| Many people are going to hate me for saying this, but half of admissions is conning the admissions office. Conning meaning putting confidence in the reader that you are not only a great candidate, but that you also really want to be in the school. By pointing out one or two great things about NYU in your essay, as well as putting your desire to be closer to home (possibly in the introduction or conclusion), I think you could be able to "con" them.
By the way, great things don't neccessarily have to be their deparments or teachers, but it could be simple things like their selection in the library or a conversation you had with a student, or even the experience you had at their coffee shop.
Hopefully this helped, and by the way, I would greatly appreciate it if you looked at my essay...its on the thread named easy reading. Also, if you want me to look over your essay at any point I would be glad to. Just PM me. | 
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. I can edit it extremely thoroughly. 
