My husband is looking at medical residency programs at both Columbia and Cornell. We can't live in their residency housing b/c we have pets, but they do offer some menial subsidy for rent ($200 or something equally inadequate). The kicker is that there is a policy that we must live within 30 mins commute of Presbyterian hospital.

How far away from Pres Hosp can we live and maintain a 30 min commute? We will need to rent a place that accepts both dogs and cats. I will hopefully be in law school, so we're looking at about $42k income plus whatever I can scrape up in student loans/selling my ass.

Thanks in advance for your answers!

First question: Columbia/Presbyterian has two main campuses in very different parts of town, that aren't within half an hour of each other. Will you be at Columbia on West 168th Street or Weill Cornell Medical Center on York Avenue?

I'm assuming west 168th. In that case, you're lucky because that's not an expensive part of town. It's also not a very safe part of town, but it's near a lot of other relatively inexpensive, more safe places. I'd consider Marble Hill or Kingsbridge in the Bronx, near the 1 train, or Fort Lee, NJ, which is right over the George Washington Bridge right next to the hospital (and there are direct buses.)