Advice appreciated: NYU to Cornell?

Transfer Students
1

<p>I’m currently a freshman at NYU. It’s a nice school; my classes are small (15-25 students), the professors are friendly, the work is a ok, not really too hard yet. I’ve also met some really nice people.</p>

<p>Some things I don’t like about NYU:

  1. Commuting, about 55 mins on the way there and about 1hr-1hr 15 mins on the way back (I take 2 trains and walk a bit). It makes me feel cut off from my friends, 7 other students from my HS go to NYU and they all dorm. But that’s not a big deal, I can live with it. </p>

<li><p>Living at home. My parents are extreme control freaks, and I don’t know how to fully convey the extent to which they control me. I was accepted to 6 other good colleges w/scholarships, but my parents insisted on me going to NYU (no scholarships/FA) because I could commute. In HS, my parents were also really controlling (my friends complained about early curfews, I had no curfew b/c I was rarely allowed to go out), but I thought that it would get better now that I’m 18/in college. But it’s gotten worse, because since I don’t have to live w/them, I’m living off their charity, and thus subject to their very strict rules. And I understand that, but I desperately want to have a life, so…</p></li>
<li><p>The Liberal Studies Program which is a subset of CAS, and it’s the college I was accepted to. I won’t go into details, but if I remain at NYU I will be in this program until end of sophomore year, and it’s very restrictive in terms of class choices. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>In HS, I applied to Cornell and was rejected (it was a reach school for me). I really liked Cornell, but was happy with NYU also. If I had been accepted, my parents would have consented for me to leave home <em>gasp</em>, because they say the only way I can leave home is if it’s for a top, preferably ivy league school. Not only does Cornell fit that description, but I also loved the school when I visited, because I felt it was a good fit for me.</p>

<p>**I can’t decide if I should apply or not! Please give me some advice. ** </p>

<p>Cons:

  1. I always preferred nature over city, but now that I’m at NYU, I realize how much the city has to offer, and Ithaca is a little isolated. Still, I’m more of a nature girl at heart I guess.
  2. The whole hassle of the transfer process, plus Cornell CAS has like a 10% acceptance rate and I don’t want to be re-rejected…haha</p>

<p>Pro’s:

  1. Cornell will give me a chance to get away from my uber religious parents (love 'em, but let me breathe…) who confine me to my house.
  2. No commute because I would live on campus, and Cornell tuition + room/board is only slightly more expensive than NYU’s tuition+commuting costs
  3. I have friends from HS at Cornell, so I’m not too worried about being the out of place transfer w/no friends. Of course I’m also open to making new friends.
  4. Academics at Cornell are just as good, some would say better, than NYU. I would be a Gov’t major w/minor in International Relations if accepted.</p>

<p>Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks</p>

2

<p>if this is your freshman year and you've only been there a couple of weeks...i'd relax...</p>

<p>if i remember correctly, the gs program is for freshman applicants who are on the border of acceptence for cas...so if you werent able to make it into nyu cas, my guess is you would not be a strong applicant to cornell which is somewhat more competitive than nyu...</p>

<p>if you really want to go to cornell, that means you'll probably have to show them at least one exceptional year at nyu, meaning that you should plan on being at nyu for at least one and a half years...</p>

<p>please tell me if there is something wrong in my syllogism...i'd make the best of your situation, nyu is a great school</p>

3

<p>Dorm at NYU. If you can. It might make a huge diffence in the quality of your experience at NYU.</p>

4

<p>duffle - that's usually true but not always. my best friend goes to cornell cals and was also gsp'd at nyu. anyway my junior/senior year grades from high school were pretty high, it's just my soph year that was kind of bad, freshman yr was decent. I understand what you're saying though.</p>

<p>gomestar - that's the thing, my parents practically keep me chained to my room, they don't want me dorming...or being social...or having fun. haha they are extreme control freaks, and also uber-religious. it's hard to explain online.
however, my dad is a dartmouth grad and always wanted an ivy-bound daughter, so he would consent to me going to cornell if accepted</p>

