Aare New York City college students any more culturally sophisticated than students elsewhere? The Facebook (a collegiate Friendster) now provides the data on its members’ cultural favorites. It turns out city students march to the same drummer as the rest of America, and that drummer plays for Dave Matthews. NYU kids love unsurprising musicians like Matthews and Green Day; cinematically, NYU, Columbia, Cooper Union, and Pratt favored the same movies (Fight Club, Garden State) as the rest of the country. But there are exceptions: Brahms leads Juilliard’s music rankings (Beethoven finished fourth, beating Coldplay), and The Great Gatsby outranks the Bible here, which isn’t true nationwide, where the Good Book is the third-most-popular read. Fewer NYC undergrads engage in such extracurriculars as College Republicans (second nationally), and the No. 1 activity (apparently difficult to engage in with all the asphalt around locally): “Lifeguard.”

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Ben Mathis-Lilley
• Table of Contents: Feb 6, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!