New York University

NYU is certainly a very unique school for a certain type of person. In high school I was a great athlete, however I did not achieve extremely well academically. But NYU recruited me for track and field and I was admitted to Stern school. In college I decided that I was going to study hard and achieve my academic potential and land a good job afterward. At Stern I worked my tail off, studied for hours a day, partied a little but not much and eventually I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and several job offers. NYU is most definitely a school that builds character because you are thrown into a fast paced New York lifestyle from the moment you step on campus and New York City has an extremely competetive, dog eat dog climate and that is certainly present, especially in Stern. Sure there are numerous losers who just want to chase money and get rich at Stern, but there were many like myself who were genuinely fascinated and interested in finance and the stock market. Stern is like a completely different experience than normal NYU, there are hypercompetitive students and many are backstabbers who will give you BS advice just to keep you down and keep themselves up. I would suggest that Stern school students trust nobody in Stern school and rather go to a professor or a student in either GSP, CAS or Tisch in order for advice, peer editing or any assistance with any type of project or paper. Stern school is fun once you know how to play it like a game, and I consider myself a rigorous competitor, and Stern school certainly provided me with enough to fulfill my competitive drive. The experience was unique and knowing how to dwell in a city, pursue internships persistently and compete for everything you get certainly helped me succeed in the work force. I have been working for Morgan Stanley for the past two years and I started off with a 150,000 a year salary and it was a dream come true. Winning jobs over kids from the Ivy league schools also was a great thrill and I noticed that many kids from Ivy League schools who were used to living on a campus had extreme difficulty adapting to the aggressive city and many had to bail out because of the enormous culture shock that they weren't accustomed to. I felt that I was extremely well prepared because I had already went through the culture shock at the beginning of NYU and by the time I was out I was a street smart, savvy and competitive New Yorker with all the tools to succeed in NYC's Wall Street job market. And let me tell you, if you can succeed here in NYC--then you can succeed anywhere. Just my advice here.

4th Year Male -- Class 2001

Social Life: A, Campus Aesthetics: F