Website eases transition from campus to New York

With fewer than six weeks remaining until members of the Class of 2006 pack their bags and leave their dorms one last time, seniors are scrambling for a place to live.

For many of these students, there is only one place that beckons: the Big Apple.

"I think (and my roommates agree) it would be really really fun to be there just getting out of college," Rajendra Appama '06 said in an email. "I really can't think of a better place than New York. It's got everything."

Being so popular, however, has its downsides: there's a dearth of affordable housing in the city. A quick search on craigslist.org shows apartments renting for anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 per month.

But New York's opportunities make the price and hassle worth it, many seniors said. And to help students transition into the city, David Hecht '04 and Chris Murphy '04 began NYC Transitions, an organization that links students with real estate brokers.

Hecht and Murphy both had terrible experiences finding housing when they first moved to the city.

"If we are able to help one student avoid dealing with a broker that would have ripped them off or treated them unfairly (as I was), then we have succeeded," Hecht said in an email. "The Princeton community has always been about helping out your fellow Princetonians. Why shouldn't that extend to moving to NYC as well?"

The service, which is free regardless of whether one secures housing or not, matches brokers to students based on the type of apartment they are seeking, according to the group's website, www.nyctransitions.com.

Among Princetonians who have already made the jump to New York, many say that the move has been worth the hassle.

Elaine Barfield '04, currently a student at NYU Medical School, said the move from Princeton to New York was thrilling.

"Despite enjoying the charms of a small town such as Princeton for four years, I was very anxious to move to New York," she said. "I quickly learned my way around the boroughs and the many neighborhoods, and I have truly enjoyed living amidst the cultural diversity New York has to offer."

Barfield also praised the fact that so many recent college graduates are there working or continuing school.

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"Being a graduate student in the city is wonderful because there are so many students your age at the city's many medical, law, business and other graduate schools," she said. "And several of the graduate schools often cosponsor events so that students have the opportunity to meet hundreds of other students."

Appama plans on living in midtown with two of his current Princeton roommates. "I don't expect [the transition to New York] to be particular hard," he said. As a non-U.S. citizen, he added, "I think I made a harder transition coming to Princeton."