Apartment rental in nyc?

Me and another family member are looking into renting an apartment near midtown for grad school/college, etc. All the listings that I went through say the rent is about $4000. When you're looking at listings like these, does it typically mean $4000/month or $4000/year. I always assumed that it was whatever the amount per year and then you paid it off in monthly increments.. so it would be $333.33 per month... but I'm looking at places in NYC- is it really that cheap??