I recently (yesterday) travelled to white plains/valhalla and found some very interesting things out about the college and apartments around the area.
- First off there a few towns near the college, valhalla which has a great number of very large cemetaries that make up the town. Tarrytown, which is a city to the west of the school. Elmsford, which is a small town to the south of the school between the school and white plains. I believe this is some important information for those who are searching the internet for apts in valhalla only (valhalla isnt really that big from what I saw and youll probably have better luck looking into these towns), also the metro north train runs two lines parallel within about 10 miles directly up and down new york. the closer is called the harlem line with trips to grand central taking about 35-40 min. Its almost impossible to live farther then a 30 min walk from the train stations.
- For those who dont want to drive/wont have a car these places are not the best options, since the
http://www.westchestergov.com/beelinebus/
(westchester beeline bus - which costs 75 dollars per month for an unlimited pass) only goes through specific streets. If you are searching near those towns make sure that you specify that there has to be access to a bus stop within walking distance. It might be a good idea to try to find an apt near north white plains since there are busses almost everywhere and the most youd have to do is a one bus transfer. I also called the bus service and found that the bus that would go from the bus terminal at north white plains through valhalla and to the medical school runs once every hour. Taking the bus from north white plains to the school would take 30 - 40 min from the westchester mall to the school, which equates to 10-15 min drive.
-rent seems expensive for that part of new york, a studio in white plains avgs about 1000 dollars a month, and in valhalla and tarrytown you can find some near 750 but again the locations need to be near a bus stop if you dont have a car. I recieved a call today from a real estate agent who basically laughed when I asked him if I didnt need a car for a 900 dollar studio in the town of hawthorn (north of valhalla) finding roomates can greatly decrease this cost from 600-800 dollars per person. I need a roomate...
There are alot of schools that are around the same area (within 10 -15 miles) pace university, suny purchase, and the medical school. For those of you who like either a nice social night life (by which I mean bars frequented by the 'college kids') or the convenience of nearby malls and every kind of store (which means easy access to potential jobs) white plains is the city. Theres even a very large carpeted mall (westchester mall) that has every (expensive) store you could possibly want (louis vuitton / lacoste) its a very nice mall. I dont know much about the sites at the other cities except that valhalla has a nice dam with an adjacent park (its very peacefull)
For those who would like to look at other options I suggest looking into talking with real estate agents The most important part about contacting a real estate agency to look for apts is that you will be paying a commision (usually in the amt of the first months rent) to the agent for using his service. These fees are just a one time fee, and is seperate from the amt you owe your landlord. The other problem for some if not most is location, if you live florida you obviosly wouldnt be able to come to ny to look at houses and apts for rent, and one of the biggest problems is that landlords wont give a tenent they have never met in person an apt. I have found that if you offer to give the first 6 months rent ahead of time landlords usualy feel better about it. however thats alot of money.
In fact, with the help of my real esate agent guy, I found an amazing house (3 bdrms, fire place, living room, wood floors, washer dryer, basement, patio, lawn with trees, completely fenced in, 2 car garage, 2 car driveway, 4 car sidewalk parking) for rent in white plains for 2000 dollars a month, If anybody is interested please email me immediately (
[email protected]) since it will most likely be taken within 2 to 3 days. It is located next to one of the main streets of white plains, and is amazingly close to the mall, bars, shops, the 15 movie megaplex that is being built and 2 blocks from the new trump towers building. Its a five min walk to the bus stop which would take a max of 40 min to get to the school (beeline bus # 60 to the bus station to bee line bus #14 to the college) I may bring a car
and wouldnt rule out car pooling (i'm most likely going to leave in the morning and come back late at night, studying is a priority)
On my way back, I managed to pick up both a pennysaver and the local newspaper, and will create another post that has all the information from these publications written verbatim. I also took some pictures and will provide links in the next post. I have to study for my MCAT so I may be on this forum irregularly.
They do have on-campus housing, but give preference to medical students, then phd, then masters. -- and since I applied late and was accepted 2 days ago, i have to consider off-campus housing. I requested a packet from housing...and looking through creig list. I would prefer roomming with other students from NYMC. 
i would love to live with people in the program also and if its a furnished apartment, that would be even better (it would be such a pain having to purchase all new furniture)! 
