"It's lame as hell," Heather Ryan, a junior at DePaul University, says bluntly. "We packed six people in a three bedroom to bring rent down."

Ryan lived on Belden, a street right in the heart of the university's Lincoln Park campus. "There was a lot of drama," she adds.

As a major educational institution, DePaul, like Loyola University, Columbia College, University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Chicago, brings many prospective tenants to the city. And while all of the schools do offer some form of aid to the students in narrowing down the apartment hunt—ranging from university-owned housing (dorms) to apartment-search Websites. Most students, however, seem to have their own methods. "Most kids just drive up and down the streets," Ryan says.

The "search mission" style of house hunting is what brought Rachael Pitlik, also a junior at DePaul University, to her new two-bedroom in Lincoln Park. The new apartment will be significantly smaller than her previous house, where she paid a monthly rent of $500. Next semester, she'll be paying $600 a month. "I think I'm paying too much in comparison to other areas," she says. "It's more expensive to live by the school."

On the other hand, University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is in an area which, even though it seems to be regentrifying, most students find affordable. "It's cheap to live around UIC," Chris Pipis, a senior says. "I can't complain." Pipis just found an apartment on South Racine in University Village using the "walking up and down the street" method. He will be paying his share of $430 a month for a three-bedroom apartment. "Everything is below $500 in this area," he says.

Both DePaul and UIC offer dormitories to their students, but, unlike massive state universities in far-off college towns where dorms play a major role in a college student's social development, in Chicago incoming freshman and sophomores are not guaranteed spaces in the dorms. Downstate schools such as University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or Illinois State University offer off-campus housing whenever students feel that they are ready for the responsibility. When students move off campus in these "college towns," they individually pay an average rent range of $250-$400, a number much less than a college student can hope to pay in Chicago.

This monetary complication is forcing students to look to rent as the main factor in making a final decision on housing. Neal Ratner of Apartment and Home Seekers, an agency that most Loyola University students look to when finding off-campus housing, says the cheapest stuff is moving much more quickly this year.

"Price is number one," he says. "Everyone looks for price more than last year."

The Loyola area (usually Edgewater and Rogers Park) offers a one bedroom for an average of $600 and up. For students who are looking for security in the area, and wish to live in a high-rise, they face a possible rent of $1,000 or more.

Like DePaul, the prices have driven some of the students to other areas. In response to the flight, Ratner says some housing companies have lowered the rents for some of their vacancies. "I haven't seen that in a long time," he says.

For James Wilschke, a senior at Columbia College, paying $600 a month (depending on utilities) in a two-bedroom turned out to be a better deal than the dormitories the college offered.

"A lot of students complain about the cost," he says. "The majority of the students live in Bucktown or Logan Square because it's cheaper." Wilschke, however, is pleased with his apartment in the South Loop, an area where one bedrooms tend to start at $1,000.

The bottom line is that no distinction exists between a college student and a regular working city resident—both can pay through the nose for decent lodging in city neighborhoods close to a university. But real estate agents are definitely aware of the existing college student market. Ratner says that in some areas he notices owners favor signing a lease with college students over a family.

"The owners know they'll be getting their monthly rent from students who have parents as co-signers," he says. "Even in soft periods, they still get what they want."

And there's definitely some inflation of prices with this favoritism. "But I'd hate to think that they'd hike up the prices just because they're students," he says. "That's borderline illegal."

In the end, seeking refuge in other areas turns out to be the alternative option, which, for students, could turn out to be a commuting-for-class nightmare. Might be time to borrow more money from the folks...

Also by Rachael Liberman