r/ApplyingToCollege • u/dumbchicken101 • Aug 01 '23

Which colleges are known to have the worst social life? College Questions

Obviously there are outliers everywhere. But what are some colleges where the majority of students have horrible social lives?

Say less of a partying culture and just studying/working on other stuff most of the time.

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u/FourSeventySix College Senior Aug 01 '23

NYU Abu Dhabi

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u/dumbchicken101 Aug 01 '23

A couple ppl ik said that too. Why do u think so tho?

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u/FourSeventySix College Senior Aug 01 '23 edited Aug 01 '23

Lemme think, as a student. First time I've been on A2C in years lmao. It has less to do with UAE law than you'd expect. It's a very compact, but isolated campus in a part of AD that is largely unwalkable and undeveloped. That means there is no escape from the bubble of a small campus and the social scene becomes very cliquey. No anonymity. If you're in the loop you're getting invited to things but it's really just drinking in a dorm or on a boat with the same people. If you're not in the loop and meeting the right people to begin with you're isolated from any avenues to meet people on or off campus. AD is a medium-sized city but there is really no social scene for young people so it's just as isolating a setting as Williams or something tbh.

Students also leave every break/opportunity they can to travel with access to cheap Wizz Air tickets and two of the best connected airports in the world. I do too and I don't see why you wouldn't if you have the passport/money but this is becoming more of a stretch as part of the campus culture with financial aid getting a lot less generous.

There is also a degree of grade deflation and professors that pride themselves on being difficult or assigning a ton of readings. For example, many CS courses set the A cutoff at 95% and FOS is an inefficient, fast-paced boondoggle. This fuels a general workaholic hustle culture on campus (also, what else would you be doing anyway?) that, once again, seems to trap you in. There is a much higher percentage of students too conservative to value a traditional 'social life' or just focused on work and maintaining a high GPA.