Even if you can afford Boston neighborhoods you'll still have a good choice of two bedroom apartments on the east side you can afford. I would look further up Hope Street and away from Brown for better prices. Even look over the border into Pawtucket; there are some nice tree-lined neighborhoods there. Again though, it depends on what you want to be near.

You probably already know this, but the predominant rental housing type here is two- and three-family homes. Some of them have a room that can't qualify as a bedroom but would hold an office just fine. If that's what you're looking for, don't rule out one-bedrooms if the listings appear to have a high square footage. That might indicate a spare room, no closet.