When I visited Eugene Lang, I really liked it. I was extremely happy when I got accepted. As soon as the year started, I saw the college for what it actually is. Here are my reasons as to why I am transferring out of this school as soon as fucking possible.
Social:
-First of all, if you are a normal person who wants to have interesting and mature conversations with other like-minded people, if you are politically active and want to experience new things, go somewhere else. People here are really hard to get along with. Kids seem to want to continue social aspects of high school that I am very ready to leave behind. People create cliques and refuse to be open minded about meeting new people.
-New School's entire atmosphere and mood set is overtaken by parsons students, who are annoying, ditsy, stupid, shallow and judgmental. A few Lang students in my dorm went to the main lounge to watch the democratic primary debates and got turned down by fashion students who insisted that watching a rerun of America's Next Top Model was far more important. It is ridiculous how fashion conscious students are...people are more interested in looking hipster and shopping at American Apparel than actually studying. It is also ridiculous how many aspiring models ( at lang!) I have had to sit with in class who moved to New York to simply get a modeling contract and have no desire to study- they just sit in class and pose.
-If you are a girl, straight or gay, and do not look like one of the models I mentioned above and have moderate standards, you will have no sex life/relationships. I can safely say that 80% of the boys who go here are gay and the one's who are straight are... just not that great. The few lesbians who go here have apparently resorted to writing women seeking women personal ads all over the bathroom stalls because that population is tiny and hard to find.
-There are a shit load of rich kids who do nothing but lines of coke and come to class wasted and unprepared.
- If there are any nice people here, it is really hard to find them because all of the dorms are spread out over the city and social life within the dorm is limited...you feel very much alone and not at all part of a community.
RESOURCES
Eugene Lang should not cost as much as it does because there are no resources. Our library is small and in a basement that used to be a discount department store, so we are allowed to use the NYU library (but still! we should have a GOOD one of our own!) Our cafeterias all close really early and are really expensive so there's no cheap alternative for kids who don't want to spend money in NYC restaurants everyday.
-The dorms are OVERPRICED! Mine was in an amazing area, but there wasn't any proper maintenance. There are tons of mice, even if you're careful about not leaving food out and even after you fill in work orders and get holes sealed up ( I once counted 7 different looking mice running around in my room within 2 hours...I heard another student once woke up to a rat sitting on his chest). It was disgusting and disrespectful towards the students and my family should not have had to pay 13000 for that. Bullshit.
In conclusion: if you have heard anything positive about this school, it is because those positive words are probably about the Graduate school, which has a really good reputation and high standards and hardworking students and lots of international students and good professors. So if you really want to go to the New School, wait until grad school. But please please, for your own happiness, don't go to Lang.
Articles
