New York University

I am a physics major at NYU. I am in my third year. My opinion of the school and my experience have changed significantly since being a freshman. At first, I didn't feel very comfortable or grounded, but that changed as I got to know my fellow physics majors. They are all very intelligent and a few are some of the smartest people I have ever met. Everyone in the program is extremely friendly and helpful. We all work together on homework sets and study together for exams. It is not competitive. The work can definitely be intimidating at times, but you might be surprised to see what happens when you stick with it. It is a challenging, interesting, and rewarding path to take at NYU. Some teachers are better than others, but overall I feel they are quite good and quite helpful. One of my few criticisms of the program is that there are not the many electives offered at any one time. There seems to be a shortage of classes from which to choose sometimes. I haven't compared NYU's number of offered physics electives to that of other schools, though.

As for the rest of NYU, I am pretty neutral. The core requirements were mostly not that great, but a couple of them were very interesting. It can be somewhat irritating to deal with these courses when you just want to focus on your major, but I imagine this is the cases at many schools.

I grew up in Brooklyn and I love New York. It's a great place to be.
NYU is probably a better place for outgoing kids. If you make the effort to talk to people and are not skiddish when it comes to hanging out with people you don't know that well, it could probably be really great, socially, right from the beginning. As I said, it took me kind of a while to find a group of people, and occasionally it has been pretty depressing.

There are so many experiences at NYU. I have a feeling mine is pretty unique. My description may be drastically different from that of most people. I can say that I have had a pretty positive experience with the physics department, though.

3rd Year Male -- Class 2009

Surrounding City: A+, Faculty Accessibility: B+

I got into NYU's liberal studies program (LSP) not knowing what on earth that was....here is everything you need to know about LSP and NYU's pre med (they call it 'pre-health though) program...

No one knows exactly why you get into LSP. Some people say the Undecided majors get in, some say if you were a really good applicant who was just lacking in one small way...still it is quite mysterious....Some people at NYU believe LSP is for NYU's dumb kids, as my friends love reminding me. This isn't really true.

LSP means your freshmen year you will be taking practically all requirement courses. Yes we do take more than the CAS freshman. They probably only take one (or maybe plus a language) their first semester while we take three. I assure you though...it is really not all that bad. You will have all sorts of time to fulfill your major requirements. Here the liberal Studies first year plan so to speak:

Freshman Fall
Writing I
Social Foundations I
Cultural Foundations I
Elective (aka you get to pick whatever you want for this one)
Freshman Spring
Writing II
Social Foundations II
Cultural Foundations II
Elective
Sophomore Fall
Either Social III or Cultural III
3 Electives
Sophomore Spring
Either Social III or Cultural III (which ever you did not take the semester before)
3 Electives
And then LSP is completely out of your life aaand you get an Associates degree in Liberal Studies.
Run down of what those classes really mean..
Writing I, II = just like the CAS infamous requirement course 'Writing the Essay.' Everyone complains about this course, but it really REALLY made me a better writer..

*Note about all courses...USE RATEMYPROFESSORS.COM..best thing you can do...
Cultural Foundations = a cleverly disguised history/literature course...You will read (or sparknote) ALOT for this class.

Social Foundations = this course varies, I took a teacher who was amazing (Prof Atkins) who taught it as a Philosophy course. Usually Philosophy mixed with a bit of history.

If you put effort into these courses you WILL learn a lot!!! Or you can just bs a lot of it...but I thought it was really interesting..

Conclusion...if you want to go to NYU and are worried about this LSP business do not let it hold you back...basically after your freshman year you are done with LSP..ooo and it is awesome for people who want to studied abroad, because all of these courses are offered in London and Paris (and I think Florence still).Even though I was an LSP student, it is still possible for me to do the pre-med program at NYU. Good program, really intense...1st semester of Bio and Chem should be relatively OK for you AP people. Lots of T.A.'s who have an accent, but it never bothered me!

1st Year Female -- Class 2013

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Collaboration/Competitive: B

My experience at NYU overall has been a positive one. That's not to say it wasn't easy. In fact, I have social anxiety disorder, so I'm not the type of person who one would think would thrive in the city. However, contrary to what many seem to say, I don't think the city is at all cold and impersonal. To be honest, after living there a year I found my home in a suburb of Memphis, TN to be so quiet that I now find it almost depressing. It does take a certain personality type; I had two roommates both transfer who were from North Carolina and wanted to go to school closer to home. If you have a personality that's good at adapting (and that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be "outgoing"), then NYU is definitely for you.

Regarding the social life, there are a LOT of rich, very annoying people. I came to NYU a liberal, and even though I still consider myself one, I honestly found a lot of NYU liberals just as closed-minded as some of the fundamentalist Christians from the South. It took me my entire freshman year to meet some friends, but once I did I realized that I could have have made a better choice than NYU.

I also have more respect for NYU's administration than most. I work a part time job as an office assistant in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, and they are constantly thinking about the students to the point where they often ask myself and the other student helpers about our opinions on various issues. A school with as many students as NYU can't be expected to be extremely personal.

NYU has been very good academically. Although I listed myself as a math major, I internally transfered to Stern for this coming semester (Fall '05) to major in Intensive Statistics and Information Systems. From my experience, I had teachers that were both unbelievably good and...less than good. The primary bane of the MAP program is WTE, or Writing the Essay. Regarding that I have one piece of advice - try to get Pat Hoy as your teacher. I am not a writing person at all, but I cannot emphasize enough what an incredible teacher he is. He, unfortunately, is also only one of like a hundred WTE teachers, most of whom are grad students. My other MAP courses, ConWest and World Cultures: Japan, also had incredible teachers and TA's. I actually only had one bad teacher. Really bad. One test the entire semester, and lectures were word for word from the textbook. It really depends on the kind of person you are, whether or not you'll thrive at NYU. But you don't have to be some extreme go-getter; if you do things like go to clubs regularly you'll meet people. Of course if you do absolutely NOTHING you might have some problems, but even if you do have problems the University Health Center has a great counseling department at your disposal.

1st Year Male -- Class 2008

Education Quality: A, Campus Aesthetics: D