Summer intern's commute goes viral: She flies from South Carolina to New Jersey because it's cheaper than renting

College interns typically find cheap places to live for the summer. One woman is going to great lengths to do that.

South Carolina resident Sophia Celentano commutes to her New Jersey summer internship by plane, weekly, revealing on her TikTok account that it's actually cheaper than renting near her advertising gig's New Jersey office.

The 21-year-old's TikTok, headlined, "Why I take a plane to work," recently went viral after she posted her routine of waking up at 3 am to catch a flight from Charleston to Newark every Wednesday. She acknowledges it's a "really untraditional thing to do, but it works for me" because of cost savings and the "flexibility" of living with her family, who she doesn't see often since she attends the University of Virginia.

Rather than spending "$3,400+ a month for rent, I book a $100 round-trip flight on the one day a week I work in-person" as a corporate marketing intern, she explained on her LinkedIn account. "Plus, my untraditional commute provides me with more lifestyle freedom, and I genuinely look forward to my weekly adventures."

The median cost of renting an apartment in Manhattan was a record $4,241 in April, according to a report from Douglas Elliman, a brokerage, and Miller Samuel, an appraisal and consultant firm.

Her employer, Oglivy Health, requires interns to be in its New Jersey office usually one day a week. A job listing said a similar internship pays around $15 to $20 per hour. The firm didn't respond for comment.

Celentano wrote that her employer knows her situation and that it "was never an issue." (Another factor for doing all this might be the office's suburban location in Parsippany, New Jersey, which she said she didn't want to do - it can be a little dull for a young intern.)