Guide to living on Long Island

Making the most of life on Long Island on Grad Student pay

• Find reasonably affordable housing. You should be able to find housing for under $850 a month, unless you have specific things you want in your place. Living with other people is almost always the way to go. There's a Stony Brook housing facebook group and a website ^where?, and you can also find places by asking around and talking to other people.
• Make friends with someone with a car, if you don't have one. Being able to be transported around is invaluable, and there are usually enough people with cars that you can make friends with someone and get rides from them when needed. For other travel, Uber and biking are your friends.
• If you expect to go into New York City with relative frequency on the LIRR, consider getting a 10-ticket pass. They last 6 months, and you get 5 rounds trips on each purchase, and you save about $3 on each tickets, which in total is a lot. If you have a car, consider going into the city by driving down to Ronkonkoma train station, because the train from there into the city is direct and runs more often.
• If there is an event with free food, go to it. Usually its also a great opportunity to socialize. This is especially true of GSO events and the Friday Afternoon Seminars.