The pragmatic Zurich answer. An S-Bahn hub, the 80 bus straight up to Hönggerberg, and rents a couple of hundred francs below the centre. Not beautiful, but you will spend your time on campus anyway.
Landlords in Oerlikon ask for the same file as anywhere in the canton: a debt-collection extract, proof of income, and a guarantor who lives in Switzerland. Two of those are impossible before you arrive, which is why flatshares and private landlords are the realistic route from abroad.
Your deposit is capped at three months of net rent — up to CHF 3'900 at the top of the range here — and it is blocked in your own name, not the landlord's. How the deposit works
We co-sign leases so the file gets accepted, and we search the market when our own rooms are full.