The NYU Student Population Statistic is a Myth
There’s no way there are actually 60,000 students at this university.
When I was applying to college nearly five years ago, I told myself that I did not want to go to a smaller university. I wanted a community where I could meet someone new every day and expand my horizons simply by entering a classroom. This is what NYU proudly proclaims is the experience here — with an undergraduate population of nearly 30,000 and a university-wide enrollment of nearly 60,000, after I received my acceptance letter I was confident that every day would be filled with meeting new people.
As regular decision acceptances have been released for the Class of 2025, I would like to personally dispel this myth: I do not believe there are actually this many students at NYU.
I have a friend (let’s say J) who I met here at Local my first year on staff. While we were studying together one time, his friend (let’s call them F) joined us, and then they and I became friends. They, however, happened to be in the same thesis class and good friends with my other good friend (N), who I met doing reporting for Local with my friend A.
Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Leo, this is just a coincidence. People who are interested in the same things often meet each other.” Hold on to your socks, the rabbit hole continues.
F has a roommate (S), who was in London last spring (well, until the whole pandemic thing), with my friend (T) who I met through my friend E, so they know each other. S also knows my friend E (I truly don’t know how), who was in my CAS cohort my first year. E and A used to be in a club together, so they also know each other. Are you keeping up? It’s still getting spicy.
F, N, and I started a Dungeons and Dragons group recently. We needed another player, so I asked my friend A if he would like to join. I knew that A and N already knew each other, so it felt like it would be pretty easy to get everyone on the same page and enjoying each other’s company. What I DIDN’T know was that as soon as we all got into a group chat, A and F also already knew each other, and didn’t put it together until just then.
I have created a web map for better understanding (think The L Word):
For yet more context, I am not in the same school as any of these people, and only two of them I know directly from working on Local. I am also not that social, despite how it sounds from this article. I have honestly been more social in the past few months than I have been the rest of my college career combined.
The TL;DR of this is that every time I meet someone new, they know at least two other people that I already know. NYU is functioning like a small liberal arts college, and I’m not even a liberal arts student. There is no way that there are 30k undergraduate students if everyone knows each other like this. I refuse to believe the statistics.
