New York University | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

KaseyMarie

Class: Freshman
Major: Other
Gender: F

High School: Todd Beamer High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

The greatest thing about NYU is the location! Where else can I see Mario Bertolli walking up and down 5th Ave. in his orange crocs? Or see Robert DeNiro pushing his kids in a stroller? Everything is so convenient, and I feel like I am being a good person because I walk everywhere instead of driving. One thing I would change is the cost! It's mad expensive here- not just attending, but living in the city, period. It's the perfect size for me. I know it's really like, what, 40,000 students or something? But I don't see them all- I have some really big classes, and then I have recitations and classes with like, 15 people. It's nice. People's eyes get big when I tell them I go to NYU. They ask me if I go into the city all the time...and I say yes. Because the school is in the city. As a matter of fact, NYU IS THE CITY, pretty much. I spend most of my time either in Weinstein (the residence hall with 2 dining options) or in my dorm studying, or at Kimmel where all of the student activities stuff happens. This isn't a college town by traditional definition. To me, college towns mean that the entire city knows when there is a football game, and all the kids grow up knowing everything about the university and wanting to go there all of their lives. Here, NYU just owns most of the property in the city, so it takes up a lot of space, but there is no sports team that all the families rally around. We're not really known for our sports, but we do all right. Administration I am skeptical of, since some people are friendly but many are not. Also, they don't like it when you point out their mistakes- especially financial aid! The biggest recent controversy? Well, there was the time that the politics department caught all these students cheating on a midterm, resulting in the "destruction" of over 250 student's tests. I don't know if there were other controversies, though. Maybe. There isn't much NYU pride as a whole, but that is because most people are busy cheering for their own "schools" within NYU. The business school is the most fanatic, but that is because they are all competing for jobs and such.

Academic Life

Some of my professors know my name, but students have to be willing to go to their professors office hours if they really want that personal connection. My favorite class last semester was my Politics class, and this semester, it's a toss up between Black Urban Studies and Natural Science II: Brain and Behavior. My least favorite was Conversations of the West--it is a pretty boring class that I didn't learn much from. Most students study pretty hard here. Everyone I know studies pretty much every night, during the day, and at least 1 day on weekends. We also like to have fun, though. Even people with really rigorous classes like to have a break every once in a while, though. When midterms and finals roll around, we study like crazy. Once my roommate and I had a marathon study weekend where we took 15 minute breaks every 2 hours or so. It was ridiculous, but we work hard. Class participation is more common in the classes that people like the most, which are mostly the non-requirement classes. We always have intellectual conversations. Lots of people are passionate about some social issue or another, whether it be domestic or international. Students are competitive, but it is friendly competition. And it really isn't against one another, but against our grades from the previous semester--we are always trying to do better. Except, the Stern school students are really competitive--the business school is really hard to get into and even harder to get a job from, so the students are kind of cutthroat. The Politics department seems nice, but the Africana Studies department is a little disorganized. That's okay with me, though, because I know it's still a relatively new department. Education at NYU is geared mostly towards getting a job. I think I've learned a lot already, just for it's own sake, but people are aware that it "looks good" to come from a school like NYU, so they want to do all they can to get a good job and pay for all the debt they've generated taking out loans to pay for NYU.

Student Body

No one feels out of place at NYU. I mean, NO ONE. There is some sort of group or club or union for everyone. Literally. I have never seen a place where there is no outcasts because there are so many groups, there is no way a person could not find one that they didn't like. If they did, they could start a club of their own. And since frats and sororities aren't as popular as they are in other universities, there isn't pressure to go greek. Most students wear whatever, but generally, you can tell that the girls especially have a sort of "New York fashion flare" about them. The trends you see in magazines are the trends that a lot of the girls wear. Still, there are others that do their own thing. 4 tables of students: there would probably be the Stern table, and then three other tables with all kinds of people. Stern is kind of in its own world. Students are pretty politically active, and I would say the majority are either apathetic or left. Students speculate on what they will earn one day, but most students say that the Stern kids will earn the most, and the Tisch kids will be starving artists. It's not completely true, but we joke about that kind of stuff just because we know how intense the Sternies are.