Finding Community at NYU Through On-Campus Jobs

If you’ve taken a campus tour, called the Bonomi Family Admissions Center, or emailed the admissions team, you’ve already met one of us! Admissions Ambassadors are a select group of students who represent NYU and connect with prospective students and their families. We are trained not only to give tours of NYU’s Washington Square Park and Downtown Brooklyn campuses but also help with the center’s operations and special events. NYU’s Open House and the well-known Weekend on the Square for newly admitted students are some of my favorite events.

Aside from these experiences, I love the ambassadors program for many reasons. First, the role is extremely flexible. Throughout the semester, we can update our availability and schedule shifts around our classes, social commitments, and other campus obligations. Second, every Admissions Ambassador shift is a paid shift. Whether you are sitting on a student panel, training to give the perfect campus tour, or simply answering the center’s emails from your laptop, you will be paid. Finally, while the role is technically an on-campus job, it emphasizes community building. In addition to getting to know other ambassadors while working shifts together, the admissions team hosts a number of events for ambassadors to connect and have some fun. (Typically, we also enjoy some free food!)

For me, the Admissions Ambassador program is a win-win situation. You can make friends on campus while also earning an income! The role has certainly spoiled me with tremendous perks that unfortunately do not typically come with “real-world” jobs postgraduation.

Within the Admissions Ambassador program, there is a subgroup of about 20 students who are also known as digital ambassadors. We create content for NYU’s Instagram and TikTok accounts (follow us @meetnyu). Additionally, we write pieces for the Meet NYU website, like this article you are reading right now. Finally, we partake in monthly digital ambassador meetings. Each meeting, professionals with careers in content creation and digital marketing share their knowledge with us.

Before joining the digital ambassador team, I was not well-versed in social media or content creation. (I barely even knew what an Instagram reel was!) But, through the digital ambassador role, I have learned a lot about digital marketing and content creation. What’s more, I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. Of course, we are compensated for every piece we create. Whether it is an NYU-related TikTok, Meet NYU article, or collection of Instagram stories when we “take over” the NYU account for the day. Overall, the role is creatively flexible and very rewarding.

Admittedly, getting recognized by prospective students as someone on the NYU TikTok account when giving campus tours is fun. I feel like quite the micro-influencer. Also, while I am not a Journalism major, I really do enjoy writing these articles about my NYU experience and hope they are helpful!

Starting my sophomore year, I also became a College of Arts and Science college leader (CL). Read “The College Cohort Program: Building Community at CAS” to learn more about what CLs do. TL;DR: We are a team of upper-level NYU students who lead cohorts of around 35 first-year students. In the role, we facilitate cohort meetings, which basically discuss “how to be an NYU student.” Additionally, we facilitate cohort events for first-year students using the (generous) budget we receive each semester.

To be honest, I applied to the CL role on a whim during my first spring semester. Since I started NYU in the fall of 2020, I was not used to in-person classes at all. So I was pretty nervous about facilitating cohort meetings. At the time, I had little knowledge of what it was like to be an NYU student fully in person. In fact, my first in-person NYU class occurred a the beginning of my sophomore year. I led a Cohort Welcome and Check-In session. Thankfully, I found the job very enjoyable. Taking students to Summit One Vanderbilt, the Museum of Modern Art, and Williamsburg Smorgasburg were some of my favorite activities. Reflecting back, I feel lucky to have led three great cohorts of first-year students as a sophomore, junior, and now senior.

Similar to my other roles, being a college leader has a number of perks aside from helping to pay the bills. The role’s pay structure is different from my other jobs. Instead of compensation for the number of hours worked, CLs receive a fixed stipend that covers the work for the whole year. Nonetheless, I put high effort into the role because I really enjoy helping and getting to know first-year students. On top of that, the college leader community is a tight-knit one. It is always nice to catch up with the other CLs during our biweekly staff meetings. Therefore, the role is another great way to find community within NYU.

In addition to these roles, NYU students have access to many other ways to reel in some cash. You can check in with different NYU departments and take advantage of their research experiments that need human subjects. I promise this is not as scary as it sounds! Most of the time, an NYU researcher simply needs students for an hour or two to answer some questions. Then, they pay them accordingly in cash.

For example, I recently participated in a game theory experiment with the economics department. In the experiment, each subject received a certain amount of fake money. Then, we made decisions and place bets with our supply. At the end of the game, we cashed out our fake money supply including any profits. If you lost money during the process, you still earned $20 an hour. Overall, these experiments are not tedious. Sometimes, they can actually be pretty entertaining. On top of that, you are guaranteed to leave the experiment with more money than you came with!

Of course, these are only some of the many on-campus job opportunities NYU offers matriculated students. There are a number of other roles that similarly offer a fun work environment and compensation. Some other popular on-campus roles include working as an athletic assistant in one of NYU’s athletic facilities, a librarian in one of NYU’s academic departments, or a resident assistant (RA) in one of NYU’s residence halls. For RAs, the job compensates employees with free housing and an NYU meal plan. To learn more about being an RA, read another student ambassador’s article called “From NYU Resident to Resident Assistant.” Finally, NYU students have access to the Wasserman Center for Career Development. The Wasserman Center not only provides students help with off-campus roles, but it can be a tremendous resource for discovering and landing on-campus jobs at NYU.

Overall, balling on a budget at NYU might be much easier (and enjoyable) than one may think!