A comprehensive, possibly too honest/snarky expose by a current English major at NYU

Colleges & Universities New York University
1

<p>I remember when it was the ultimate fantasy: an university that, while not as prestigious as its uptown counterpart, carried a weight in the Hip factor that made it all the more appealing, Washington Square Park (the fat squirrels, the marvelous people) as a playground, a shopping trip to Soho (where the affordable but wildly stylish stores I could only read about in fashion blogs lined the two sides of Broadway) too accessible in the breaks between classes, and most of all, of course, New York City at my fingertips, and the delicious independence that came with it…</p>

<p>…I will endeavor to provide the best perspective I can from a university I’ve gained an intimate knowledge of—if not solely based on my own experiences, then the stories and misgivings from friends, transformations and lifestyles witnessed first hand. But be warned: this isn’t what the admissions office advertises, and certainly not a comprehensive indication of what your experience might be. It’s simply my version, and if there is one thing you realize from all of this, let it be this: there is no definitive NYU experience, and realizing that you make your college life what it is will influence absolutely everything about it.</p>

<p>All About NYU: Part I, An Overview
[pretentious</a> and pop: All About NYU: Part I, An Overview](<a href=“http://blog.laurayan.com/2010/08/all-about-nyu-part-i-overview.html]pretentious”>http://blog.laurayan.com/2010/08/all-about-nyu-part-i-overview.html)</p>

<p>All About NYU: Part II, Academics
[pretentious</a> and pop: All About NYU: Part II, Academics](<a href=“http://blog.laurayan.com/2010/08/all-about-nyu-part-ii-academics.html]pretentious”>http://blog.laurayan.com/2010/08/all-about-nyu-part-ii-academics.html)</p>

<p>All About NYU: Part III, Dorms, Food & Facilities
<a href=“http://blog.laurayan.com/2010/08/all-about-nyu-part-iii-dorms-food.htmlYU:[/url]”>http://blog.laurayan.com/2010/08/all-about-nyu-part-iii-dorms-food.htmlYU:&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>All About NYU: Part IV, Social Life
[pretentious</a> and pop: All About NYU: Part IV, Social Life](<a href=“http://blog.laurayan.com/2010/08/all-about-nyu-part-iv-social-life.html]pretentious”>http://blog.laurayan.com/2010/08/all-about-nyu-part-iv-social-life.html)</p>

<p>I remember frantically searching the internet for any and all anecdotes and information about the university in my panicked junior year of high school, and with the abundance of questions I’ve received on my blog, I figured I might try to make your lives easier with this complete guide to what I can explain of the university. I’ll try my best to answer any questions you might have as well, or direct them to a friend who can better help you if it’s regarding a different department/school than I am familiar with!</p>

<p>PS: tomorrow will be the last, and possibly most important post: whether the university is worth its price tag, and exactly what sort of student would thrive in that environment. So check back and make sure you read the whole picture!</p>

<p>x</p>

2

<p>I read quiet a few of your entries… there nice… but very vague. They are nicely written but maybe consider actually picturing yourself as an incoming student and what you felt… that would help you cover more of each topic you write about. I was hoping for a nitty-grity written blog from a student but this was more vauge, writing with more attempts at analogies than actualy substance. Keep it up</p>

3

<p>I was naively optimistic and enchanted with the illusion of the NYU before I discovered its reality as an incoming Freshman, and this is some faint attempt at capturing the real version of life at the university without any of the false expectations and advertising that was drilled in my brain before I came here.</p>

4

<p>I kind of have to agree with Sally. It isn’t particularly snarky or scathing (I’ve seen NYULocal be snarkier), nor are there a lot of details for incoming/prospective freshmen. <em>shrug</em></p>

5

<p>your writing skills (or lack there of) really make me insecure about choosing nyu</p>

6

<p>Zissou;
you are a d0uche. Someone has been nice enough to write a piece about their experience at NYU, and you have the nerve to comment on the quality of their writing? Yes, please be insecure, and second guess yourself and choose a different school. We do not need you here.
“Hey professor, I know you teach at NYU and all, but I read that book of poems you published, and they suck. I don’t want to learn from you, and I should go to a different school.”
Yes, that may be extrapolated, but it is the same premise. </p>

