Livejustly390 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 26, 2018 12:59 pm
1) Is it difficult living off your student budget loan money in NYC?
2) Because so many students at NYU are pursuing PI, do any PI ever feel like it’s harder to get resources or attention from PI professors since there’s more competition for those things?
3) is it hard to study in your apartment due to the loudness of NYC?
Mostly I’m nervous about living in NYC. I’ve never really lived in a big city before, except when I lived in London studying abroad. But we lived in a super quiet area of London, so studying was never much of an issue. I’m especially nervous about living on a student budget since obviously your money doesn’t go as far in NYC as it would in more college town areas.
1. I am not living off of loans, but I have many many friends who are and they eat out waaaay more often than I do, so I'm assuming the loans are enough to cover things easily lol. This is very anecdotal evidence, though, so I'd suggest talking to someone else who actually lives off loans. (fwiw, though, I live off my husband's salary and we are doing fine on relatively little -- we live farther away, don't eat out more than once a week, and don't spend money on frivolous crap. it takes effort, but it's totally doable.)
2. NO!!! 1 million times no haha. I remember hearing that rumor from Columbia when I visited there (they said that you should do PI at CLS because there were fewer PI-students and therefore more resources to go around). It's true that NYU is more focused on PI, but I have found everyone, from students to faculty to administrators, to be very supportive of helping all students get the things they need to succeed. (that sounds so cheesy, but it's true, at least in this respect.)
3. Depends on where you live, really. If you're worried about it being loud, you can avoid living in neighborhoods with a super vibrant nightlife. I live in Brooklyn and my apartment building is SO QUIET. It's amazing. Anyway, the same is not true for all parts of the city, but you can easily factor that in when you choose where to live. I spend a lot of time at the law school itself, which is in Greenwich Village, and I've never found it to be too loud outside to focus.
I think the best thing to do for deciding whether you could live in NYC is to visit (if you're able to, of course), and try to stay for more than a day or two. Don't spend your time doing the "touristy things." (because those types of things make me want to run away from NYC as fast as I can screaming. I. Hate. Times. Square.) I took a bus through Brooklyn when I visited NYC just to get a feel for what the borough was like (I had been to NYC but never gone to Brooklyn before) - it is a lot different than Manhattan. Same is true for Queens and the other boroughs. Even different parts of Manhattan are so different from each other, so it's really a good idea to explore different places. Sure, you might hate a certain part of NYC (e.g. Times Square, if you're me) but you could love other parts (I love Prospect Park in Brooklyn, for instance, and Greenwich Village is mostly great).
Generally comment re: faculty interaction. I had breakfast with a professor and retired judge on Monday and beers with a different professor last night. I have had lunch with one of my professors multiple times this year and go to her office just to chat about life fairly often. I'm sure there are exceptions, but overall the professors here really do want to get to know students and provide opportunities to make that happen. The school pays for professors to take 1Ls out for breakfast/lunch, which all but 1 of my professors has done so far. There are lots of office hours. Professors usually will chat with you after or before class if you have a short question.
I just typed a lot because I am avoiding studying, but NYU is great and you should all come