I came across this cool website that simplifies rent sharing. Might be of some use to new and current students.
Although getting a bigger apartment and splitting rents is more economical, there is always the underlying problem of room selection. Usually rooms have different sizes and characteristics that make it difficult to split rents equally. Issues like; who gets the bigger room, who gets the better view or who gets more storage space are perhaps very common in scenarios like these.
However, a couple of students have created a website that does all this for you. Each person places a virtual bid on the room they want by allocating the maximum amount of money they are willing to pay, which is then factored in an algorithm that assigns rooms based on selected criteria.
So if you are thinking of sharing an apartment or switching places for next year you might want to check it out. The website is called Spliddit.