<p>right now i'm just debating whether or not to actually apply. I know I most likely won't get accepted. thanks for the replies :)</p>

5

<p>I'd almost like to be in your situation (Except with my parents, not yours, that would be too weird). I always wanted to leave my parents and I honestly didn't care where I went, or rather I didn't put much thought into it. I always thought going far from home wouldn't bother me. But alas, once I've come to Ithaca I've felt homesick and isolated with moodswings, sometimes feeling more homesick than other times. I feel a strong need to get closer to home as soon as possible.</p>

<p>So I'm looking at transferring into Columbia or NYU from Cornell so I can commute from LI or maybe dorm or get an apartment and go home when I feel like it. </p>

<p>Are you commuting from Long Island? Is there anything particularly bad about commuting?</p>

<p>As far as your situation goes, it looks like you should really, really try making your parents see it from your situation. They should be more understanding and trusting. Maybe tell them that your grades will improve if you dorm there because you will be able to study with others? It sounds like you should stay at NYU as long as you convince your parents, but if you fail at that, then you should apply to Cornell.</p>

6

<p>Yep, I'm commuting from LI. The LIRR is great, comfy seats and a safe ride at all times (not like the subway). But if you're from LI, you know it's expensive to live here, especially if it's in an area close to the city. The avg home price around here is $1.5 mill, no idea what rent is but still, and the commute is like 2 hrs a day back and forth. If you want to rent a place, you might want to look to Brooklyn/Queens, cheaper and closer to campus. Or you could get a studio apartment in the village, there's places where rent is not bad (by Manhattan standards). I'd rather pay $2000 for 7 months for a studio apartment and get my own teensy place than $12,000 for an NYU dorm I share w/someone. </p>

<p>As for convincing my parents to 'trust' me more, the idea is laughable. They have no reason not to trust me, they're just super-religious nuts from south asia, and unless you were raised by strict south asian islamic parents, I don't think you could understand :)</p>

7

<p>Definitely apply to Cornell if your GPA is over 3.5 (try for a 3.75). Your parents are way too controlling, and commuting for two hours a day is ridiculous.</p>

8

<p>Well, my parents ARE south asian, but not particularly religious or islamic. If I got an apartment it would probably be in Long Island City since my parents want to get one there anyway as an investment. </p>

<p>But I might just commute from my parent's home (my home is is Nassau, LI).</p>

9

<p>When I said 2 hrs a day, I meant altogether, not each way. </p>

<p>My HS gpa was 3.51 UW, but if you take out 1 bad art grade from 9th grade, it's a 3.6 UW, plus upward trend over 4 yrs. As for my college gpa, the lowest it can possibly be is a 3.65, because I'm applying for an honors major and 3.65 is the minimum requirement, although of course I'm shooting higher than that. </p>

<p>good luck battlecruiser, with NYU/Columbia, whichever you end up going to.</p>

10

<p>hey stargazerlilies, PM me if you have any questions about transferring to Cornell, NYU life, etc. I used to attend NYU and transferred to Cornell. I met some other NYU friends here that have experienced the same exact things I have. I don't think I regret it...yet. I guess my first semester GPA will be a main factoid.</p>

<p>I would really try to stick it out at NYU some more and try to have fun. Get a job and pay for your own dorm. I miss it a lot and try to head back whenever I can, but I just have too much work and reading to cram it all on a Thursday night/friday morning to leave.</p>

11

<p>I do have a job, but $8/hr for a part time job doesn't cover an $11,800 dorm!
plus my parents want me to live at home, so if I somehow got a place on campus (which I think it's too late to do now) they would get angry and stop paying for NYU, and then I would have a dorm/apartment, but no college lol.</p>

