nyc waiting

Yes, you can make it on the stipend if you take the campus housing or go to less than an ideal location. I thought most starting nyu students live near by, but I must be wrong. You're right that older students commute and you can find apt for under 1000 in the boroughs--and a decent one if you share. The prob with boroughs is that on the weekends, several train lines get rerouted due to construction, and depending on where you live, you either have to take the bus or taxi when you get out of the library at 2am. More time mgmt and planning required. All depends on the definition of 'decent'. I agree that there isn't much time to spend $ while in grad school. But $3000 summer stipend... even subsidized housing is about 1K a month, so how do you make it if you don't take RA or something?

I think that's unnecessary. If you don't hear from the school by almost the end of the time frame they told you they'd make the decision, then follow up. Yes, they're trying to gauge if you got into the top tier. The same happened to me (sociology), and thankfully I had gotten offers from others that I knew I would certainly prefer, so I told them that. You know this because by the time the school reaches you, the top tier decisions had already gone out. Good luck!

Definitely not. You have to take the campus housing. If not, a decent 1-bdrm will cost you ~$2000 in Manhattan. A decent lunch is almost $10. Thankfully we'll all be so busy studying that we won't have time for bars. I suppose you can also qualify for low-income housing as a starving grad student, but then you won't be close to campus. I spoke with a NYU PhD graduate and she said a lot of people work during summer to make up for the living cost.