Millions of people grow up with the dream of living in New York some day. The skyscrapers, streets thick with taxi cabs and pedestrians, streets of shimmering lights at night – it’s something we’ve all seen in movies, and have at least thought about, if not downright fantasised. And with the dawn of online education, you can now complete your online nursing programs in Kansas while renting out an apartment in Queens. And there are plenty of great reasons to do just that.
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Transit
The NYC subway and train system is consistently ranked as one of the best metropolitan transit systems in the world. With contiguous rail lines running throughout the city with stops roughly every 5-10 blocks in Manhattan (slightly more spaced out in the outer boroughs), the Subway comprises 25 separate routes with some 472 stations covering 665 miles of tracks, connecting virtually the entire city.
Express trains are interspersed between regular trains, offering accelerated trips that stop roughly half as often as their normally-timed counterparts, enabling travelers to cover greater distances in shorter times when available.
When expanded to include the greater New York Metro North and Long Island railroad networks, the full MTA transit system offers access ranging from New Haven in southern central Connecticut and New York towns as far flung as Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County, all the way to Hoboken in New Jersey and out to the very tip of Long Island at Montauk.
Grand Central Station in Manhattan provides access to the wider Amtrak train network that spans the entire country, and a network of interstate buses that provide convenient access to nearly any destination imaginable in the country. And of course the city plays host to three major international airports: JFK, La Guardia, and Newark Liberty.
As the saying goes: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
Food
That said, you may not want to go anywhere once you arrive. New York is famed for its quality and diversity of cuisines, a reputation that was just recently reverified by its #1 ranking within the US on the reputable Food & Wine Magazine’s Global Tastemakers list. Famed for its Italian food, the city plays host to 408 establishments that have been awarded with the prestigious Michelin Star ranking, sitting at #7 on the list of global cities with the most Michelin Star restaurants.
But even if you don’t want to shell out the big bucks or wait for weeks for a seat at Dorsia, NYC has high quality food that’s accessible to everyone, and is widely touted to have the world’s best pizza – even better than Italy itself. While not every pizza joint can claim that title, even some of NYC’s famed one dollar pizza is still pretty decent.
Culture
When we normally think about the culture of a city, the first thing to mind is the local language, historical landmarks, and the habits, pastimes, and quirks that characterise the behavior of the people living there. New York City has these in spades, but it is also, at its core, an inherently global city.
New York is home to several landmarks that should feature prominently on any globetrotter’s bucket list. The most famous is the Statue of Liberty, a 151-foot copper-clad monument to American independence from the British Empire gifted by the French government, who aided the American revolutionary struggle. The city is also home to some of the world’s most recognisable skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Central Park Tower, and the One World Trade Center.
These icons of architecture all play their part in making the New York City skyline one of the most impressive and recognisable in the world. And of course who could forget Times Square, the ever-illuminated hub of the city, packed with sights to see and flocks of commuters and sightseers
But New York has so much more to offer than its own history. The city hosts a massive collection of museums, art galleries, and collections of historical works and wonders from across the globe that is second to none.
The Museum Mile is a one-mile stretch along Central Park that houses ten of the world’s most famous museums, making the city one of the densest collections of historical art and artifacts in the entire world. With highlights including the Guggenheim, the Frick, and the world-renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art, aka the MOMA, this stretch of the famous Fifth Avenue is not to be missed.
Entertainment
When it comes to red carpet events for theater and live performance, there’s nowhere quite like New York. The world famous Times Square is a tourist attraction in its own right, with its flashing lights, enormous billboards, famous restaurants and iconic branded stores from brands like Disney and Hersheys. But it originally gained its reputation as the centerpoint of the country’s entertainment industry.
The “Center of the Universe” is home to production and recording facilities for major TV studios including ABC, ESPN, and MTV. It’s also the center of the world famous Broadway, the hub of the global live theater community embodied by a stretch of the street of the same name where 41 historic theaters host some of the world’s most prominent theater productions.
Night Life
New York carries the nickname “the city that never sleeps,” and it does everything it can to earn it. There is always a party somewhere in the city, and it’s usually at one of the city’s 25,000+ clubs, dance halls, bars, and concert venues.
New York truly has it all: from fancy high life lounges like the Fleur Room to thumping concert venues like the Brooklyn Mirage, there’s nothing that New York can’t offer the avid partygoer.
Job Opportunities
While seeing the sights, going to parties, and traveling the world preoccupy the minds of many a student, if you’re in school to become a professional, there are few places in the world that might offer better job opportunities than The Big Apple.
There are more than 25,000 businesses headquartered in the city, including 43 of the S&P 500, employing over 4.7 million people. The New York Stock Exchange is widely considered the center of the global finance industry, with over 2,000 publicly traded companies listed, worth a combined $28.3 trillion dollars – over a quarter of the value of the entire global economy.
But it’s not all just finance: the city has a local economy more diverse than most countries, including massive sectors in healthcare, education, manufacturing, international trade and shipping, and retail.
New York City has so much to offer, but it’s not a cheap place to live, especially for a student. The city ranks among the most expensive places in the world to live. But for those with the means – or the time and discipline to work hard while studying – it’s a destination that offers almost limitless opportunity, excitement, enrichment, and possibility.
