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Let's face it—unless you're an 18-year-old black-card—carrying member of the 1%, going to college in New York City is uniquely harder than going to college anywhere else in the country. But surviving those formative four years with eternally empty wallets, homework-deterring distractions on every corner, and no actual college campus means you're ready to take on the world right? Eh...maybe. If you decide to stay in Gotham with your shiny but likely worthless degree in-hand, you'll find a whole new set of struggles to test your mettle.
We asked both NYC transplants and native New Yorkers what their top post-grad struggles were and here's what we found.
1. Whether you lived in a college dorm or crashed with the 'rents, finding an affordable apartment after school will likely be one of the top struggles you face. (Be warned: a little a bit of your soul dies when you shell out for a 15% broker fee).
2. You'll start losing friends to horrible, sunny places like Los Angeles, Austin and "the Midwest." The idea of warmer climes and cheaper costs of living will lure away some of your favorite peeps, and no amount of crazy 4am nights will be able to convince them otherwise.
3. The friends that do stay behind will somehow become infinitely busier than they were in college. Coupled with the fact that you all now live 1,000 subway stops apart, be ready for lots of failed meet-ups and cancelled plans.
4. You’ll get excited when you receive your first big-kid paycheck. But that only lasts for a second because you quickly realize you’ll lose it all to rent, utilities, taxes, student loans, and your gym membership.
5. On the same note, you might need to find a fun side hustle—maybe as a telemarketer, dog-walker or bartender—to make ends meet (or to continue living your lavish lifestyle). But no, it doesn't feel good to be mixing vodka sodas for kids who you hated freshman year.
6. To cope with the stress of being tired and broke, you will start drinking earlier and earlier every day. Luckily, your co-workers will likely join you.
7. By the time you make it through the week, you'll be so tired that the highlight of your weekend will be hungover brunch.
8. You'll have to find a real doctor in the city because your student health center isn't writing you sick notes anymore. Same goes for your campus library—you may actually have to invest in a printer.
9. Because of the city's competitive nature, you’ll be surrounded by people that all appear to be doing better than you (avoid alumni networking events at all costs). Whether it's true or not, it will seem like everyone has the perfect career, a beautiful apartment and an even more beautiful significant other while you're single, broke and barely surviving.
10. Still, you'll never want to leave. Despite all the trials, heartbreaks and general shitty-ness that sometimes comes with being a New Yorker, the hardest thing about living in the city is giving up the city. So if or when the day comes in your post-graduate life that you are ready to leave, just know it probably won't be easy.
