shit, man, rent is expensive. grad student housing will be fun, you'll be there with your fellow grad students and you'll have a local dive bar that you all go to and you'll make friends and it'll be good.
most parts of the city are cool to live in. your grad school is not on Staten Island. I guess super deep brooklyn/queens are not that cool, but really, keep an open mind, you'll have more fun than if you spend $5k a month to live in the east village.
