I posted this on the other thread too, but since this thread is specifically about housing, I'll post here too (I hope it's not too late...)-
I'm a second year screenwriter at LMU and I lived on campus my first year. There were 8 film grad students in total living on campus - 4 production and 4 screenwriting.
Overall it was a good experience for me. I didn't live on campus for undergrad so I wasn't burned out on the idea of roommates, sharing a bathroom, etc.
The apartments are nice, nothing spectacular, but not rundown or dirty or anything. It's two bedrooms (two people to a room, furnished with two beds and two desks), one bathroom, full kitchen, and living room (furnished with a couch, love seat, and two coffee tables). The laundry room is nearby and it's fairly cheap (1.25 to wash, .75 to dry).
I liked living on campus for a few reasons. First of all, when faced with the stress of having to move across the country, it was nice to get here and just have someone point me in the direction of my room. Second, I saved a ton of money on gas. I moved in on August 28, and when I left for a weekend trip the last week of September I still had 3/4th of that same tank left. Third, it was convenient in terms of getting to classes. It was also nice because one of the apartments happened to have 4 film students in it and it became the hang out spot, the meet before class spot, the I'm-on-campus-and-need-to-kill-time-so-let's-play-Wii spot, and so on and so forth.
There are, of course, the usual drawbacks. It's a bit expensive to live on campus. One bathroom for 4 people can be frustrating. There's the requisite roommate drama/disagreements. Etc., etc., etc.
I don't regret living on campus, but it's definitely a personal opinion thing.
I'm now living off campus, at a place I found through off-campus listings for LMU students -
http://och.lmu.edu/
It's a housing website that's only for LMU students (which means that you need to have your MYLMU and Prowl accounts set up to get in). You can find other LMU students looking for roommates, find rooms to rent in private homes, and occasionally you can find people doing "rent for services," which usually means that people cut back your rent if you watch their kids for a certain number of hours each week/month.
Let me know if you have any other questions about living on campus or finding a place off campus!
