I know housing is ridiculous in Oakland, and surrounding areas. If you had an opportunity to stay in Dublin, how is the area? Would a college intern be bored in the Dublin area?
I can’t answer your questions, but I can say that nirvana (San Francisco) is just a Bart ride away. And if it’s a good internship, might well be worth it.
@busdriver11, the potential location in Dubin is about a block away from the a bart station, and it would be an hour commute to Oakland. It would be much cheaper for us as a friend may live there, but I want the summer experience to be fun as well.
My cousin lives in Dublin. I’ve never been there but from what I understand it has a very strong suburban feel.
Wow, an hour commute. Didn’t realize it was that far. Hopefully someone will chime in about Dublin. Living in SF would be the optimal experience, location and close to Oakland. My son and friend are renting out space to an intern they know in their SF apartment for $1,000 a month for the summer. I don’t know if that’s standard, but sublets can be cheaper than renting something on your own.
I am checking summer sublets in Berkeley as well.
Berkeley would be better. 
That’s an interesting thought. Seems like there would be lots of summer sublets in such a college town. Love Berkeley, lots of things to do, walking around the neighborhoods makes me feel like I’m in Europe.
I would consider Walnut Creek (WC) over Dublin, which also has a BART station. I live in Walnut Creek currently but also lived in San Ramon, a neighboring city to Dublin, so am very familiar to both areas. The one drawback with Walnut Creek is parking. Need to get there by no later than 7AM to park. Also, get used to standing because you won’t get a seat on the train in WC. You will in Dublin, no problem. The commute time to Oakland from Dublin is closer to 30 minutes than 1 hour and less than that from WC. The two areas of Oakland that I would consider are Rockridge or Lake Merritt. Berkeley is also a good option ((my kid just graduated from Cal last year). The frats and sororities are good options for cheaper housing options. Feel free to message me if you have any questions and I will try to help.
@jshain Thanks! The only cheap option is in Dubin as we may have a friend there. The commute on Bart is an hour because the bart ride into Oakland is under an hour, but then she would have to transfer, then walk, so all told its slightly over an hour.
My grad student daughter may be subletting her room in Berkeley on the east side of campus. Right next door to Oakland. Message me if interested.
Definitely would not recommend Dublin. Too far out, only one BART train runs out there (and it’s the end of the line). Although Berkeley can be tough for housing in general, summer is better because many students do need to sublet. You could also consider looking just north of Berkeley in Albany or El Cerrito - much closer to Berkeley/Oakland than Dublin and better BART access, but can be cheaper than Berkeley or Oakland (especially El Cerrito).
Berkeley (and probably Oakland) should have plenty of sublets for the summer from students living off campus. BSC co-ops, fraternities, sororities, private dorms, etc. should also have plenty of space.
Why not Oakland itself? Yes, there are crime issues in some parts, but it seems exaggerated for Oakland compared to other places like Berkeley and San Francisco, which have parts with crime issues.
Im not opposed to Oakland but I just dont know the good and bad parts, and we wont have time to go out early. We literally will go out the day before the job starts.
If I could find something reasonable in Berkeley, I’d definitely choose that over Oakland. If the price was right, Berkeley seems like a no brainier. Then again, I don’t have much brain matter to work with. 
There are many wonderful, safe, and very nice parts of Oakland – and sketchy parts of Berkeley. So saying Berkeley is a no brainer isn’t really great advice, busdriver.
Partyof5, I second the recommendation to check out frats/sororities for sublets. The only problem is that they’re not super close to any Bart stations.
@katliamom thanks for the info. Oakland may be just fine. Whats sketchy to some may be perfectly fine to others. Some would probably call the area around her current school sketchy or worse, and she is perfectly fine there. It all depends on your experience.
Well, I said I didn’t have much brain matter to work with, katliamom!
I lived in two parts of Oakland back in the day. It was nice then. Now it’s downright POSH. Everyone seems to drive either a Prius… or a Tesla! (The only place where I saw more Teslas than Berkeley/Oakland was in the exclusive Marin County.)
Wherever your son ends up, you should try to visit him, partyof5. The Bay Area is simply wonderful.
https://www.bsc.coop/index.php/housing/summer-housing describes BSC co-op housing for the summer. Eligibility is for summer 2016 is being a college student (anywhere) for spring 2016 or fall 2016 or taking summer 2016 classes at UCB. Costs for the summer are listed at https://www.bsc.coop/index.php/summer-rates . Map of BSC houses relative to the campus and BART station is at https://www.bsc.coop/index.php/housing/map-directions .