I am guessing OP wants to take sky train/canada line to DT for school. Both richmond and surrey has sky trains stations.
But bus connection to those is very important. Some area may not have very frequent buses unless you are in walking distance to the train stations.
(Some areas right next to the stations aren't the best. You will need to see if yourself.)
As other have suggested, try to rent air B&B and look for rental after you arrived.
Cities like Burnaby, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, New Westminister are possible options. They all are reachable by sky trains.
There are also rapid buses going to DT as well.
