Summer Intern Housing in NYC: The Complete Guide

Your Three Real Options

Sublets. Students and other tenants leave the city for the summer and rent their furnished room or apartment for the months they are away. This is where most interns end up, because the dates line up: the people leaving go in May and June and come back in late August.

University summer housing. Some universities, NYU among them, open residence halls to summer interns who are not their own students. You get a dorm room, a fixed weekly rate, and an application with a deadline. Rates and dates are published on each school’s housing site.

Furnished monthly rentals and corporate housing. Buildings and companies that rent furnished apartments by the month. Simple and predictable, and normally the most expensive of the three.

Hotels and nightly rentals are not on the list. A whole apartment for less than 30 days is not a legal rental in most New York buildings, and ten weeks of hotel nights costs far more than rent.

• Why 30 Days Matters in NYC

A Timeline That Works

Late searches can still work. Plans fall through and rooms open up in May and even June. There is just less to choose from.

• When you accept the offer: write down your exact start and end dates and your office address. Everything else depends on those two facts.
• February to March: decide on a budget and two or three neighborhoods by commute. If you want university housing, apply now; those programs fill.
• March to May: sublet listings build as people settle their own summer plans. Search with your real dates and message early.
• Four to six weeks out: see the place in person or on a live video call, ask for the landlord’s written approval, agree on dates and price in writing.
• Arrival week: move in a few days before your start date if you can. Learning the commute on a Saturday is easier than on your first morning.

Budget by the Total, Not the Month

Monthly prices are hard to compare when your stay is ten and a half weeks. Work out the total for your exact dates instead. A room at $1,850 a month for a stay of June 1 to August 15 is 75 nights. At a nightly rate of the monthly price times 12, divided by 365, that comes to about $4,560 for the stay.

On Sublet Buddy, rent is charged by the night in exactly this way, and every listing shows the total once you enter dates. Wherever you look, ask the same question: what do I pay, in full, for these specific nights? Then add what is not in the rent: utilities and internet if they are separate, a monthly subway budget, and laundry.

A private room in a shared apartment is the usual way to bring the number down. You get your own bedroom and share the kitchen and bathroom with the people already living there.

• Private Rooms in NYC
• Furnished Sublets

Choose the Neighborhood by Your Commute

Start from the office and work outward along its subway lines. A place 25 minutes away on one train beats a place 15 minutes away with a transfer.

For Midtown offices, look at Murray Hill, Kips Bay, Hell’s Kitchen, the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, and across the river in Long Island City and Astoria. For the Financial District, look at the neighborhood itself, the Lower East Side, and Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn, which are one or two stops away. For Hudson Yards, look at Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and anything along the 7 train.

Near the big campuses, East Village and Greenwich Village rooms open up when NYU students leave, and Morningside Heights and the Upper West Side when Columbia students do.

• Sublets Near Midtown
• Sublets Near Wall Street
• Sublets Near Hudson Yards
• Where Banking and Consulting Interns Live

What to Ask Before You Commit

• Exactly which dates are available, and is there any flexibility?
• Is the room furnished, and what stays: bed, desk, linens, kitchen things?
• Is there air conditioning? New York in July makes this a real question.
• Who else lives there over the summer?
• What is included in the price: electricity, gas, internet?
• Has the landlord approved the sublet in writing?
• Where is the nearest subway station and which lines stop there?

Staying Safe

Intern season is also scam season, because scammers know thousands of people are booking from other cities. The pattern is almost always the same: someone who cannot show the apartment asks for money up front through a payment app or wire. Do not send money before you have seen the place live, and pay in a way that leaves a record.

• How to Avoid Sublet Scams in NYC

If Your Firm Offers a Housing Stipend

Some employers pay a lump sum or a monthly stipend instead of arranging housing. It is usually paid through payroll, so it may be taxed like salary: plan around the amount that actually arrives. A stipend goes much further on a sublet than on corporate housing, and your recruiter can often tell you where previous classes lived.