A university in downtown Manhattan (Greenwich Village) that really, really wants to be NYU, going so far as to have many of its buildings mere blocks away. Populated mostly by kids who didn't or couldn't get into NYU. Had a controversy in 2006 when it switched to just "The New School" from "The New School University" and changed its logo from a standard collegiate shield to what looks like a spray-painted tag. Many people called them out for failing to maintain
academic integrity.
Considered to be more avant-garde than your standard university. Actually more or less where rich people send their kids who want an excuse to live in
New York City for four (or more) years without working.
Despite the bad rap it has, it's got an extensive list of notable past faculty including Frank O'Hara, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Woody Allen, as well as a pretty long list of notable alumni, including Sufjan Stevens, Jonah Hill, and Marc Jacobs (note that the people I just listed didn't go on to enter academic careers).
People that go there tend to be a toss-up between arrogant, hipster, "I'm-better-than-you-because-I-read-more" pricks and honest, cool people. On the whole the student body seems to be much more artier and hip than most schools across the country, and why not? It's
New York City!
On the school's website, they tend to stress the fact that The New School is in
New York City more than anything else (very few mentions of
academic integrity, student life, etc. In fact, it's very hard to find information on dorms).
Many of the schools within the university have ridiculously long and confusing names. They are:
- The New School for General Studies
- The New School for Social Research
- Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy
- Parsons The New School for Design
- Eugene Lange College The New School for Liberal Arts
- Mannes College The New School for Music
- The New School for Drama
- The New School for Jazz and
Contemporary Music
"My grades aren't high enough to get into Columbia or NYU and God knows I won't go to Pace, so I'm going to Eugene Lange College The New School for
Liberal Arts."
Person 1: "Well I really enjoyed the didactic undertones in many of Georges Batailles novels."
Person 2: "Did you read 'Story of the Eye'?"
Person 1: "Ugh, how disgusting!
Of course not, that's the one that
everybody knows; it's too mainstream for me. I prefer to subvert the norm."
Person 2: "Where did you say you went again?"
Person 1: "The New School."
