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The Facts

NYU is made up of several different schools, all prestigious in their own right, including The Tisch School of the Arts, which has produced such distinguished alumni as Spike Lee, Oliver Stone and Martin Scorcese; The Stern School of Business, whose alumni include Alan Greenspan; The College of Arts and Sciences, which offers 50 majors; The Gallatin School, in which students create their own majors; The School of Continuing and Professional Studies, aimed at part time and older students; and a new General Studies program. The big draws are the Tisch and Stern schools; both are notoriously difficult to get in to, with the Tisch’s various programs often requiring a series of auditions and interviews. NYU is large, with over 17,500 undergraduates and over 18,600 graduate students. Admission is highly competitive, as NYU is a “trendy” school; in 2004, a record 33,776 students applied, around 10,000 were admitted, and 4,219 matriculated. However, each school does its own admissions, so rates of admission per school vary drastically.

The Class of 2004 had an average SAT score range from 1210 to 1410, an ACT average of 27 to 32 and 63% of them were in the top 10% of their high school graduating class. Their average GPA was around 3.65, making the academic competition within the school quite noteworthy.

The setting, of course, is quite urban, being situated smack in the heart of Greenwich Village in Manhattan. There isn’t really a campus to speak of, rather a few buildings scattered throughout an area of the city and beyond in some cases.

The Social Scene

With New York City as their playground, students at New York University are very rarely bored. The student population is extremely diverse in nationality and sexuality, and tends to be non-discriminatory in terms of social activities. Popular weekend activities include going to see the many shows taking place throughout the city, going to movies (New York gets most movies a few weeks before wide release, and plenty of student discounted tickets are available) going to art museums, shopping, cafes, restaurants, coffee shops, the opera… you name it, you got it.

As at almost every college, drinking is a popular social activity; however, it doesn’t usually happen at dorm parties, as the NYU dorms tend to be quite small. Insttead, there are many students who have off-campus apartments, many with roofs, so roof parties are popular events. Also, fake ID’s are readily available, so most students prefer to head to one of the thousands of clubs and bars situated throughout the city on the weekends.

Greek Life is virtually non-existent and does not govern social life in any way. In fact, most students who are a part of a Greek organization are pretty segregated from the rest of the population at the university. So, if you are thinking about “going Greek,” NYU is probably not the school for you.

There is a guy for every girl, a girl for every guy, a guy for every guy, a girl for every girl, and everything else in between…you get the picture.

What’s Good

“No matter who you are, you will definitely be socially accepted here. There are students of every race, creed and sexuality, so it’s really come one, come all socially.”

“There is a major for virtually every interest, and once you move beyond the requisite freshman year classes, the class sizes are usually tiny and discussion based.”

“NEW YORK CITY!”

What’s Bad

“I have never seen so much red tape in my life. The administration is a tangled web of bureaucracy, there’s no way to get through for anything.”

“If you aren’t a hardcore political and social liberal there isn’t really room for you here.”

“Our official school mascot is “The Violets.” I mean, come on.”

Read a personal account of one NYU student's transition from high school to college.

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