everett, Malden, I live in Watertown, which is a really nice community, and lucked out with an $1100/mo rental. Best advice I can give is scour Craigslist and if you're considering roommates, be very discriminating. I've had some horrifying roommates here.