As she began her junior year at New York University, Vanessa Csordas-Jenkins planned to live with two friends. But the plan fell through, and she and her friends ended up in the Broome Street dorm along with four strangers.

The students shared a suite with six bedrooms and a living room. Ms. Csordas-Jenkins’s room, classified as “low cost,” was $6,090 for the semester. (A single room, which she had requested, was $8,632.)

Worse, the walls had “ventilation gaps” near the top, so “they are essentially unfinished walls that let in noise and light,” she said. If a roommate was in the living room, the noise kept her awake. Ms. Csordas-Jenkins — who had received a diagnosis of a sleep disorder five years ago — was exhausted and cranky.

“I checked the box that said are you willing to pay more, because I need to be a healthy person,” she said. “That request was denied. Presumably there were no open spaces, which was understandable, but certainly didn’t help me any.”