What's clubbing in NYC like?

Whats it like living in NYC?

• Im a college sophomore majoring in Finance living in Grand Rapids Michigan, so NYC would be a gigantic change for me. What I would like to know if its easy to find a job if you lose your current one. Where should I live to find cheap apartments. Is meeting people a problem? cause when I visited NYC theres tons of people everywhere but noone seems to give a **** about you. Whats a typical day like? where do you buy groceries? at K-Mart type stores or the local shop? I basically want to know the inns and outs the good and the bad of living in NYC.

• Answer:

  My goodness. I have to answer you if only to counteract the cynicism in the other answers. Yes, the sort of open easy friendliness that you're used does not routinely exist here. I remember, as a New Yorker/Northeastern, going to visit my brother when he was in college in St. Paul, my very first trip to the midwest. My mouth was hanging open the whole week at the niceness of virtually everyone we me. I think there was one girl working in a pizza place who was slightly sullen. She stood out! So, yes, in a superficial way, that is different. But NY is made up of many many different people and if you came to live here, you would meet all kinds, some of whom would likely become friends for life, just as you have probably met in college. It can be harder to meet people in that casual small town way, but you would meet people through your job, your neighborhood, and any groups you belonged to. You would not have to resort to pretending to need a support group to meet people! That's just . . . . ridiculous. You're majoring in Finance. As you know, at the moment, jobs like that are disappearing, not being created. But that will change, and could by the time you'd be looking. Don't let that scare you off. You'll be starting in an entry level position in a field that you'll have opportunity to move up in. My husband is in IT. When we first moved to the city 12 years ago, he was just starting out and making very little money. For a bit we got into credit card debt, but within two years we eliminated that as he made more money. We moved to Brooklyn because you can get more space for a little less money. We're very close to the city in a beautiful old Italian brownstone neighborhood. We love it here. Right now, if we were to rent our place new today, it would be about $1800 a month. So, at first you may want to be a little further from the city to pay less, or possibly live with a roommate to cut expenses. (A studio in our neighborhood might cost about $1500 right now. In Manhattan that same studio would start at maybe $2000,. a one-bedroom $2500 and up. But further out in Brooklyn, those same sized places would be half the price or less. Still decent, though less hip neighborhoods, but a longer commute.) In our neighborhood, there are small-ish super markets, and lots of small grocery shops of all sorts. That's part of what's great about New York; you can find anything here. There are K-Marts and Targets too. The difference is, especially in Manhattan, no parking, or very inconvenient expensive parking. So, you do have to organize in a different way. Though, in the boroughs, there are stores like that that you can drive to. There's a new Ikea near us, and actually a new Fairway too (big kind of extravagant supermarket), both of which have free parking lots. Sounds funny, but that's a big deal in the city. Hope this helps a little. I think when you are young and just out of school is a great time to find out what it's like to live and work in New York. Don't be discouraged by these naysayers.