A bite of the Big Apple

Studying and working in New York City is an incredible experience writes UAE-based student Rakesh Mani. He reports from the busy bylanes of Wall Street.

Having lived out my schooling years in the tranquil capital city of Abu Dhabi, coming to New York City, to pursue my college education was a life-changing experience. In 2003, I enrolled as a freshman in New York University's Stern School of Business. The settling-in process took me over a year.

Already cautioned, having to do my own laundry, clean my room and live responsibly away from family didn't catch me unawares. It was the other, better-kept secrets of university life that took some adapting to.

The competition was cutthroat, aggressive, while only occasionally modest and self-deprecating - it was typical of the Wall Street bankers most business students here aspired to.

College was a far cry from the university lifestyles I had heard about from my peers on other campuses in the US and UK.

By the end of my junior year and in my senior year, I found myself managing to squeeze in hardly four hours of sleep on a good day.

Very long hours

The long working hours are more typical of a banking analyst hunched over his computer screen than a college student, juggling a tough course load spilling with finance courses, homework and a part-time internship at a multi-billion dollar asset management firm.

While it may be extremely demanding to juggle both schoolwork and an internship, it was really worth the effort.

Many things to do

In my opinion, the best part of studying finance in New York is the multi-faceted aspect of my more unconventional university life.

Here students have both the liberty and the opportunity to pursue their passions - be it working on Wall Street, attending lectures and symposiums with leading business figures or perhaps soaking in the vibrant art and theatre scene that Broadway and New York's many museums have on offer.

The sheer energy of the city makes it one of the greatest places to go to college.

As a professor told me when I was barely a week old at Stern, ? New York City is your campus, make the most of it!?

STUDYING IN NEW YORK

A typical day
- It starts early for me, waking up at six in the morning.

- Going to class and then taking part in the extra-curricular activities.

- In the afternoon it is the subway to Wall Street for my internship that keeps me in my cubicle until late in the evening.

- Finally, coming back home at night to do homework and repeat the routine the next day.

Internship benefits
- Pursuing an internship in a related field in parallel with your courses allows you to grasp concepts a lot faster and a lot better as well, besides serving to highlight the distinction between theory and reality.

- It allows students to get a peek into the so-called real world.

- The writer is an actuarial science and finance major in his final year at New York University's Stern School of Business.