Need HELP - visiting NYU

Parents Forum
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<p>Hello, my name is Lisa and I'm a CC addict. </p>

<p>That being said, I'm looking for help in planning a NYU visit with my son. He's convinced that this is the school for him based only on the fact that he can intern in The Big Apple. However, I have several concerns and want him to really look at the whole picture of attending school in the big city (prior to this, his whole focus was good finance program, frats, sports, and a "college" life - other than the finance part it sure does not sound like NYU to me). </p>

<p>We fly into LaGuardia at 10:30am and fly out at 8:30pm the next day. I hear that the NYU tour is not that good...? I am looking for suggestions to fill up the rest of the time that will give him a true sense of NYC. Also, hotel, budget, and transportation information would be a huge help (I lived in Chicago, so am not adverse to the subway - S has grown up in the cornfields - might be a bit of a shock). Don't know a darn thing about the geography of NYC, so please give details : )</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any help or advice!</p>

<p>Lisa</p>

2

<p>Look at Fordham also while you're in NYC. There are 2 campuses, one near Lincoln Center in Manhattan and one in the Bronx. And depending on what he wants to major and his grades and SATs there are many colleges just outside Manhattan which will have connections to internships in NYC</p>

<p>Get one of those guide books for tourists with the subway and street maps.</p>

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<p>We thought the NYU tour was the best we've ever had. Also went in for specific program information sessions & those were great. </p>

<p>NYU has a very tiny frat presence & sports are never going to be the big- stadium-campus-culture-weekend-event. While the campus is really concentrated around Washington Square Park, it's almost an anti-campus. (The Park is undergoing major renovation right now, so you won't get a real feel for how the Park almost functions as the university quad.) The info sessions always stress that the city is your campus. It's a huge school, yet the city completely absorbs all those students. Quite unique, and not for everyone. The school is also very accessible by subway. I would recommend following links from the NYU website. Your son should definitely use the subway a bit on the visit, even if it's just to go uptown & see Times square or Central Park or some museums. NYU is in the village, so you will be able to explore on foot and see the wide variety of clubs, music venues, shops, and quirky characters. Maybe the school has a show or concert running? NYU has terrific performing arts programs & there is hardly a time when something he'd like to see isn't in production. An NYU student will be on the subway constantly, so he should experience that; it would be culture shick for a cornfield kid to have to navigate the system cold.) I can't help with hotels & transportation details, but you could just view some NYC tourist websites to see what interests you in the short time you have. </p>

<p>Maybe this is packing too much in, but has son considered Pace? It's down by City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge. A great business program, and they offer half off the tuition for very reasonable SAT scores (1240 I think? Something in that range.) They actually have more internships & co-op connections than NYU. Partucularly in the finance world. Wall Street loves Pace students.</p>

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<p>I definitely agree with previous poster who said your DS should check out Fordham University also, just makes sense to look into both schools while there. They've just moved up to #27 in Business school in Business week 2008 rankings, also. Agree with other previous poster that you should check out travel websites for travel info. Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend one on here, but you can email me. I'd say stay in Midtown take the subway. We found it very easy to get around.</p>

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<p>Jeepers! Don't stay in midtown if you're looking at NYU! The Village is one of the coolest places on Earth, and there are tons of places to stay. (When I visited with my daughter a few years ago, we got a semi-crummy room at a largish B&B, plus parking (!), for $125/night, on the NYU campus, sorta.) Granted, it's not a traditional campus, but standing in front of the main administration building at NYU is like standing at the absolute center of Cool. It made my heart race.</p>

<p>The tour we took was quite good. The library is really stunning. That tour also included one of the funniest moments from my college-touring career. We were all marched into a dorm to view a sample dorm room, which was unoccupied but furnished as if people lived there. After about 30 seconds, I, and almost every other parent, started wrinkling our noses. That room had an instantly-recognizable odor that can be described as "baked-in". People started to giggle a bit. Someone asked about drug use, and the student guide earnestly explained that it was a large university and there were all sorts of people . . . It was a little like hearing an abstinence pep talk standing in the middle of a Condom Nation.</p>

