I spent my first year in London alongside a cohort of roughly 35 students through a Stern program called the First Year in London opportunity. The word at the end is noteworthy: opportunity. Nowadays, I observe my peers questioning the extent of this opportunity — sometimes, it feels like London was a one-way ticket to fall behind at the Stern School of Business.

Stern in New York City couldn’t be more different than the environment in London. Although I’m now a sophomore, I have never felt more like a first-year than I have since joining the New York campus. 

Stern students typically spend the first three weeks of school applying and interviewing for finance clubs, hoping to score a spot in their mentorship programs. Not only do these mentorship programs help students learn about opportunities in a broader career exploration in business, but they also equip them with the technical skills needed to interview for internships. But studying abroad in your first year introduces a unique set of challenges to joining these clubs. 

For one, it’s hard to show genuine interest in a club when you’ve only been to one or two events. After a year abroad, most of us don’t have the chance to build the kind of casual familiarity that often leads to deeper involvement. At Stern, this plays out in the form of coffee chats — 30-minute conversations where applicants are expected to connect with a member on the executive board, hoping to leave a good enough impression that their application is remembered and pushed forward to a first-round interview.

For these clubs, it’s not just about what you know — it’s about whether you seem like someone the e-board member would want to be friends with. This status is much harder to achieve when you’ve spent your first year thousands of miles away, while your peers in New York have had a full year to build tight-knit friendships with upperclassmen already embedded in these clubs.

We also missed out on early exposure to New York City-based finance firms through student organizations and peer mentorship. In London, upperclassmen came and went each semester, which made it harder to form consistent networks and learn from people familiar with the process. Along with that, many of us are still unfamiliar names in the New York City Stern scene, and FYLO and transfer students often feel less visible in the application process.

When I think back to London, I can’t help but miss it. Beginning my first year of college there, I didn’t yet understand how difficult the transition would be from London to New York City, but the experience of moving to another country, starting completely from scratch and building a community from the ground up was formative. I look back fondly on nights in the basement study room of Byron Court, our first-year dorm where we found comfort in our shared uncertainty. Those late nights built a sense of closeness that only comes from navigating a new country and early adulthood together. 

Flash-forward to sophomore year: Living with my best friend from London and staying close to the tight-knit group we formed abroad has been undeniably rewarding. The friendships I made were forged through travel mishaps and chaos: misplaced passports and wallets in Rome, an Airbnb reservation that fell through in Paris and a cramped nine-hour overnight bus to Edinburgh, Scotland. 

I had the chance to learn more about myself and make new friends without the constant pressure to network. At NYU London, alumni events stood out for their high ratio of professionals to students, creating opportunities for meaningful, unhurried conversation. The events were intentionally casual, fostering a relaxed environment where students could speak with alumni without the sense of competition of the New York campus and freely talk about travel experiences and shared global perspectives. 

The sense of community I gained after my opportunity across the pond is an experience that I long for under the tense atmosphere of Stern. My experience abroad taught me that college is not and should not merely be a stepping stone for post-graduate careers but a vessel to explore ourselves and engage with the people, places and passions around us. 

Contact Anais Mardirosian at [email protected].