<p>I don't do this very often, but here I go:
I decided to enroll in NYU CAS a couple of weeks ago for the opportunity to live and study in the city. To do this, I gave up Lehigh's College of Business and Economics, which would have guaranteed me a true college experience and a job directly out of college. I did this because I thought that a liberal arts education would make me a more well-rounded person and allow me to figure out what I really wanted out of life. I am now really second guessing my decision because I am worried that I am jumping into the real-world too quickly and I won't be able to maintain any meaningful relationships for any 4 years. To any current/past NYU students: is there any sense of community at NYU? (like through Frats/Goddard). I am extremely worried that I gave up the real college experience too soon. I would really appreciate any feedback.</p>
<p>I’m confused. What about NYU made you “jump into the real-world too quickly”? Also, I was unaware that Lehigh’s College of Business guaranteed a job out of college. In fact, I’m unaware of any college guaranteeing such…</p>
<p>I’m 99% sure that NYU is more well-known and well respected than Lehigh; so there’s no reason to worry about employment opportunities. </p>
<p>People at NYU have and maintain friends for all four years of their education… What would make you think otherwise?</p>
<p>You get the award for the weirdest post. </p>
<p>Who is to say NYU isn’t a “true college experience?” Just because it doesn’t have grassy knolls and bricked walkways? </p>
<p>Friends/community: I strongly believe that if you can make friends in one place, you can make friends ANYWHERE you go. In other words, there will be a sense of community for you at NYU, if there was at Lehigh. You may not be smoking weed out on the grass at a traditional college campus, but you might have long talks at coffee shops, catch a basketball game at Madison Square Garden, or find cool things to do in midtown. Friendships will be there if you make an effort. That goes for anywhere. </p>
<p>Jobs: No school can guarantee a job straight out of college unless you have it in writing from the company and school and a really great lawyer. And I’ve never heard of that happening. I don’t know where you got that notion. It’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>definitely not a “weird” post by any means… I’m having similar doubts about NYU and giving up the traditional college atmosphere, which, by all means, is more tight-knit and conducive to long-lasting relationships. I find it ridiculous that anyone would contest NYU’s nontraditional setting/mood, especially when the school actually prides itself on this fact. no argument on NYU’s name brand and academic superiority to Lehigh, though.</p>
<p>Wow, just because NYU is located in a big urban city and not a traditional college campus does not mean it’s not tight-knit and conducive to long-lasting relationships. I hope you’re not a philosophy major because you have terrible logic.</p>
<p>A majority of NYU students ARE NOT from New York City, which means you’ll all be lost in the big pond together, which means you’ll meet people like yourself, make friends, and live happily ever after.</p>
<p>Wow, there’s no need to be so harsh. It’s a valid worry for incoming students especially at NYU where you read about students constantly complaining about lack of community, coldness of the school, having no friends, and wanting to transfer out within the first several months. Everybody is always quick to point out how NYU is so vastly different from other colleges that it can seem daunting to those of us who haven’t experienced it yet. So some should try to understand where the question is coming from.</p>
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<p>Guess what, those people wouldn’t have friends anywhere. It’s not where you are, it’s what you make of it. As for wanting to transfer out, that happens at every school. It’s common for kids to second guess their choice and miss home. The grass is always greener on the other side. But to say NYU is cold and you’ll have no friends is libelous. You’ll have roommates whom you’ll befriend, and from there the possibilities are endless. Also, New York City is constantly rated as one of the best cities in the world for young adults and singles. So NYU boasts a combination of academia and young adult life. If you ask me you couldn’t ask for a better environment.</p>
<p>As for the negative complaints you read on the internet, be wary. The people you read about and who constantly complain are the only people who voice their opinion. They represent a minority. People who are having a blast and have nothing to complain about don’t post on these websites, lol.</p>
<p>I’m on Gabbit’s side – Just because NYU is urban doesn’t mean that you’re not going to make lasting friendships and whatnot. The location of school does not share any sort of causal relationship with the length and closeness of relationships between persons. </p>
<p>NYU also has a very retention rate – up there with the nation’s other top schools. It’s not as though more people are transferring out of NYU than anywhere else. If NYU were to have better financial aid, they would lose even fewer students due to financial reasons. Judging by that, most people who attend NYU do, in fact, stay at NYU.</p>
<p>agree with grabbit… what i found interesting about NYU, though, was that a lot of students on several websites bashed on NYU, but when i talked face-to-face with some NYU students, they say that they absolutely love it there. hahaha.</p>
<p>I agree with the majority of this thread. NYU is what you make of it. NYU will not hold your hand. You can easily slip through the cracks.<br>
But if you are here for an education, the opportunities (I know this is cliche) are endless. However, it is up to YOU to find them and YOU to pursue them Nothing is handed to you here. </p>
<p>But what better way to get acquainted with the real world than this? But you have support here and there’s always someone to turn to for help! If you come into NYU with a negative outlook already imprinted into your mind, you will find ways to hate NYU. But if you come here ready for an opportunity that so many people wish they had, you will not be disappointed at all!</p>
<p>Don’t be second-guessing yourself already! There are about 25,000 people who got rejected who would probably be very content to be in your position! Look forward to your next 4 years in NY (what the hell would you have done in Bethlehem, PN?)! </p>
<p>Btw, the resources are here to help you through your freshman year, too. If you are in CAS, you will participate in the CCP and will have a community of 36 Freshman and a upperclass(wo)man College Leader that you will be a part of for the first year and onward. Now, if that’s not community, I don’t know what is. </p>
<p>Good luck!! :)</p>
<p>Chaldo I agree!</p>
<p>My second D just completed her freshman year at NYU. Her older sister graduated NYU in 2012. Having had 2 NYU students going 5 consecutive years to NYU, I can absolutely attest to the fact that community and friendship is alive and well at NYU.</p>
