As I left Amherst in December to start a domestic study abroad program, I thought it would be my biggest college regret. I originally wanted to study in Italy. I traveled there one summer in high school and I think I fell in love. I am a big pasta and pizza girl and the Italian cuisine did more than satisfy my stomach. But it was more than the food, it was the language, the clothes, and the history. It was unlikely that I could return to Italy on my own so when I got to college, study abroad seemed like the perfect mix between work and play in a place that I was interested in. I applied to a program and was accepted. The excitement started to creep in when I was dealt with a heavy blow and I learned I would not be able to go to Italy. Due to some health issues and safety concerns, my hopes of going to Italy were squashed. However, I refused to stay at Amherst when most of my friends were abroad so I decided to do a domestic study. The college I chose was NYU.
I chose to study at NYU because it was close to home and a complete 180 from Amherst. NYU is large and has no campus, while Amherst is small and has a luscious green campus. A lot of my high school friends remained in New York for college so I thought it would be nice to spend some time with them. I will be frank, I didn’t like NYU as much as I thought I would and at first a deep sense of regret clouded my experience. I started to think about the “what ifs.” What if I had just stayed at Amherst? What if I had gone to Italy anyway? What if this was the worst regret I would have? But after more thought and reflection I realized that going to NYU and doing a domestic study abroad was one of the best things I did.
NYU forced me out of my comfort zone. I went to a high school where my graduating class was 19 and my classes at Amherst were just as small. This always made it a bit easier to make friends and have people to study with. My classes at NYU had hundreds of students in them and at first I felt overwhelmed. For the first couple of weeks I felt alone and nervous but as the semester went on I learned how to navigate my large classes, make friends, and still get the resources that I needed.
The skills I learned at NYU were drastically different than those that I learned at Amherst. As a political science major at Amherst we mostly focus on theory and some application. It is mostly reading and essay based classes. At NYU, political science is heavily integrated with economics. Prior to NYU I had never even stepped foot into an econ class nevertheless do any econ work. I learned how to do modeling and how to read projections and really understand what was going on. At first I was like wth??? However, I eventually got the hang of it. I am extremely grateful that I was able to learn these skills as I feel they are extremely applicable to real world experiences.
Lastly, I realized how accommodating Amherst is compared to NYU. As a junior I didn’t expect to have to share a room or have a roommate. But NYU doesn’t have a lot of singles (they are currently in a housing crisis) nor do they really care about your placement. I tried appealing my placement several times to no avail. Looking back, I am so glad that it didn’t work out. The girls in my suite were very sweet and understanding. They tried their best to bring me up to speed on how NYU works. I also learned that sometimes you just have to be more flexible and that rolling with the punches is a good thing.
Although I was extremely disappointed that I didn’t go to Italy, it may have been one of the best things for me. NYU made me appreciate Amherst and all that it has and will offer me. Instead of dreading to go back I am actually happy to step foot on the Amherst Campus and reunite with all of my friends. Amherst may have its faults (as every school does) but this experience reaffirmed that it was the right college for me.
