<p>Hey, just wanted to know if you guys had any tips for students that are going to be living in New York City.</p>
<p>You’re probably going to get few responses, since that’s an incredibly broad (though very legitimate) question/prompt. If you could be a little more specific about your actual concerns, and maybe ask some specific questions about city life, that would probably help your case. Of course, it’s always difficult to ask questions when you have little background info, so I’ll try to give you some really basic info on New York City. Hopefully, this will prompt questions in your mind.</p>
<p>New York City is a city of some 8 million people, comprised of 5 boroughs: the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. Manhattan is a small island off the coast of New York City and is what most people consider “New York City”: skyscrapers, Central Park, Times Square, all that. Columbia is located north (or “uptown,” which is technically northeast) of Central Park in a fairly quiet and residential neighborhood called Morningside Heights. NYU is located far downtown, in the much more vibrant neighborhood of Greenwich Village. </p>
<p>To get around the city, especially in Manhattan, no one drives. Everyone walks, takes public transportation (buses and subways), or takes (expensive) taxis. You use buses and subways by swiping a Metrocard, which must be purchased in advance. Each bus or subway ride is $2.25, though it will probably go up to $2.50 soon. But if you ride a bus within 2 hours of riding the subway (or vice-versa), it’s free. Columbia is on the west side of Manhattan, and the closest subway stop (right outside the main gates) is the 116th street stop of the 1 subway, which travels along Broadway. It’s usually extremely easy to navigate Manhattan, because the streets are organized in a simple grid pattern. The main exception is downtown (near NYU), which is a mess of oddly angled streets.</p>
<p>It’s pretty easy to get food in the city. Columbia has a main cafeteria (John Jay) that’s open Sun-Thurs at lunch and dinner, a smaller dining hall (Ferris) that’s open Mon-Sat from 8:30 am to 8 pm. But there are also tons of restaurants right off campus, from chains like Chipotle to indie restaurants like Community Food and Juice to food trucks and halal carts. There are even some 24-hour delis like HamDel and CrackDel so you can eat at any hour of the day. Of course, there are restaurants of all sorts with all types of food throughout the rest of the city as well. </p>
<p>There’s not a ton of nightlife in Morningside Heights, except for a few bars like Mel’s and 1020. Fraternities sometimes throw parties too and of course you can always have little dorm parties, but if you want serious nightlife, you should head downtown.</p>
<p>Housing in the city is very expensive and hard to get, so it’s probably best to stick with Columbia housing (assuming you’re a Columbia undergrad student). It’s also expensive, but Columbia will take care of you (and pay for your utilities), and upperclassmen can get some seriously nice housing.</p>
<p>That should be enough to get you started. Please, ask us any questions you have!</p>