Cheap Shots   (Photo: Ben Rosenzweig)

Brother Jimmy’s West Side
428 Amsterdam Ave., nr. 81th St.; 212-501-7515
Brother Jimmy’s bills itself as an ACC haven, but there's a decidedly Ivy League bent at its Upper West Side location. Here, Columbia kids congregate for a taste of that authentic state-school vibe.

Cheap Shots
140 First Ave., nr. 9th St.; 212-254-6631
It’s cramped, scarred, and dirty, but its name doesn't lie: Cheap Shots’ everyday low, low prices ensure that cash-strapped grads new to New York make their first city friends here over games of darts and air hockey.

Professor Thom's
219 Second Ave., nr. 13th St.; 212-260-9480
This University of Michigan stronghold is also known for its Red Sox allegiance. Which means local New School and NYU kids feel right at home cleaning up at Tuesday Trivia or Wednesday Bingo.

The Big Easy
1768 Second Ave., at 92nd St.; 212-348-0879
All the debaucherous aspects of college life—drinking Coors Light from a plastic cup, playing beer pong, flashing your goodies in exchange for colorful beads—can be relived (or just taken off campus) at this Mardi Gras–themed party bar.

Rope Bar
415 Myrtle Ave., nr. Clinton Ave., Clinton Hill, Brooklyn; 718-522-2899
This arty Pratt student escape is perfectly divey, dark, and priced for starving college kids—$1 PBRs on Monday nights fuel a.m. lecture hangovers, but not before the bartender-D.J. or the indie-heavy jukebox starts a youthful dance-a-thon between the couches and the bar.