Living in New York City is something I feel we often take for granted. Is it the greatest city in the world? Occasionally. As a friend of mine (Max Ferguson, who is featured in this issue) aptly said to me last summer, it’s a city that tests your dreams. It’s spontaneous, ruthless, robust, supportive, challenging and a place where we’ve all had to grow up 10 times faster than if we were living anywhere else. And being at NYU, we are privileged to be “in and of the city” — as the school’s marketing team cleverly pitches out year to year.

As someone who’s moved around a lot, going from India to various suburbs of Massachusetts and then to NYU, I’ve always had a weird relationship with whatever living space I had. Home always felt temporary because I was waiting to move somewhere else. Go figure that I end up in New York City where residential stability is the last thing that comes to mind, even when it comes to living at a prestigious university such as this one.

I’m figuring out how to get by in this city along with everyone else and I hope this Housing Guide gives our readers an expansive insight into all aspects of living at NYU and New York City.

When you first open this issue you will be able to read the usual dorm statistics (that you’ll eventually find on NYU’s website), assembled by Deputy Managing Editors Paul Kim, Ronni Husmann and Anna-Dmitry Muratova. But, for the first time, we’ve also explored several of NYU’s study away and abroad options, featuring an in depth look at dorms in locations ranging from London to Abu Dhabi to Accra to Washington D.C., and more! Huge thanks to Abroad Editor Sam Brinton and her team of Abroad Correspondents, Alexandria Johnson, Liv Rocklin, Mitch Bedows and Jonathan Schatzberg, as well as contributing writers Yusuf Husain, Calais Watkins, Ben Davis and Hanna Khosravi.

We also have a collection of stories — features, creative writing, photo essays and video diaries — in print and online that add more dimensions to understanding what it’s like to live in New York City than past Housing Guides. We’re hoping to show the diversity and strength in our storytelling forms unlike any Special Issue before, and I’m incredibly proud of my team’s ambition, diligence and execution.

I’d like to thank the Dwight Schrute to my Michael Scott, UTA Senior Editor Mandie Montes. Not only did Mandie write an incredible feature, but she was integral in maintaining our workflow and my sanity during this process and I’m glad to continue working with her this semester.

Next, I must thank Celia Tewey and Sara Miranda, our Exposures Editor and Features Multimedia Editor respectively, who produced a stunning photo series and led the initiative of getting original photography of all our dorms and stories. They were assisted by Multimedia Editor Alexandra Chan, Deputy Multimedia Editor Chelsea Li, Photo Editor Jake Capriotti, Video Editor Leo Sheingate (who also made a great short documentary) and Deputy Video Editor Alex Tran.

To our Creative Directors Debbie Alalade and Charlie Dodge, thank you for all that you do on a daily basis. Your design, layout, illustrations and animations for this are spectacular.

I want to thank the rest of the Under the Arch team for producing incredible content across all sections and being very audacious with everything they set out to complete: our Deputy Editors Sammy Tavassoli and Alejandra Arevalo, Voices Editors Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes and Jessica Fiorella, Video Producer Claire Feng and Staff Writers/Illustrators Rachel Lee and Eugene Hu.

Huge thanks to the copy desk, consisting of Chiefs Dana Sun and Daija Dewberry, Deputy Copy Chiefs Kim Rice (who also wrote for us), Nicole Chiarella and Isabel Tan, and editors Addison Knies, Rob Loeser, Destine Mason, Shy Mitchell, Carolina Orozco and Nicholas Pabon. Without you, our pieces would be filled with Oxford commas, bad spelling and incorrect facts. I also want to thank Editor-In-Chief Cole Stallone and Managing Editor Abby Hofstetter for their support and guidance throughout the process.

If you’re reading this, thank you. The Housing Guide has traditionally been one of our most mundane mandated corporate projects but over the past few years, we’ve tried to find ways to keep things fresh at your favorite independent student newspaper. This issue represents a lot of small and big changes for us and the direction we’re going in, and we are elated to be sharing it with you.

—Guru Ramanathan, Under the Arch Managing Editor