For Max Donahue, one year in a college dormitory was enough.

Living in the dorm, said Mr. Donahue, a student at Parsons School of Design, “is how I met all my friends.”

Still, the housing situation was tough. “Everyone at Parsons is out to do their own thing,” he said. “They are all some kind of wacky, and when you throw all those kids together in a small living space, it doesn’t create a nice living environment.”

He shared a two-bedroom suite with three others, and “no one felt it was their job to clean the place,” he said. “It was dark and grimy and dirty.”

Mr. Donahue, who is studying fashion design, could have stayed in the dorms for the summer and the coming school year, but instead he and a classmate decided to flee to a place of their own.