<p>Thank you, Tweet.</p>

7

<p>My previous post about zissou being a badword seems to have been deleted, the very same badword wooden used, but I would like to politely conquer post-infraction.</p>

<p>Zissou you have the attitude of someone that feels they’ll be blessing whatever school they go to, and are so full of themselves they probably won’t notice/befriend the incredibly interesting, extremely intelligent people you can find just about anywhere. I suggest you change your attitude before you arrive, I know people like you. You’re definitely being a giant badword.</p>

<p>P.S. Like I said in my deleted post, thereof is one word, so now you look like a giant other bad word.</p>

<p>Hopefully this one won’t get deleted, I guess. I’m already in trouble for bad language (I thought that’s what the auto-asterisks were for, but it’s fine, I understand if the presence of aggressive language is unwelcome) and being rude. But hopefully I’m not being any ruder than someone who would make a personal attack on someone’s intelligence through a personal contribution, and then go on to make a sweeping thoughtless judgment on an entire school. I must have a lot of catching up to do with the rest of CC.</p>

<p>P.S.S. Wes Anderson would think you’re a bad word too.</p>

8

<p>teamzissou: Maybe you should read the pieces with an open mind instead of needlessly deriding the OP’s writing style. Your post is extremely rude and uncalled for. </p>

<p>As a current NYU student, I found tweexcore’s posts to be strikingly accurate, and indeed very well written. In spite of the grandiose image of NYU/NYC that is sold to prospective freshman, you’ve truly captured the reality of life here, and anyone with an interest in attending would be wise to read what you wrote. Well done!</p>

9

<p>ok, i am a (insert epithet here).
this girl has a tenuous grasp of the english language (e.g. “an university”).</p>

<p>woody: nice enough? she elected to post an “expose” (her opinion) on a public forum, there’s my criticism of it. </p>

<p>i have every right to comment on the quality of the writing. she’s not doing anyone any favors by posting this.</p>

<p>i’d comment on your ‘hey professor’ argument, but it’s just silly. you can do better than that (: </p>

<p>michael: i’m going to be an even bigger (insert word here) and tell you, it’s P.P.S. not P.S.S. </p>

<p>p.s. stands for ‘post scriptum’.</p>

<p>but seriously, regarding your argument, i’m not full of myself. the criticism was fair, and true.</p>

<p>yeah, </p>

<p>i am disappointed that i chose a university where, after several years of schooling, an ENGLISH MAJOR, versus say, an engineering major, cannot throw together a cogent sounding piece.</p>

10

<p>zissou: Regardless of whether or not her piece is good in the opinion of complete strangers (I, among others in this thread, found it to be very informative and well-written… I guess you don’t feel the same way), she wrote the piece with the intention of giving the readers a feel for what NYU is really like. How much satisfaction can you possibly get from criticizing said piece with little to no basis? Aside from the minor typographical error(s) you pointed out, what substantive flaw(s) in her piece is/are leading you to such a harsh conclusion about her ability to write, and further, your decision to attend NYU? Please enlighten us.</p>

11

<p>Dearest teamzissou,</p>

<p>I don’t know what exactly you want to get out of college confidential, and I’m not really sure what type of lame pretentious technicality you’re trying to catch her on, but she’s posting her perspective on a college on a message board created to provide people with more information about college. Now I’m sure you’ll cook up some counter argument in order to pridefully stand your ground, but the thing is, you can not reply now and you can not reply later, but either way, you’re wrong.</p>

<p>P.S. Splitting one word into two is way more embarrassing if you’re giving rude unsolicited criticisms to someone’s writing than forgetting which letter to double in a post scriptum.</p>

<p>P.S.S. It only took you one sentence to make me insecure about having chosen a school that you chose.</p>

