Then how about a Russian-Mandarin exchange? :) Although, honestly, do you really want to spend so much time learning languages together?

If you're very self-motivated, then I suppose anything will work. For me taking a class provided essential structure. The flipside is you can't pick the topics to focus on.

In NY I think there are several other options besides NYU. Yelp has this: http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Mandarin+Classes&find_loc=New+York%2C+NY.