We love NYU, and we think they’re great, but sometimes our NYU friends like to remind us that we live in an area of town where you can find half of the school’s population in exactly 2 bars on a Saturday night, while they’re downtown roaming around Greenwich Village. (At least my NYU friends do. Is this just a me phenomenon?) I was curious to see if NYU students really have more fun than us, so I asked a few real-life NYU students what they do on a typical Saturday night, and actually spent last Saturday night with a few of them.

First, here’s how last Saturday night went. I took an Uber to West Village with my friend, got my left frontal helix pierced at a tattoo shop on Bleecker Street, and sat in a dorm room in University Hall drinking beer, gin, and tequila and watching basketball with a few boys. Then we met up with their friends and PAID to get into Bar 13 ($5 for girls, $10 for boys: sexism at work?), and left almost immediately because it was very unlit. We stopped by Duane Reade to get a 12-pack of beer, then finished them off on our walk to The Jane. There was a line around the corner, and the NYU friends told my friend and me that it would be worth it, but I was skeptical. When we finally made it to the front, our fakes got denied, and we were asked to leave the building. We Ubered back to West Village? Greenwich Village? and went to some sweaty bar called Pourhouse, which was pretty much exactly like an EC party except bigger than an EC suite, and you had to pay (a lot) for drinks. I lost everyone when I went to the bathroom, so I walked to my friend’s dorm and crashed there.

When I interviewed NYU students about their nightlife, the first person I asked prefaced his answer by saying he doesn’t represent the general NYU population. He usually pregames at Koreatown (“go-to area for Asian nightlife”) and then heads to clubs. He prefers clubs to bars, and says he likes to go to a lot of different clubs, and is currently working part-time as a promoter. He says he also loves raves and festivals, and the usual venues are Terminal 5, Pier 94, and Webster Hall, although he sometimes goes all the way to Brooklyn for shows. Sometimes, he goes to other universities to visit other chapters of his fraternity, but qualified this by saying that this isn’t usual for other NYU students, as Greek life isn’t big there. When I asked for recommendations for clubs or bars, he told me that Durdens is “always a good time,” Le Souk is “really fun and sorta hidden,” and Up & Down is great if I’m near Union Square. As for house parties, he knows a lot of people who go to Brooklyn for them, but it’s not really his thing.

The second person I asked also said that he’s not speaking on behalf of anyone else at NYU, because there are so many different types of people at NYU and they all do very different things. Unlike my first interviewee, he loves house parties, and always hits them up if there are any. Afterwards, he goes bar hopping, and the type of bar he goes to depends on how he and his friends are feeling. He categorized the bars into 4 different tiers. Tier 1 consists of the college bars that are easy to get into, and are in the same general area. He gave Pourhouse, Durdens, and Bar 13 as a few examples (notice a pattern?). Tier 2 is a little stricter on ID’s, he said, but you can get in by paying the bouncer, bringing girls, or being a girl (sexism at work part 2). Phebes is an example of tier 2. Tier 3 is very hard to get into; you have to be dressed well, and have either a solid fake ID or a real ID. You’ll probably have to wait even with a real ID. Anywhere in Chelsea is tier 3, according to him. “God Tier” is impossible to get into, and you have to be “flexing real hard.” Unless you’re a girl. But I got turned down from The Jane, which sounds like tier 2, so this doesn’t sound right. He never goes to dorm parties except for pregames.

From these interviews and from hanging out at NYU first-hand once in a while, as well as from my own experience last Saturday night, it seems like the typical course of action is to pregame at a dorm, maybe go to a house party, then end up at bars and clubs. This really doesn’t sound too different from what I do at Columbia, except I’d go to a dorm party and/or a frat party instead of a house party. I also don’t always go to a bar, whereas NYU students seem to go bar-hopping a lot more. Essentially, the only difference is that NYU students have access to better bars and clubs than we do, but it sounds like they usually go to the same 3-4 places anyway. Just as how any messy night in Morningside Heights ends at 1020, messy NYU nights seem to end at Pourhouse or Durdens. In the end, if you’re wasted and had fun by the end of the night, does it really matter? Personally, I’m inclined to say that NYU students should stop being so pretentious about their nightlife. Feel free to disagree; this is just one girl’s opinion.