I agree and relate to some of both the negative and positive comments here. Eugene Lang is a good school with a moderately good reputation- within New York City. The only people who are going to know it exists are people on the East Coast, and most of the time you have to reference Parsons to get them to understand. Students at Lang are indeed pretentious hipsters. There are always crowds outside in the courtyard smoking, and quite a few of them are rude and self-absorbed. A good portion of my classes were filled with people who wanted to do nothing but talk about themselves, whether or not it was relevant to the topic of discussion. But there are also students who are intelligent, passionate, and friendly. They are harder to find, but they do exist.
All the professors I've had this year, even as a freshman, have been smart and dedicated to helping their students. The administration tries really hard to help new students acclimate to New York, and they really are trying to create a community.
However, there are a lot of issues with the college as well. We have little to no resources available to us. We don't have a functioning library- I've heard talk that it will be in the building set to be finished in 2013, but really, what help is that to me now? Our cafeteria is pointless unless you live in the 13th street dorms and is ridiculously overpriced. The dorms themselves are not nearly worth as much as they cost. Almost everyone gets apartments after Freshman year, because even in Manhattan and Brooklyn it's cheaper than the dorms.
Also, if you do live in the dorms you will be surrounded by Parsons students, who can often be shallow, insipid, and EXTREMELY self absorbed. Not all of them are like this, admittedly I've met some very nice people from Parsons, but the majority are irritating and are Fashion Design majors, which makes them judgmental and kind of stupid (it sounds harsh, but I have to put up with these people daily). In general, Parsons is the golden child of the New School, and in this analogy, Eugene Lang would probably be the younger, less loved child, and both Parsons and Eugene Lang students know it.
Also, if you're a straight girl, you're going to have a hell of a time trying to find a guy. Because there are so few straight men around, the ones that are there tend to get girls who would normally be...well...a little out of their league. Luckily it's NYC so there are guys everywhere, but that doesn't change the fact that Lang has slim pickings.
Party wise...well, there's drinking that goes on in the dorms sometimes, but most of the partying takes place in bars, which is expensive and sometimes difficult. Unless you know people, or you know people who know people, you're not going to have the best of luck there. To be honest, I'm going to transfer out after this year. Living in New York City is great, and Lang does offer a lot of opportunities to it's students, but I need more a community that what Lang has to offer. I haven't made many friends, and I can't go out much because it costs so much money. If you're able to get past that, if you're loaded or you already have friends in the city, maybe Lang would be great for you. Otherwise... you're spending a ton of money to be miserable. At least I am.
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