renting a place in the bay area

at a grad student social today, i met a new grad student, andre, from iceland. he actually was working in upstate new york for the past few years, and now he's here at berkeley doing systems research. when deciding where to live, andre realized that he wouldn't have time to visit berkeley. so he did all his house-finding online and over the phone. now he's not too happy with his place, or rather his area.

he lives about 30 minutes away from campus in a dodgy area, and actually feels more comfortable in his office than at home. this is a shame -- i think it's really a failure of the department and the graduate division in general that this happened. sure, andre could have asked around more and tried to get more help. but i know of countless people that this has happened to in the bay area. there's got to be somewhere we can collect the wisdom and help out new students so they can make better decisions, even from far away.