<p>I laugh reading these posts because I was the exact same way going into college: "NYU is awesome, I don't care how much it costs, the city is so worth it, great cultural experience, with 8 million people in NYC there's always someone to talk to, blah blah blah", but everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt, the bad AND the good...</p>
<p>I'm not saying these things aren't true and that you can't have a fantastic time at NYU, but it really all is relative to your personal situation, especially finances and financial aid:</p>
<p>(I'm a Steinhardt Chlidhood/Special Ed Junior)</p>
<p>Living costs & dorming: I applied RD, so my "preference" list of dorms was basically read upside down. I chose 3rd North 5th of 6, and that's where I got placed, but I also met people who put it 1st or 2nd and got it. It's really a crapshoot. I say this because, as mattistotle said, Freshman year is when everyone makes a lot of their friends. (No, not all your friends are from Freshman year, and yes, of course you meet different people here and there, but going into college, those first people you meet are a pretty strong influence.) Living in the apartment style dorms was impactful because it is a totally different experience from the "traditional" ones like Rubin, Hayden, Weinstein, and Brittany. In Third North, the main apartment door is metal, so you can't prop it open to welcome people to pop in on you as the typical college student would in a "traditional" dorm. It sounds ridiculous, but it's kind of alienating, in a way. Also, when you live with four other people and you have a living room, you find less use of lounges and common areas around the building, eliminating another way people typically make friends at college. I'm not saying you're going to be holed up in your room for 3 months, but the social scene requires much more effort than what I've witnessed visiting my friends at schools like TCNJ, with a more "campusy/community" feel. Some people try to choose dorms based on prices, but you really don't have much of a choice unless you go low-cost, Explorations, or are ED.</p>
<p>Commuting is the next thing I can speak to because after my Freshman year, I moved back home to North Jersey (45minute-ish bus/subway commute). I moved home not for financial reasons, but because I just did not really enjoy living on campus, and I felt that it wasn't worth the 5 figures to live in an NYU dorm with the silly visitor policies and still have to take a 15-20 minute commute to campus if I lived somewhere like Water or 26th Street. However, getting involved with Commuter Events on campus, I met many people who don't live on campus because it is simply not in their budget. The problem is, with everyone's crazy schedules, it is difficult for organizations like the Commuter Circle to plan events around every single student's individual time availabilities (They have a commuter escape on Thursday nights from 5-7, and I have class until 8pm). Therefore, commuting makes it infinitely harder to make friends and socially connect with people, and those who commute often do it because of money. Yea, you will have a better experience living on campus, most likely, but is it worth the $45k-ish you'll be taking out in loans? Most people don't think so.</p>
<p>Employment: Everyone that is considering their work study balance into their financial aid, please realize that that money only refers to the maximum amount of money you are offered to get a work study job over the semester (I met a girl Freshman year who SWORE hers was "already taken off my tuition bill"). I have never met someone who used all of his/her work study money because most jobs that use work study don't pay anything spectacular ($7-$10/hr, usually), so unless you work your ass off, you will probably use about half of it. Employment has a HUGE, probably the biggest impact, on your level of happiness at NYU. If you can afford to not work, and your parents will be refilling your debit card, sending you money, or paying your credit card bill without question (not calling to ask why you have $150 charge from Josie Woods' on a Tuesday night), then you will probably have a fantastic time. However, one of my suitemates Freshman year was taking out lots of loans to go to NYU, and her sister was a Senior at Yale. Needless to say, her parents were not hooking her up with any serious cash. She worked two jobs, approximately full-time, and lived on the tightest budget possible (her jobs paid for food and other living expenses since our dining hall was a joke; she rarely went to the movies, never went out drinking or anything). She wasn't miserable, by some miracle, and made friends & had fun, but the point is, when you have to work and schedule classes, work, homework, studying, and food shopping, you are burnt out, tired, and will question putting in the effort it requires @ NYU to make friends.</p>
<p>Also, about work study, realize that with increasing class-sizes comes cuts, which happened to me this year. My parents didn't have any startling jump in their income, but for some reason, I lost my work study and my America Reads job I had for the past two years. I've been looking for various other jobs, but given my crazy schedule, it's been tricky. But I'll get more into that in...</p>
<p>Academic demand: No one on this board, especially Freshmen, should be discounting anything Mattistotle has to say until they are in their Junior year at NYU and know how tough it is. I am a Junior, and this past semester was the hardest, but most rewarding and educational one so far. This is because Freshmen and Sophomore year you usually take the MAP classes and most of your requirements, similar to some courses you may have already taken in high school (My entire ConWest final Freshman year was on Crime & Punishment, which I read Junior year of HS), and if you put in the required effort, you will usually fare fine. As an Education major, I took a few ed classes up to this point, but this year is when everything major kicks in. We student teach 10 hours a week, a full school day & a half day (for 2 credits), and are still taking 16 credits in addition to those 2. We have a full course load, with classes going from 3:30-7 and 3:30-8 on Tuesdays & Thursdays in addition to a Liberal Arts concentration. Therefore, I can't get a tutoring/nanny/babysitting job because I'm not available everyday after school. Also, if I get a waitress/bartender job, I'm not going to work the night before I get up at 5:45 in the morning to go to student teaching, so my only option is to work after I've been in class from 11-8 (with a few 15 minute breaks between classes). Piling on the hours of reading & work each week, you can see where the social life just doesn't seem as fun as sleeping occassionally. The same time problems apply to any major though, because all these "hookups" and internships you speak of usually take up a ridiculous amount of time with little credit compensation, causing you to have to take more classes and have a ton more work to do on top of that.</p>
<p>The academic demand serves as a catalyst to essentially intensify multiple negative aspects about NYU that, as high school seniors, you are overlooking & saying, "Oh no, that's not me!": Roommates who get up early or come home late, people who leave dishes and don't clean up after themselves, having to physically walk the 20 minutes (or to the subway & then ride to class) to get to class, waiting for the unreliable NYU buses, the crappy dining hall food.</p>
<p>Being so busy makes you question, "Why did I take out all these loans when all I'm getting is a ridiculous amount of work from a teacher who will never know my name since I sit in the back of a 320 person lecture hall once a week for three hours, then I get to come home to my apartment, that despite how much I scrub it, the floors will never be 'clean', and if I'm not ambitious enough to cook, I get to go downstairs to a dining hall that, towards the end of the semester, resembles Cold War Russia?"</p>
<p>Sure, I sound cynical, but when I was applying to schools, I came on these boards and a girl told me, "If you're not an independent, very ambitious person, willing to cut through all the red tape @ NYU and lose a lot of sleep in the process, you're better off somewhere else." She was spot on, and I strongly encourage you to take her advice and look at yourself honestly.</p>
<p>So this is an insanely long post, but I just thought of another thing that I myself overlooked because I had that HS senior mentality that I was going to go to "the best college ever": transfers. Junior year is usually when people transfer from schools, especially community colleges, so this year I've met plenty of transfer students. Some went to state schools, others went to community colleges, and some even got into NYU but opted to save money & not go. Depending on your options, don't cross out the possibility of transferring. I mean, it isn't something to base your decision on, but it's something to consider, given that some schools have partnerships and scholarships with NYU (Bergen Community College in NJ has a transfer program to Steinhardt for Early Childhood/Special Ed majors as long as you complete 2 years there with a certain GPA). Just a thought.</p>