<p>My oldest D graduated as a vocal performance major and she had an incredibly tight community as a result of the small program she was in. A year out of NYU and she is close friends with many NYU alumni who live in the city. They include two girls from her freshman dorm, about 15 to 20 people or so from her vocal performance and music classes and a network of friends from Steinhardt scholars and other assorted classes she took over the years. These are the people that she actively has plans with. If you just count the network of people she knows and runs into thorugh NYU, it is a much longer list.</p>
<p>My younger D is a studio art major. Although the art majors seem like a less cohesive group socially than the music students, she has made several good friends in her program. But mostly she had an incredible social experience in an Explorations Floor at 3rd north. There were about 30 or so students in her theatre related program and they all became very close. It was a very college-y experience with open doors on her dorm floor and always people to hang out with. She will be dorming with three other girls from her floor and many students from her floor will be in her dorm again as a Sophomore. Additionally she went to Cuba with the Steinhardt Scholars program and on that trip the “Scholars” became very close and she now considers many of those students as friends.</p>
<p>Like everyone has basically said, whether you are surrounded by grass and football fields or buildings and all that a city offers, you make of a social situation what you put into it. And while NYU may not offer a typical college experience, it will be YOUR college experience when you attend, and it doesn’t need to be measured up or compared to any thing else.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>zackattack341 - I’m sorry that you’ve received negative responses and attacks simply for asking a question. You have every right to ask about anything you feel uncertain, confused, or worried about, so please ignore the people who are labeling your question as “weird,” and don’t feel bad about asking whatever questions you want to ask. Furthermore, questions about NYU’s community, or alleged lack thereof, are common on this board, as NYU is obviously unique from most other colleges and universities because of its location and lack of campus, so you aren’t alone in wondering about what student life is really like at NYU.</p>
<p>First and foremost, NYU is a huge school and students have vastly different experiences here. Some people instantly find a tight-knit group of friends and others graduate never having found a core group of friends. Any large university can attest to this diversity in student experience. With 20,000 undergraduate students, there’s no “typical” experience; college life really is what you make of it, no matter where you go.</p>
<p>However, that being said, I think it needs to be acknowledged that the lack of a campus does make NYU student life atypical. There are no universally unifying events, such as football games or spring festivals/concerts, and NYU doesn’t have many “traditions” that other universities do (e.g. UPenn and their toast throwing, Duke and their bench burning, etc.). In that way, I personally feel that you’re justified in asserting that NYU doesn’t provide the “traditional” college experience. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, you have the city to explore, the best access to jobs/internships of any other university in the country, and more study abroad opportunities than probably any other school. So in some ways, by giving up the “traditional” or the “usual,” you gain access to an experience that will define you, broaden your perspectives, and educate you in ways that other schools could never provide. You’re right, NYU is like being in the “real world” because you’ll be thrust into a university of highly ambitious students living in the city with arguably the most amount of career, social, and cultural opportunities in the world. So don’t worry - once you figure out what you want to do, you’ll be more than well-equipped with the maturity, education, and experience to succeed in that field. Students at other universities can’t compete with what NYU and the city can offer you.</p>
<p>Lastly, I do recommend Greek life and clubs if you’re worried about finding community. From what I’ve personally seen, students in Tisch and Stern complain less about community because their schools offer communities in and of themselves, whereas CAS tends to be more isolated because the students aren’t really unified in what they’re studying. Stern has close student cohorts, Tisch has small studio classes that put students together for hours each day, but CAS doesn’t have anything similar and you might find yourself in large MAP lectures your freshmen year with no one to talk to. Plus, if your dorm has antisocial people, you might not be able to make friends there either if everyone’s doors are shut all the time. NYU dorms tend to be more like apartments than dorms in that you often don’t know your neighbors. It happens to plenty of people, but that’s what clubs and Greek life are for. I personally like Greek life because it doesn’t center around one hobby/interest/experience like clubs do, so you tend to make a more diverse group of friends than if you joined, say, College Dems, where many people are likely to be the same major and have similar worldviews. Greek life, on the other hand, lets you make friends with people across all schools, majors, and ages. There’s also more opportunity for socializing in Greek life because there are events on the calendar (both inter-Greek and fraternity/sorority specific) pretty much every day of the year, and you can choose to go to however many or however few of them you want, whereas some clubs only meet once a week or less. Moreover I feel that Greek bonds are usually closer than those of other clubs, as I’m in both Greek life and three other clubs, but that’s just my experience.</p>
<p>As for Goddard, I don’t recommend it. Goddard and Broome are supposed to foster community, but I know many people who feel that they’re actually very cliquey. They say that there’s usually a core group of people who participate in all the residential college activities and that everyone else kind of gets pushed to the side. Plus clubs and Greek life are optional; you can leave whenever you want. In Goddard (from what I’ve heard) you’re just stuck there surrounded by cliquey people.</p>
<p>Anyway, I wasn’t in Goddard, so I can’t offer my own experience, but I was in Broome for two years (the upperclass equivalent of Goddard) and literally less than ten people regularly participate in Broome events. There are so few people showing up that events are cancelled more often than not. Four people out of like 30 showed up to our one and only floor meeting. So the whole “residential college” thing doesn’t really work, and if Goddard is in any way similar to Broome, it definitely doesn’t foster community any more than other dorms do.</p>