The College Student’s Guide to Shopping Your Closet

September 19th, 2012 by Frank Costa

Living at NYU can turn your life into a series of #whitegirlproblems. Remember, though: Not everyone – including yourself – can afford to live in this big city. There are many ways to save money besides living off $1 pizza. An easy way to start saving money by “shopping in your closet,” a phrase that means sorting through your closet and finding new outfits that you may not have tried out before.

When you’re often from place to place, maintaining a neat closet space can be difficult for a student in college. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by your closet, give your wardrobe a makeover. If you have the money to buy new clothes every day, good for you. But if you’re a broke college student like we are, then embrace our dos and don’ts of shopping in your own closet.

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No One Wants to Be The Miranda, And Other Important Things We Learned This Year

May 11th, 2012 by Alex Bedder

At the closing of another year, the NYU Local Staff has turned to glean the lessons we have each learned, the little tidbits we take with us into another summer after our time at NYU and in New York City. So here are the best lessons of 2012, neatly packed into Felicity-like monologues.

“It was finals week, and then I had a thought:

You actually have time to read: “No, really, you do. For all of last year, I felt like I was too busy, stretched hour by hour, and I couldn’t do anything as time-consuming as going to the park and reading a book. But spend a few hours every week outside and stuck in a book. It sounds cheesy, but really improves perspective for the rest of the week. Especially if you used to read obsessively in high school like a lot of us.”

There’s no shame in being a tourist in NYC: “I used to snub certain NYC attractions because they felt cheesy. Studying around Europe has changed my feelings about this. There’s obviously a balance here — but there’s so much I haven’t seen in NYC, despite living there for a couple years. Started making a list about places to go, I’ve never been to the MET!” Read more…


Freshmen Give Advice to Incoming Class of 2016

April 30th, 2012 by Cara Cifferelli

Hello my dears,

We’ve watched you walking down West 4th St, pretending to remain calm as your parents take hundreds of photos behind you, pointing to the enormous library above you. We know that, underneath your confident high school senior selves, you’re nervous. You may have been dumped here after a brief tryst with the Ivies and aren’t sure what to do, or you’ve finally made it here after watching Gossip Girl Season 3 over and over to make sure you know exactly where “NYU Territory” is.

Let NYU Local be the first to say welcome to New York, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of. Let us also be the first to say you are going to hate that song by the end of Welcome Week, if you haven’t already.

While your new lives are still four months away, the outgoing freshmen have a few lessons that they would like to share with you before you head out to orientation in the coming months.

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The Benefits Of Reading For Pleasure

October 21st, 2011 by Olivia Loving

You should read for fun. And not because it will open your mind, or doors in your future, because I’m sure your English teachers have expanded on that at length. We’ve got some reasons that you might not have considered:

1. Legitimacy

If you tell me that you haven’t read Harry Potter, we might as well burn our friendship bracelets. But seriously, it is, on many levels, required reading. Before you move on to heavier material, you need a solid foundation of addicting-yet-morally-sound books under your belt. And when you can stomach the thinly disguised Christian doctrine in The Chronicles of Narnia or The Golden Compass’ atheist agenda, read those too. Read Harry Potter, if not to be my friend than someone else’s. I’m sure at least two other people on the planet are as narrow-minded and picky as I am.

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5 Things You Didn’t Think About Before Moving Off-Campus

September 27th, 2010 by Damon Beres

I love living off campus and frequently think of it in terms of “damn, this is something I should have done even sooner.” (None of your RA peers knocking on your door at 11:00 pm because they “heard bottles!”) Still, there are definitely some things I didn’t think about before I packed up and shipped off to the Lower East Side. Here’s a handful of them that you might want to keep in mind the next time you’re considering a lease:

1. Ax murderers. Unless you live in a palatial suite on the Upper East Side, you will wonder, at some point, if a sociopath will gain access to your walk-up, perhaps because he rang every buzzer on the list and claimed to be “from Best Apartments NYC,” break into your home, and stab you to death while cooing “Rainy Days and Mondays” by The Carpenters. That 4:00 a.m. creaking you hear from beneath your Ikea duvet? It is someone who is trying to kill you. Read more…


A Note to Freshmen Without Friends

September 8th, 2010 by Cait Raft

If you’re anything like I was when I was a freshman, you probably don’t have any friends. It’s the second day of school and you’re probably freaking out because you have to eat alone in Kimmel while you watch everyone else feed little deli sandwiches to each other. It’s a sad existence. You might have gone through an entire week of activities without making any friends in spite of the fact that you’ve attended a countless number of workshops and events at Welcome Week. It’s not because you’re ugly. It’s not because you’re a bad person. It’s not because your brand-new Urban Outfitters wardrobe is a little dirty because you can’t figure out how to do laundry due to the fact that you grew up with a maid. Read more…