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<p>I agree that it would be much more fun to stay in the Village. This contact is a bit old, but it doesn't hurt to try it. My friend's parents stayed there when they were visiting her in NYC. It's a brownstone located on a beautiful street right near NYU. It's called A Village House, and the proprietor's phone number is 212-529-2396. There is no elevator, so you'd have to be comfortable carrying your luggage up the stairs (or having your prospective NYU'er do it!). The cost was reasonable and the location can't be beat for visiting NYU. You can also easily take the subway up to Fordham and Columbia, or downtown to Pace.</p>

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<p>I have a D at Barnard and very close friend is at NYU. The young women meet up quite frequently, except this semester because one is in London and the other, Madrid.</p>

<p>From D's experience NYU students rarely venture uptown. She has to go downtown to see friend.</p>

<p>I would show S Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, South Street Seaport, the Lower East Side and Union Square. These are all in easy reach of NYU, which is also downtown. Its "quad" is Washington Square Park where they're playing chess in Searching for Bobby Fischer if you S has seen that.</p>

<p>It's not hard to learn NYC geography. NYC is a grid with mainly numbered streets, (except in parts of the Village and downtown area.) Manhattan Island narrows quite a bit at the lower end where NYU is and it makes the east and west sides closer together than uptown. </p>

<p>I suggest these neighborhoods because NYU dorms for upperclassmen are really quite spread out.</p>

<p>If you have time a trip to Central Park (uptown) gives a very different impression of the city.</p>

<p>Of course, there are all the touristy things, too many to name.</p>

<p>Union Square, fairly near NYU, has Max Brenner's the biggest chocolate restaurant in NYC. Has good too, not wildly expensive. My college age kids love it. D discovered it.</p>

<p>To learn NYC geography google NYC neighborhoods. It's really easy to get the lay of the land. Subway maps are invaluable, too, but the Village is not a huge place.</p>

<p>Good luck and have fun!</p>

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<p>I am a HSS who applied to NYU, and I went for a visit in Fall 07. As previous posters have said, it is NOT your typical college campus. However, when I visited I still got the feeling that I was on a campus. Students bustling to classes, studying on benches in Washington Square Park, etc. As far as the "college life" part - my best friend who goes to NYU says there aren't as many parties as she had hoped for, but this is supplimented by the fact that she goes out on the town every weekend. There's a million things to do, whereas at other colleges all there is to do is drink. The tour was ok, not as much as I had expected, but still gave me a feel of whether or not this place was a fit for me. For getting around and subway stuff, this will come with time - it's actually pretty easy.</p>

<p>Basically, it all comes down to whether or not you want the "typical" college thing. NYU students are basically city people that attend classes. They aren't your average college students.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

9

<p>Rutgers is a 45 (c.$11) minute train ride from Manhattan. It has it all.</p>

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<p>I would highly recommend staying at the Washington Square Hotel - it's situated right at the park, and it is right "on campus". Their rates are fairly reasonable, and the room also comes with a very nice continental breakfast. Please feel free to PM me, as I have/had two students at NYU - one graduated, and the other one is a current student, so if I can answer any specific question you may have regarding the school,nyc, etc., I would certainly be able to try to help. Also, even though nyu is a large school, both kids have found that their individual schools/programs within nyu are actually not that large, and they've both been able to receive a lot of personal attention.</p>

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<p>We just took the NYU tour a couple of weeks ago. Apart from the way too long admissions talk at the beginning of the tour (about an hour, it was probably great for the visiting HS jrs but for my HS Sr D who was there for an audition it was all moot as her app was in) the tour was really fantastic. Loved the coupon for 10% off any NYU apparel at the end of the tour. I felt that even though NYU does not have the traditional "campus" there was a real campus feel (despite NYC was in the middle of a wicked snow storm), Washington Square Park had at least 20 snowmen in it that day (so cute) and the library is stunning as someone else had said. I would have liked to see the Tisch building indoors but other than that I felt the tour was really good and the guides were very friendly. They found an empty classroom and took us all in for a q and a session where the kids asked a lot of great questions about GSP and various other things. NYU got a huge thumbs up from us that day. Now for that pesky admission thing to get over with!!!</p>