<p>Hi guys! So next summer I'm planning a college visit trip. I'm planning to go to NYC for college, and several people have told me to see nyu. My mom, on the other hand, has heard that unless you have loads of money (or at least pretend to) or party hardcore all the time then you are "the loneliest person" there. Because of one horror story she heard, she is completely convinced that I would be unhappy there. Could someone (possibly a current student) give me an opinion? And something to tell my mom? Thanks.</p>
<p>Your mother has been highly misinformed.</p>
<p>Most NYU students are not “rich” or “wealthy”. Most NYU students are just like most other college students in terms of socioeconomic standing.</p>
<p>Party hardcore? None of my friends “party hardcore”. In fact, because NYU is not a sport school, in my experience, there is less hardcore partying at NYU than most private and state colleges. In my time at NYU, I have not seen a single dorm party. And I don’t know of frat parties either (because they’re in the dorms and you can’t have parties in dorms). I’d say there’s less partying at NYU than a lot of other schools.</p>
<p>NYU is a large school, there are plenty of people here. Which means you have plenty of people to make friends with! Because it’s such a large school and attracts a particular type of student (independent, intelligent, academic, preprofessional young people), it’s highly likely that you will find quite a few other people who are very similar to yourself. </p>
<p>I would tell your mother not to worry and that NYU is not like she has imagined it. It’s a great school and personally, I like it a lot more than most other universities.</p>
<p>That’s funny, we all live in tiny apartments so we hardly have any room to party. Don’t get me wrong, there ARE parties at NYU but chances are you’ll get invited because it’s a party your friends have decided to have not because there is necessarily a party “scene” here. </p>
<p>Unless you’re into the clubbing scene, nights here are generally pretty quiet (besides the noise from outside, of course). Personally, when I’m not studying, I like to go out to dinner or watch movies with friends. 
But you can be whatever you want to be at NYU and do whatever you want to, you really can’t pigeonhole our student-body into one thing, especially not the partying types.</p>
<p>Nearly all of the “parties” in the dorms are a group of friends just drinking together. It isn’t hardcore or state school-like.</p>
<p>You will find friends that have the same interests as you and are in the socioeconomic bracket as you. (I can easily see my family living in the same neighborhood as most of my friends – except the one from Kansas.) There will be those who have no limits on their parent’s credit card, and then there will be those who make it by on $20 a week. There’s 20,000 students in between. You’ll find your match.</p>
<p>To say that you need loads of money to have friends at NYU is just silly and one-sided.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses! I appreciate it. If I were to go off just your responses, it sounds like a perfect match for me! Except perhaps size…but I’m not entirely sure what I want yet. But thank you, I now have some answers!</p>
<p>NYU is huge a school and I don’t know most people I see every day, but the ones that I do socially cross paths with have some crazy/weird connection back to someone I know. To find out, one of my good friends went to high school with one of the people on my floor, who is best friends with another friend in my politics course.</p>
<p>It is the weird little ties that make the 20,000 number feel like 200. Don’t be turned off by the size.</p>
<p>The beauty of it is that you can make your own experience exactly what you want it to be. It’s that simple.</p>
<p>I didn’t party once my frosh year. Not once. There are dorm parties, but it’s hard to get away with because the RAs are everywhere, a lot of buildings have FFiRs scattered through them, and the walls are too thin. There are frat parties. We have penthouses in Laf that everyone in Greeklife gets to go through a lottery for each year, and some fraternities host parties there.</p>
<p>Most of the time Greeklife is just a conduit into exploring the nightlife. Pike has a couple kids who are promoters who host stuff virtually every weekend at different venues across the city. There are mixers every now and then, but some fraternities don’t like the sororities and vice versa.</p>
<p>You’d also be surprised at how wild it can get though. I’m laughing at a lot of the people who say NYU doesn’t party hard. It’s simply a different ‘hard’ than state schools. You won’t find tailgates or dorm parties or a rager at an actual house on fraternity row … but some nights are absolutely ridiculous. See this (<a href=“- YouTube):%5B/url%5D”>- YouTube):</a> I know literally half the kids in this. The funny part, it wasn’t even the best parties that weekend because they didn’t let Shmacked come into the Saturday or Monday night parties because they didn’t want it on film.</p>
<p>There will be some incredibly wealthy kids. There are also a ton of incredibly modest means as well. If you’re uncomfortable around people who brag about or flaunt their money, don’t associate with them. If you don’t like poor people, don’t hang out with them either. You can literally do whatever you want. If you want to closet yourself inside and never be anywhere except your classrooms, bedroom, Bobst, and Starbucks … you can do that. If you want to be a fratstar (you came to the wrong school), you can rage nightly. If you want to take only 3 classes a semester so you have tons of free time to see absolutely everything in the city you want to, you can. I know people who are literally each of those, and they’re all happy.</p>