<p>I am also familiar with Cornell area/Collegetown, and the leases were typically 12 months. Made for cheap summer sublets for those seeking to stay in Ithaca for the summer. I went to grad school in Atlanta, and there were many apartment complexes that had a lot of, but not exclusively, students. There were 10 month options, and I started out in one of these. I ended up living in that unit for 3 years, renting my room out one summer to a subletter, and my roommate doing the same for her room, but a different summer. When my roommate graduated, and I had a year to go, my summer job was in NYC, so I gave up the apartment (which was furnished), and the landlady, who knew me for years told me she would have something for me in the fall, but she did not know which unit. I think she told me a couple of weeks before I returned which apartment I would have. (It was right above hers, and the air conditioning was so much better than in the old one.) She increased the rent, but only a little. However, a married friend who lived in a rented house graciously let me store all my stuff (no furniture) in her basement, gratis, which was a blessing to me, since I was short on money back then.</p>
<p>In Atlanta, lot of people who lived far away and did not own furniture rented from a furniture rental company. I think that this is good for the living room, kitchen, dressers etc., and maybe a bed purchased from on line type retailer would do it. I don’t know USC, but maybe the scavenged furniture thing works there too. In undergrad, none of the furniture in off campus places looked new.</p>