Where to live? Poor graduate student... (Los Angeles, San Jose: school, living, internship)

[rachelf]

I am going to be attending UCSF, where my specific program requires minimal on-campus time (once or twice a week). I'm currently working as an EMT in Los Angeles, and am about to start job searching in the Bay Area for the same type of position. I'm looking for (hopefully!) cheap housing that is in at least a semi-decent area. I don't mind a bit of a commute -- I do it for my job all the time. I'm fairly moderate when it comes to politics, and am not really into the whole party scene.

My program will require a mandatory internship in a rural area (as of yet, I don't know where), so I am most definitely open to the possibility of living outside of the city as well.

My boyfriend will be attending school in San Jose, so ideally, I'd like to live somewhere that isn't ridiculously far away from there. He's probably going to be commuting from Salinas (hard to turn down free housing!) and so it'd be great to be closer rather than farther away from him if I have a choice.

I don't really know much of anything about the areas around San Francisco, so anything you can tell me would be great! I'm going to be heading up to the Bay Area for a visit in a few months, and I'd love to have already narrowed down my focus to a few different cities.

Thanks so much!

[mayorhaggar]

Since you don't need to be at school very much, you could look at somewhere in the San Jose area if you wanted--there is a separate San Jose board you can ask at. The drive would probably be up to 90 minutes each way but doing that just once or twice a week wouldn't be too horrible. And once you get past a certain point the outer parts of the Bay Area get pretty rural pretty fast.