Manhattan vs Palo Alto

[ferns]

I was recently accepted to 2 PhD programs that are really great fits in terms of PI’s & research. Palo Alto is offering more in stipend, but I wanted to hear about people’s living experiences at these places.  How reasonable is $~40K in both of these places with subsidized housing with roommates ($~1,600 per month)? For context, I am a self supporting undergrad student right now and will continue to support myself (so dealing with bills, student loans, travel costs).

Thank you so much in advance for sharing your thoughts!

 

[Bijutsu]

I used to work in Palo Alto and am looking to move to Manhattan. Living expenses are about the same in terms of cost for what you get in both places. If you have a car it's cheaper to live outside the area, but either way in the city or not traffic is an absolute nightmare from the wee hours until 10:00am and again at around 3:00pm until about 7:00pm. The rush starts at about 2:00pm on Fridays. For New York, you could move to one of the outer boroughs in NY and find cheaper rent and commute using public transit. You wont have to pay for a car and its upkeep on top of sitting in hours of traffic daily. Something to think about, the traffic in Palo Alto/San Jose area was murder on my soul. The whole stretch from the south of San Jose to San Francisco is a nightmare during rush hour.