New York University - Local Atmosphere

College Prowler Take

Any NYU student will tell you that if you want a traditional college campus, then NYU is not the school for you. The campus is part of the city—it is spread out around Washington Square Park with dorms all over NYC. The city atmosphere is fast paced and hectic, and if you get too caught up in it, your grades could be affected. This is not to say that it is impossible to go to school here—you just need to find a balance between all the excitement of the city and your studies. Students love New York because it provides endless entertainment with plays, concerts, bars, clubs, restaurants. There is never a reason to be bored. Just walking down a crowded NYC street can provide hours of stimulation.

The local atmosphere at NYU is exciting to many students. However, one can often feel lost being merely one person in such a big city. At NYU, it can be harder to meet new people than it is at more traditional campuses. Students very rarely leave their dorm room doors open, which gives a cold sense of exclusion that can make it tough for freshmen and transfer students to establish an initial group of friends. In addition, NYU tends to stray from interacting with other city colleges, despite the fact that there are several nearby campuses. So while the city atmosphere is the main reason that students say they come to NYU, the feelings of isolation that are often created by the non-traditional campus make the grade slightly less than perfect.

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Students Speak Out

Anonymous says:

The atmosphere is exciting yet... The atmosphere is exciting yet socially limiting. Other universities are present, but interaction is rare. 12345 Local Atmosphere Report

Anonymous says:

We live in New York City, so there... We live in New York City, so there is plenty to do. As a downside, it’s crowded. People walk on the wrong side of the sidewalks, and the subways smell. The closest school to NYU’s main campus would be the New School. 12345 Local Atmosphere Report

Anonymous says:

There are tons of other schools,... There are tons of other schools, but I only know NYU students. 12345 Local Atmosphere Report

Anonymous says:

It’s a complete city atmosphere.... It’s a complete city atmosphere. There is always something going on, either school-related or just in the city. Other universities are present, but NYU has a very different feel than a traditional campus school. There are no pep rallies or football games, and it is completely up to you if you want to get involved in NYU-related clubs and activities (to give it more of a traditional school feel), or if you would rather just take classes at NYU and be more involved in the city. There’s a ton of stuff to visit, from Central Park, to the Statue of Liberty, to the South Street Seaport, to the Empire State Building, to Central Park. That list could go on forever. 12345 Local Atmosphere Report

Anonymous says:

The campus probably isn’t what you... The campus probably isn’t what you expect; it’s not a regular campus, it’s a city campus. It surrounds Washington Square Park, and the classrooms are in buildings all over the area. The freshman dorms are all around that area, too, in the Village. The apartment-style dorms are all over NY, mostly in the downtown area. 12345 Local Atmosphere Report

Facts

Did You Know?

5 Fun Facts about New York:

• The Statue of Liberty, also referred to as the Lady in the Harbor, is 101 feet tall from base to torch, and 305 feet tall from pedestal foundation to torch. She has a 35-foot waist and an 8-foot index finger, and she weighs 450,000 pounds.
• Downtown Manhattan was the site of the nation’s first capital.
• In the 1920s, a sportswriter for the Morning Telegraph, John Fitzgerald, overheard stablehands in New Orleans refer to NYC’s racetracks as “the Big Apple.” He then named his column “Around the Big Apple.” A decade later, jazz musicians adopted the term to refer to New York City, and especially Harlem, as the jazz capital of the world. They said there are many apples on the trees of success, but when you pick New York City, you pick the big apple.
• The panorama of the city of New York in the Queens Museum of Art is the world’s largest architectural model, containing 895,000 individual structures at a scale of 1 inch to 100 feet.
• The nation’s only night parade is the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.

Famous New Yorkers:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Humphrey Bogart
Claire Danes
Sammy Davis Jr.
Sara Michelle Gellar
George Gershwin
Jackie Gleason
Washington Irving
Herman Melville
Eugene O’Neill
Christopher Reeve
Norman Rockwell
Barbra Streisand

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