<p>P.S.S.S. You’re still a bad word.</p>

12

<p>you guys are getting too fired up. she’s not a particularly talented writer, end of story. it’s embarrassing. she has the writing skills of maybe a sixth grader and she’s an ENGLISH major. like i said, it’d be another story if she was majoring in math or economics or whatever. </p>

<p>perhaps i was wrong in my possibly too snarky comment (;)) generalizing this girl is a trustworthy example of your typical nyu student. although, i have a feeling she is, especially given the responses i’ve been receiving.</p>

<p>anyway, ‘pretentious technicalities’ aside, it wasn’t informative. forgetting syntax/diction, she was way off target. her intended purpose - to give people a feel for the school - was not met. </p>

<p>but whatever. DON’T MIND ME. what do i know??? i’m just pretentious hipster scum who sits and watches wes anderson movies all day!!! </p>

<p>POST SCRIPTUM (lol)
which one word did i split in two? </p>

<p>POST POST SCRIPTUM
is it possible you guys just don’t know how to type? michael, your posts were embarrassing.</p>

13

<ol>
<li><p>Thereof is one word. Thereof. That’s the word you split in two. Thereof.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t make an unnecessary incendiary post and then tell people they’re getting “too fired up”. You were being rude to someone that is trying to help. If you didn’t expect people to get upset over what you said, then that’s your problem for not realizing that passivity is almost always at least as offensive as getting in someone’s face.</p></li>
<li><p>Pretentious technicality not aside. I’m not defending her scorecard from you, I’m defending her from the fact that you’re unnecessarily criticizing her for something about opinion on a public forum, blah blah blah, really not important, the point is it’s a non-issue. This is a message board, I just don’t know where you get off, that’s all.</p></li>
<li><p>If your expectations were not met, move along. Are you paying her? No. Can you give your opinion? Yes, but we are free to give our opinions on your opinion.</p></li>
<li><p>Keep generalizing buddy, I go to Brown. But a lot of my friends from Portland go to NYU (one that shares this account actually) and I have visited plenty and some of the smartest people I have ever met in my life go there. I’m a dirty hipster that likes Wes Anderson. There’s plenty of other things to dislike about your attitude, that’s definitely not it.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Post-Scriptum-Scriptum (I get it professor, you’re getting too fired up, it was a joke) Hopefully this post isn’t as embarrassing as my other ones apparently were for some reason. Maybe it was because I was siding with wooden and yankees and the OP, there fore (maybe you’ll get that one) your writing makes mine look embarrassing. I guess.</p>

<p>Jerk.</p>

14

<p>zissou: What is your major?</p>

<p>You are just another typical freshman. Dissecting every little action that you see others doing, in hoping that you can deduce other information from them. It is a blog. Get over it. What if a Tisch kid recommends a bad movie? Are you going to dismiss the whole program and the school altogether? If a Sternie misquotes the dow in a conversation, does that defeat the credibility of the entire program? No, it doesn’t. You don’t have to prove yourself here dude, we are all at the same school. No need to compete to try and make yourself feel smarter than you really are. If you really want to take the time out of your day to argue with someone over using a P versus an S, then NYU, or any university really, is not right for you. It is about the entire overarching picture/concept, not the nitty gritty. As a whole, the blog is fabulous. You CLEARLY cannot appreciate it, as it is written by someone who has been through it all, and we can ALL agree wither. The concept is great, the mechanic might not be perfect, but the message is still clear and powerful. But hey, if you are getting all bent out of shape over minute things like that, why don’t you try Air Conditioning school? A mechanic training program? You NEED to be exact at all times at those places, maybe you will be happier there. But in all seriousness, you aren’t here yet and people are already asking you to transfer out. You are going to have a THRIVING social life, aren’t you?</p>

15

<p>Thanks so much for taking the time to write these!
I live in Montgomery, AL, a far cry from NYC, obviously, and I’ve been considering NYU for a while now…however, the price tag and the apparent lack of community (I’ve seen this complaint on every student review site) are daunting; I still can’t resist the urge to get lost in the big city though!
I might PM you with annoying questions in the future?</p>