Advice for out-of-towners? BRING A CAR!!!!!!! If you insist on not having a car, the closest places I can think of is University Court (I can't find a # for them) or renting a floor or room in a house on a street nearby - Winspear, Minnesota, Springville, Lisbon come to mind. There are also dorms on the South campus right across from the dental school, but these are full of undergrads. You can live there, but I don't know any grad students that do. I know of students who walked from Princeton or Camelot Court, but that was during the fall when it is still nice out. However, I have NEVER walked anywhere in Buffalo or its suburbs (and I have live here a LONG time).
Maybe it is difficult for you to picture life without a car. Say you live close to school and walk everyday. Once it gets cold (around November), you won't want to walk. Once it snows, you will find crossing streets difficult because the snow can pile up at corners and the cars can't always see over the piles to know there are pedestrians. People don't always clean their sidewalks, many parts don't even have sidewalks. When you get tired of studying and feel like having a life, you will be limited to the one shopping plaza near south campus consisting of a supermarket and some fast food restaurants. The subway in Buffalo goes NOWHERE and I don't even know how to take a bus to go anywhere. The buses don't even cover all of the areas in the suburbs where a lot of the shopping plazas are and where many of your classmates will live. You will feel trapped.
Even in school, sometimes you may want to go home after a full day of class (8 - 4 or 5) and return later to do labwork. You won't want to walk outside several times a day to do this.
I don't mean to scare you or sound negative, but the few people in my class from the west coast who came to dental school without cars when we began, all bought cars within a few months of our first year. This just isn't a pedestrian-friendly city.
Housing isn't in very hard to find and the cost of living is cheap here. You don't have to search for months or be put on wait lists, you will find something.
Feel free to ask any other questions you have.
