<p>I think Vskills asks a fair question. Perhaps it could have been worded better, but from my understanding he/she is just trying to get a feel for the atmosphere of the people they could potentially be spending 4 years with, which is a very important aspect of college research, and something that can only really be found out by hearing directly from students’ experiences; although a person’s definition of “pretentious” can vary.</p>
<p>From MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE as a student at NYU - </p>
<p>There are some people at NYU with a lot of money. Some of these people are proud of being wealthy and judgemental of others. Of course some people are not wealthy and are still judgemental of others. Perhaps they think they’re better for some other reason. Perhaps they don’t think they’re better but are just judgemental. And, of the people I’ve met so far (I’m a sophomore) these seem to be the minority. And I’m sure they occur in every other college in the world, and will continue to occur in various situations throughout life.</p>
<p>In New York there is a particular brand of pretentiousness - the hipster. I have a lot of hipster friends who are lovely people but can be elitist sometimes, and “think they’re sooooo cool”. A lot of them are cool. But I’ve never thought people knowing they’re cool or trying hard to be cool is a very attractive quality. Then again, also, a lot of people in the world think they’re cool. Although there are definitely more hipsters in NY than I’ve ever encountered elsewhere.</p>
<p>I myself am a Tisch acting student. So I’m literally speaking from actual personal experience and in no way mean to be offensive. A lot of acting students I know are hipsters. I also know a fair number of acting students who are pretentious in that they are very self-confident in their abilities. This can be a great thing for the career path we have chosen and an element of believe in oneself is necessary to succeed, and there is nothing wrong with being proud of one’s achievements. However, it is also important to be humble enough to work as a community with other acting students without being selfish, and to submit to the training and be able to take direction in order to learn and grow. There are some people who are not fully able to do this because for whatever reason they have developed and become lost in their own egos. Also, in an environment where we are constantly evalutated and auditioned against each other, some people are *****y and judgemental and ruthless. I’m sure there are similar students in other schools, and I’m sure it shows particularly in the more competetive schools, like Stern. Again, there are many proud people and many extremely self-confident/arrogant people in life. And at school in a challenging competetive environment it is natural for it to come out.</p>
<p>All in all I would say NYU definitely has its share of pretentious people. But it also has people lacking in self confidence, people very laid back and uncompetitive, and people who don’t think or care much about any of this and are just naturally not pretentious. I think in any gathering of talented or intelligent people in the world there is bound to be pretentiousness. It’s a human flaw, and I’m sure we have all been pretentious in our lives. And despite it, some of the pretentious people I know are my good friends. And many other people I know are just fine and we have great relationships with a lot of love and silly fun and no pretentiousness at all.</p>