I live in NY and think the 7k / month amount is high. Seven thousand dollars a month is what an associate at a firm who is paying mortgage and maintenance and going out most nights spends per month. On average, as a student, you should be paying $1,500 - $2,000 a month rent and can easily live off of $500/week (this includes eating most of your meals out). Michaelcorleone's detailed expense report sounds correct.

btw, you should factor in

1. shopping. some people enjoy shopping. i hate shopping!

2. cellphones. potentially expensive, if you get a plan that lets you make long distance calls to back home. possibly up to $60 a month, although i use skype and no one calls me (i feel so alone, hu hu hu) so i end up spending something like $20 over two months

3. bar review -- $2500 for kaplan, $3100 for barbri. DON'T TAKE LLMBARREVIEW!!! all my classmates who signed up are regretting they did.

4. don't forget LIVING EXPENSES DURING BAR REVIEW!! some people i know were reduced to eating bagels during bar review because they spent too much during the llm year. so i don't suggest eating most of your meals out!

Thanks everyone for comments and sharing views! I guess I will try to cut housing costs and get around campus shared apartment. Personally, I cant imagine how is that possible that you have to spend 7000 USD to live a decent life of a student, seems like everyone who are not lawyers or investment bankers in NYC are just dying out of starvation. I mean Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world but you still can rent an apartment there for like 1,000 USD and be ok with 4,000 USD spending on living costs.

MAB -- i went to jean georges' nougatine. check it out on yelp here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/nougatine-new-york. nougatine has $26 prix fixe for lunch and you get AWESOME food. for dinner, if you go between 530 you can have their dinner prix fixe for $38 and you get a five course meal, delicious.

and just to be clear, i had a fish course, a meat course and a dessert. that was for $26. i just had a diet coke, and that was $2.50.

@MAB79 thank you for you comments, well yes I o have around 2 years of PQE, and to be honest kind of get used to normal living standard. Well, I guess, if it would be around USD 4,500 for living expense per month, then is does not sound that bad.

MAB -- i went to jean georges' nougatine. check it out on yelp here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/nougatine-new-york. nougatine has $26 prix fixe for lunch and you get AWESOME food. for dinner, if you go between 530 you can have their dinner prix fixe for $38 and you get a five course meal, delicious.

and just to be clear, i had a fish course, a meat course and a dessert. that was for $26. i just had a diet coke, and that was $2.50.

i don't understand what you're trying to say. this thread is about living expenses in nyc. i am saying i have occasional $26 lunches in nougatine, see opera twice a month, eat decently (meat, seafood) for all of my meals if i choose, and do that with around $2000. you are saying the $26 lunch is too extravagant but that you can't live on $2000 a month? i think you should explain to me what you mean over lunch in per se. friday dinner? shall i make the reservation?

Here is a copy/paste from the UN's website... Interns at the UN are necessarily students btw.

Q: How much does it generally cost to live in New York City during the internship?
A: It costs approximately $2,500 per month to cover accomodation, meals and other living expenses.

Interns at the United Nations Headquarters are not paid. All costs of travel and accommodation, including living expenses, must be covered by the intern or the sponsoring institution. The following information is intended to assist you in estimating the cost of your internship (all figures indicated in US dollars):

* Travel expenses:
o Round trip air/train/bus tickets to/from New York: variable;
o Passport/visa application fees: variable;
o Ground transportation from/to airport/train/bus terminal: $45 + tip
o Travel insurance: $30;
* Accommodation in New York City:
o Hotel/motel: $90 - 300 per night
o YMCA/YWCA: $70 - 150 per night
o Dormitory/ residence house: $200 - 400 per week / $25 - 30 per night
o Apartment: $800 2000,- per month
* Living expenses:
o Transportation:
+ Subway/bus: $2.00 per trip or $81 for an unlimited 30-day pass, $24 for a 7-day unlimited pass, $7 for a 1-day unlimited pass;
+ Taxi: $2.50 inital, $0.30 per 1/4 mile.
o Meals:
+ The United Nations has a cafeteria in the Secretariat Building open from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Monday to Friday. Meals cost $4.00 and up;
+ Outside the Secretariat all kinds of food outlets are available within walking distance. (Fast food: $4 and up; Restaurants: $7 and up per meal).
* Insurance expenses:
o Medical insurance: $50 (variable);
o Liability insurance: $25 (variable).
* Other expenses: (additional 10-20% of the budget)

I could not live for only 2000k in nyc.

I did the UN internship as well! my comment to this is that students can actually live more cheaply than UN interns, because first, you live in campus housing so there's no need to commute. Second, you can get lunch for free almost every day from school (with lots of different options -- the non-pizza events are best). If you want to cook for lunch, it's possible too. This is harder to do as a UN intern. Also, you get okay health insurance and health services as part of your tuition (unless you have your own insurance policy) so that saves on insurance costs. UN interns also have most of their day free (you come in at almost 10am and leave at 5pm) because there's no school work. Plus there's lots of young attractive people around you. So what do you do? Party!!!!

In school, there's school work. And everyone starts to look ugly after class and days of not washing because of studying, hahaha. So studying is your entertainment.

Also, have you read or come across the book "How I Lived on One Pound a Day for One Year"? I learned many of my saving techniques from this book.

Lol
Thank you Corleone. Your posts have been very clear and useful. It's always good when someone is able to end the myths by stating facts.
Are you enjoying your LLM at CLS?

I could not live for only 2000k in nyc.

Perhaps because of that small thing called VANITY.....

I could not live for only 2000k in nyc.

Perhaps because of that small thing called VANITY.....

Yeah, sure. It's vanity. It's not that I am not 20 any more and work since several years and my student years are several years in the past. When I'm going to spend all my savings for a "prestige" title called llm, I'm pretty sure that I will not stay at home all the time just to make sure that I can save money etc. For me the LL.M. is also a social thing etc. But you don't know me and therefore I think you surely are able to call me vain! I know from several friends of mine who did an LL.M. at CLS that the needed much more than 2000USD per month...

I admire i.e. michaelcorleone who obviously is able to do it. But I could not and I will not (I used to). But this for sure is not due to vanity....so, thank you very much for your statement!

I could not live for only 2000k in nyc.

Perhaps because of that small thing called VANITY.....

Yeah, sure. It's vanity. It's not that I am not 20 any more and work since several years and my student years are several years in the past. When I'm going to spend all my savings for a "prestige" title called llm, I'm pretty sure that I will not stay at home all the time just to make sure that I can save money etc. For me the LL.M. is also a social thing etc. But you don't know me and therefore I think you surely are able to call me vain! I know from several friends of mine who did an LL.M. at CLS that the needed much more than 2000USD per month...

I admire i.e. michaelcorleone who obviously is able to do it. But I could not and I will not (I used to). But this for sure is not due to vanity....so, thank you very much for your statement!

full ack.

I think he means full acknowledgement... (agrees)

I think he means full acknowledgement... (agrees)

that's correct :)