The Cape would have less expensive options than Nantucket. Many of the restaurants arrange rooms for their summer staff. In recent years a large per centage of the summer workers have come from Eastern Europe.You would be expected to stay through Labor Day at most jobs.
Way back when we did this on the Cape during our college days, a group of friends would rent a cottage together. However, "cheap" and summer resort don't always go together.
If you get a job as a nanny, then you would live with the family I assume.Look at the Cape Cod Times advertisements for job leads.

Lodgings are not cheap in either place.

Yo are best off looking for a job as a nanny - i f you have a lot of babysitting experience - since it will give you free lodging. Hotels sometimes provide very basic lodging for summer workers (usually 2 to a room) - but agree they would expect you to work the whole summer.

Expect nanny salary to be very modest. Wait staff earn very little but tips. And there are a ton of foreign students looking for these jobs - and willing to take very low pay.

Generally you will earn more away from a resort community - as well as getting better credentials for your real career.

Lodging will be very expensive, there really are no apartments like there are in big cities. There will be a lot of people looking for jobs there. Working as a nanny would be a good bet because a lot of families might want to go for dinner or go to the beach and have a small kid that has to stay home. Waitress positions fill up very quickly. If you guys will have any free time then stay on the Cape and you can visit Nantucket for a day or two. Hope this helps.

They are actually two very different demographics. Nantucket in season is lifestyle of the rich and famous. Jobs are extremely competetive in both the restaurant industry and the nanny industry but you will be amongst the excellent when it comes to training in the service and hospitality industry. To summer on Nantucket as the help requires a great deal of homework. But I think it would/could be a much more rewarding experience.

I did summer two years in Woods Hole as a waitress many years ago and loved the experience and memories, but I was offered a room at a friends family home.

You might be able to wing it and find more options on the cape, but the people you meet on Nantucket and the training would trump that if you can secure employment and lodging before arriving.

Cape Cod and Nantucket are hard to compare - Cape Cod is a large part of Massachusetts, about 60 miles long, with over a dozen towns, hundreds of miles of beaches, hundreds of restaurants, stores, malls, etc,etc. Nantucket is a small island with a few small villages, very expensive and isolated.
It would be FAR easier to find work and lodging on the Cape, and there would be much more to see and do on the Cape. Do Nantucket as a day trip.

I can't speak for the Cape, other than I have friends who do very well at restaurants. I spent several seasons and off seasons in restaurants in Nanctucket - you'll want to start looking early.. March? Daffodil Festival in early April is the first big event. Even though some places aren't open, and prime season starts later, you'll be at an advantage if you can work the shoulder seasons ( April, and after Labor Day and/or Columbus if the place is open). Search the online classifieds. Housing isn't cheap, but you will be able to afford it. You can also get around Nantucket without a car.

I live in Nantucket, and you have gotten really good advice above.

If you want a good job and make a lot of money, you should plan to be working Memorial Day weekend and work through Columbus Day. Even better is if you can stay through Christmas Stroll, the first week in December.

This means you can't go back to college in August. The reason the East Europeans and the Jamaicans and increasingly the Salvadorans get good jobs is that they stay for the whole season. They also, well the Jamaicans and the Salvadorans, work really hard. Think of this as the equivalent of taking a semester in another country only you get paid instead of paying.

Everybody who needs to make money works two jobs, maybe one waiting tables and another in a retail shop and a lot of girls add babysitting when they can get it. It will cost you about $500 to get yourselves and a car here and back, and you will need to make a car reservation months in advance, before you have a job. What if you don't get the job? Hmmmm. But the buses run until Columbus Day, and you can bike pretty much anywhere.

Why do people do this? 1. You are never more than 2 miles from a beach anywhere you are likely to live. 2. There are a million other young people out here doing the same kinds of things you are doing. There is plenty of fun. 3. It is sort of fun to observe the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and we got 'em! 4. It is very beautiful.

If this sounds good, go for it!