<p>so I'm thinking about applying to NYU for the fall of 2008, but I'm not so sure whether I would want to live in the city. Could someone who goes/went to NYU give me an idea of what it is like to live on a campus that is in such a large city? How does this affect the college experience?</p>
<h1>1 VISIT</h1>
<h1>2 People really do not realize that you're not in the stereotypical NYC environment. sure its big, but the village is really another town. you're no where near central park or times square, but skyscrapers are available if you really wanna strain your neck</h1>
<h1>3 college experience: lack of community glaring at your face. little communities are available; you just have to look for them. every experience is different and varies on which school you go to. you may have core classes with 400 people in them, or acting studio from 9am-6pm.</h1>
<p>same goes with housing. a few dorms have a strong community setting why others you barely know anyone.</p>
<p>Search through some of the old threads.</p>
<p>yeah i am hoping to visit sometime</p>
<p>Even so...visiting is a lot different than living here. I visited and my experience is ten times different than I thought it would be.</p>
<p>You aren't prepared for it.</p>
<p>I think that HueyFreeman means is that if you don't know if you want to live in the city, you probably don't. even kids who think they would love it turn out not being able to manage it.</p>
<p>Yes. That is what I meant. Seriously, if you don't know you want to live in the city, you don't want to live in the city. Most people really can't handle the day in, day out city lifestyle.</p>
<p>Even visiting the campus won't prepare you because they literally take you from inside one building, you walk down a street, and then walk into another building and so on. If you're going to visit the campus, walk around on your own, get a feel for the area; don't just visit time square and take the subway to the NYU tour, and go home... you really need to spend at least a day of walking around and getting lost to even get a little bit of the feel of going to school here.</p>
<p>Actually, I kind of disagree. I did NOT come to NYU with any sort of starryeyed "ooh, NYC" attitude, and I still don't really feel that way. In some ways, I feel like that made it easier for me to enjoy the city vs the kids who came here because they fell in love with the NYC on tv, since most of them ended up disillusioned and bitter. </p>
<p>Anyway, to answer your actual question... I come from suburban Ohio, and I didn't find it difficult to adjust to living in NY. It's hard for me to really compare to a 'typical' college experience since I didn't go to any other school, but I'll try to run down the +/-'s by contrasting it with my sister's experiences at Dartmouth.</p>
<ul>
<li>can get places by foot, don't need a car</li>
<li>much higher density of interesting places & events nearby</li>
<li>more variety and better quality in terms of restaurants (we don't even have Korean/Afghan/Ethiopian/etc at home!) </li>
<li>frat parties are not the only social activities (my sister's orientation leader actually took her group to play beer pong in a frat house basement because it was "the only thing we do here")</li>
<li>better transportation (around the city and to places like Boston, DC, home)</li>
<li>not quite as much school pride</li>
<li>social scene less tightknit</li>
<li>no one cares about sports (if you're a sports fan)</li>
<li>lack of 'nature' (unless you go up to Central Park, but that doesn't count)</li>
<li>smokers! (actually, I don't know if this is better or worse than a 'normal' college, but goddammit, I hate the winter when all the smokers are standing in front of the library and I have a cold, so the smoke makes me hack for 30 min)</li>
</ul>
<p>The people who come with an ooh, NYC attitude are the ones most likely to not adjust. However, most of those people are people who have never spent a large amount of time in New York (or any) just like the original poster.</p>
<p>Its not for you. I promise.</p>
<p>ok well thanks for the advice. I probably couldn't handle four years at NYU, even though I do really like NYC. I will still consider it and will probably still apply, but it sounds like if I went there I might be shocked, which is what I have been hearing from everyone.</p>
<p>Noooo, don't listen to these people - all they're doing is looking at your doubts about the city and making the assumption that it means you don't really want to come to NYU.</p>
<p>The truth is, I've known people from -Alaska- who've come to NYU and absolutely loved it. If you're mature enough to take care of yourself, you're more than capable of adjusting to the city. The question is if you really want to, but that's something I can't help you with.</p>