New York University

Okay, so I'm not quite as bitter as the other people who have posted here, but I still transferred out of NYU nonetheless. I didn't hate my time at NYU persay, but it would be a long-shot to say that I enjoyed it or had fun.

I really do think NYU is a perfect, wonderful place for some people but as almost everyone on this website has said, its is truly truly not for everyone. Before you come to NYU have a serious introspective look on what kind of person you are, what you want to get out of your education, and what kind of college experience you want to have.

People who absolutely love NYU fit into a few categories. They LOVE nyc and urban living, hate everything about the typical college experience (frats, quads, sports, nature, etc), are in Stern/Tisch, want to get ahead with internships and other opportunities presented in nyc, are extremely outgoing and can make friends in the often isolating & hostile social environment, are incredibly, incredibly independent, usually like fashion, and don't mind jumping into a social scene that is entirely motivated by money (clubs, bars, hookah, etc takes major cash people...kids on average probably spend over $130/weekend).

I personally, did not fit into any of those categories. I was never totally excited about the city nor was I completely set on NYU. It was never my dream school, but I don't regret going there. It helped me find out what kind of person I was, which was not obviously, a city-loving one. NYC and NYU requires a very certain type of person to thrive there (seen above), and unfortunately, that wasn't me. I think that the other comments are perhaps too negative. NYU is an amazing, fabulous, unparalleled haven for urban-loving students and I encourage all people who think that they fit into that category to apply and not be discouraged by the negative comments. You will do fine there IF you know you belong, and are determined to thrive.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2011

Surrounding City: A, Individual Value: F

NYU has the most applicants of any school in the entire US because of it"s reputation :location and entrance requirements. Graduating from NYU will look impressive on your resume and will open doors for you in certain fields such as media and entertainment where your GPA will not be heavily weighed. So if you're considering Tish, for example, the entrance requirements are not that hard ( weight is given to your "audition") and the coursework is easy. However there is no school spirit here no matter what division you are in. Everyone has a sense of the school not really caring about the students. It's a depressing atmosphere. Not what was expected. The administration and faculty are arrogant and condescending and don"t expect to graduate from NYU with a respectable GPA unless you can get by on one or two hours sleep each day. The coursework isn't hard but the volume of material they give you here makes it impossible for you to maintain a decent GPA. The school doesn't seem to care about that. So if you are willing to put the time and work into getting good grades consider going to another school because it's practically impossible to attain that here. You might leave here after having worked your ass off with a low GPA. But if you are willing to sacrifice a decent social life and academic record you can have the brand NYU on you for the rest of your life. Your decision. If you don't care and are only interested in the brand name, no matter what the quality, then choose NYU, as you might choose to wear a pair of sneakers that were too small and hurt to wear but you wore them anyway just to show off the brand. Be careful in what you choose. Sore feet heal but a poor academic record does not.

1st Year Male -- Class 2012

Campus Maintenance: B+, Faculty Accessibility: F

*all comments about nyu pertain solely the College of Arts and Science (the liberal arts school).
i had fairly solid numbers (800 verbal, 750 math; 3.85 gpa) and applied to nyu as a "safety" school. i received a pretty generous merit scholarship, plus a nice financial aid package, and that pretty much clinched the deal for me. so i guess i passed up so-called better/higher-ranked schools in exchange for free tuition (take note: schoalrships dont cover living costs, which, ahem...downtown manhattan is very pricey) and a chance to live in nyc. both reasons are bad reasons to choose nyu, though. the student body is, on average, composed of wack, pretentious, Ivy-wannabes (hmm, i wonder if i'm one of those). but the profs are good. and there's nothing like a traditional "campus" so if that's your thing, then nyu is not.

i am double majoring in English and Philosophy. i was a bit disappointed with my English classes, until i got to the most advanced courses (called "topics"). topics courses rock. apparently, before i came to nyu, a sizeable chunk of the english major could be fulfilled with creative writing courses-- which i personally think is...strange. now, creative writing courses have no bearing on the english major, which i think is a good thing, it makes the major seem less of a "joke" and also makes the major more "serious" and more "textual" (i have no idea if that makes sense to anybody else). b/c let's face it, creative writing courses are "easy As"/GPA-boosters. i recommend any literary theory class. they tend to be more..well...theory-based and "philosophical" than other english classes that focus more on close readings and text analysis. both are fun, though. oh, and most of the male PhD grad students i've had as recitation instructors are pretty good looking and always well versed in shakespeare or something like that. bonus!:)

i had no intention of studying philosophy as an undergrad, but i enrolled in a "life and death" class (intro philosophy class) just for fun and i'm really glad i did. most of my philosophy classes were taught by PhD grad students, who are all very smart and knowledgeable and you can tell that they are very passionate about philosophy (they sometimes get really excited when they're lecturing about something, etc). philosophy classes tend to switch back and forth between lecture and discussion, and you will almost always have one person in the class who thinks he/she knows more philosophy than the professor or grad student, and will jump at any chance to argue with the instructor -- that's *always* fun to listen to, b/c the student never wins. (aw.)as for nyu's reputation, i'm not really sure. with the exception of the undergraduate schools everybody knows about (the ivy league, mit, stanford, duke, and then the "public ivies" like berkeley, uva, umich), i don't know if any school has a lock on a notable reputation. it all seems kinda nebulous. nyu certainly is no harvard, or columbia for that matter (uptown neighbor), but i'd be hard pressed to be sold on the "any random student at cornell is better than any student at nyu" argument. (sorry cornell.)

3rd Year Female -- Class 2009

Education Quality: A+, Campus Maintenance: B-