NYU = the shiz... kinda.

Introduction
Let's face it - NYU is huge. There is no proper campus, it's just smack in the middle of a city, and that's your "campus" right there. If you're the kind of person who doesn't like being in the hustle and bustle of the city on a daily basis, NYU isn't for you - even from your dorm room you can hear the sounds of fire trucks and ambulances and police cars going by outside. Also, if you're an introverted person, NYU isn't really the place for you either because you can't really get around NYU by just being by yourself. People are generally sociable, but you have to be open to socializing yourself or you'll find yourself pretty miserable.

Campus Life and Social Life
Sports - no one really cares. I'm on the badminton team but almost no one knows we even have a badminton team. Some people don't know what badminton is. LOTS of partying and clubbing going on in the vicinity - in the middle of the semester, once most people have warmed up to their new surroundings, you'll find that the dorms suddenly get quiet at night (because that's when everyone's out), and then really noisy again around midnight (when some of them are staggering back, high and happy). Academics
Pretty much the only areas NYU are really known for are applied math and fine arts (i.e. film, drama, etc). I don't know about the other schools, but the professors in the film department are, for the most part, a pretty great bunch. They're fun, they're serious about the work they do but they're laidback when it comes to communicating (most film kids address their professors by their first names). The workload is... heavier than you might expect, even in freshman year. But a lot of kids at NYU seem to able to juggle partying and working, so if you don't think you can do that, it miiiight not be such a good idea to come to NYU (after all, it's just a waste of money coming all the way out to the big city just to sit in your room and work all day).

Student Body
Student body = diverse. Lots of Asians (primarily Koreans!), lots of Caucasians, lots of black people... in an ethnic sense, it's diverse. In a geographical sense, not so. Most of the kids come from the Northeast, about a third (or less?) from other parts of the States, and less than 10% of the whole student body is international. But everyone gets along just fine regardless of where they're from, so it's not an issue.

In Closing...
Basically, if you like the allure of the big city, you're sociable and you're prepared to work hard, NYU is for you. Granted, it's not easy because of the workload + the distractions NYC offers, but that's just why we're such an awesome bunch. Not a lot of people cope like we do. ;)