New York City is notorious not only for its busy streets and crowded subways, but also for its isolating urban loneliness, which tends to strike our area of the city more than any other borough: half of all Manhattan residents live alone, according to Census Bureau Data.

Traditional, gated campuses often create a sense of community within their confines, but NYU’s lack of such a campus lends can make it difficult for students to build relationships. Friendships can be tough to spark and maintain, especially for those new to the college experience.

Gallatin freshman Hannah Cai feels that making friends at NYU can be much more difficult than at an enclosed campus.

“Once you see someone, you’re not exactly sure if you’ll see them ever again,” she said. “So it’s hard to see familiar faces and develop friendships that way, which is what you usually do on a traditional campus, or so we think.”

As far as maintaining friendships goes, Cai said that she finds it useful to make an effort to meet people halfway.

“The way I try to avoid [losing touch] is to get their number and text them so that they’re forced to hang out with you,” said Cai, whose friends mostly live on her floor in her residence hall.

Gallatin freshman Ellie Kovacs shared Cai’s sentiments that it takes effort to build lasting friendships, but she expressed that the lack of a campus can strengthen the friendships students do make.

“I think you have to work harder at your friendships, but like, my friends who are in campus schools don’t have to work harder,” she said. “And they don’t actually feel like they’re good friends with their good friends, [but] I feel like I’m good friends with my good friends.”

There seem to be some effective strategies for making friends at NYU, despite the obvious difficulties. LS freshman Tiffany Jung finds interactions to be surface-level in classrooms, but she highlighted the importance of connections in the process of meeting potential friends.

“During class or lectures, you’re not really interacting with people,” she said. “I met friends at parties, or we just hang out together and became friends.”

NYU students seem to embrace the challenges of sharing a campus with the city, finding friends despite jumping over hurdles to do so. From sticking to people who live on the same floor to moving across scattered groups of people, students are battling the inevitable loneliness of the campus in and of the city.

Email Alice Li at [email protected].