New York City's Ivy League school sits in Morningside Heights just north of the Upper West Side. Columbia University offers numerous undergraduate and graduate programs and many majors in liberal arts, sciences and engineering as well as graduate degrees in law, business, education and journalism. Columbia boasts more than 20 dorm buildings with rooms that vary from double rooms with shared bathroom facilities to apartment suites. As of February 2011, annual rates ran from $6,000 to nearly $7,000 depending on type of accommodations.
Considered another elite institution, New York University (NYU) also offers a general curriculum with many majors and degrees. NYU's campus spreads out around lower Manhattan with much of it nearby Washington Square Park and offers rooms in 21 residence halls. Students can choose among triple rooms, which they share with two other students, double rooms, shared apartments and studio apartments. Students can pay as little as $6,700 for a bed in a triple room to more than $17,000 for a private studio apartment.
Eugene Lang is the liberal arts college of the New School in Greenwich Village and offers majors in areas such as philosophy, economics, environmental studies, history, politics, religious studies, social inquiry and urban studies. Eugene Lang's residence halls have been given the distinction of being the most expensive dorms in the country with students paying more than $16,000 per year, but they are also known for their modern amenities.
City College is the oldest part of the City University of New York system and was the first free public institution of higher education in the United States. Traditionally a commuter school, City College opened dorms in 2006, providing hundreds of students with the ability to live on campus, located at West 130th Street and St. Nicholas Terrace. Rents range from $775 per month for shared rooms in two-bedroom suites to about $1,100 a month for private studios.
Hunter College counts itself as another piece of New York City's public higher education system and is comprised of the School of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, Roosevelt Public Policy Institute, School of Health Sciences, School of Nursing and School of Social Work. The one residence hall houses just over 600 students and is one of the cheaper dormitories in the city with academic year rates running between $4,000 and $7,000.