<p>Many people commute, and for a school as expensive as NYU, you’re better off commuting than dorming especially if your commute is under an hour like you said. It is harder to make new friends as quickly as dormers do, but if you want, you can decide to dorm freshman year in order to help you make friends and adjust to college faster and then either commute the next 3 years or if you dorm for 2 years, you can even try for an RA position (which you need to be junior or senior for) to get free housing. You can also try to become friends with dormers and maybe you can stay over sometimes and make new friends that way too.</p>