<p>Was it hard to adjust from NYC to Ithaca? That would be my only worry if I went to Cornell. But right now I'm still debating whether or not to apply, and plus CAS transfer acceptance rate is so low I most likely won't get accepted. </p>

<p>NYU itself is pretty good, I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can. I might not transfer, and if I do, I don't know if I should apply for Fall '09 or Spring '09. Waiting till Spring '09 might improve my chances.</p>

12

<p>I would recommend applying for Fall '09 because that's when orientation is and you're just moving in with a larger class+freshman and a formal orientation makes a worlds diff. People make their cliques around then and a lot of people meet their "best friends" -- including myself. Also, by "Spring" semester at Cornell, you really mean winter. I mean dead of winter. It just isn't a good intro to ithaca and Cornell. The Fall is really nice and the weather gradually changes. From what I've heard, Cornell changes for the worst come Feb. And don't be fooled by the "it's easier to transfer with smaller pools" statement. They try to keep it in proportion and if you don't have the grades to transfer, you won't get in, but if you got into NYU, I would stay you have a good shot at cornell.</p>

<p>Adjusting from NYC to Ithaca wasn't "hard." Different lifestyle, yea, but there's so much work and so many extracurrics that you'll never be "bored." I'm 1 month in and I never have any time to breathe. I'll have to admit, though, I really do miss the flexibility of visiting others and having friends stop by all the time. Nobody--sometimes not even your parents--are going to visit you up here. There's another thread here of new Cornell freshman that are freaking out bc they're lonely and miss home. Even though that can happen anywhere, the weather, the workload, and THE DAMN CELLPHONE RECEPTION (unless you have verizon) can seriously magnify the effect. Luckily, a lot of the student body is very nice and very social--way more than at NYU because there's 13,000 bright kids here who live within <5 miles of each other whereas after freshman year, the social scene at NYU radically changes bc of the dorming situation. There's 13 other NYU transfers that I know of here too fyi with some being CC members. If you ever make it here, I can introduce you to some (I know that sounds weird, but I've actually met quite a few really cool people in person off of this forum on campus).</p>

<p>And by job I didn't mean minimum wage street job, I meant like year-round corporate internships. If a summer at GS pays 14k, I'm sure a year-round opp could probably cover dorm+tuition. I'm using what I learned to reinvest but, yea, that's what I meant.</p>

13

<p>The reason I think I'll be better off applying for Spring '10 rather than Fall '09, is that Cornell will see my whole freshman yr grades, as opposed to just 1st semester, which means they'll focus on hs a lot. and since I got rejected in hs, I'll probably get rejected again.</p>

<p>Good to know you're not bored in Ithaca. My friends up there say it is a great college town, but of course totally different than NYC. Ithaca is a 3 hr drive from home, so I don't think I'll get homesick, plus you can bet my crazy stalker parents will camp out on campus. I'll probably go home on long weekends and for thanksgiving and such. I do feel bad for people who are really homesick, but everyone has to learn to adjust without their parents eventually. Also, several of my HS friends, including best friend, go to Cornell, so I'm not worried about missing friends, as I'll be seeing more of them then I do at NYU. I also have verizon :)</p>

<p>I would so love to get a well-paying job at this point. I tried to get one through the Wasserman Center for Career development but no luck so far. Right now I work as a receptionist at NYU which I like b/c they accomodate my class schedule. Anyway NYU tution + room/board is about $50,000 a year, and I doubt I could pay that off without taking out some serious loans. Most adults working full-time can't pay that.</p>

<p>thanks for the help btw</p>

14

<p>Today I decided I have to transfer. If not to Cornell, then to any college that will take me, preferably one that will give me a scholarship. In HS, a lot of avg colleges like Boston U, Northeastern, Fordham, etc. offered me partial scholarships of $7,000-20,000 per yr, so there must be some below avg colleges who will offer me a lot more. Nebraska college here I come!</p>

<p>Seriously, I can't live at home anymore. I'm 5 weeks into the school yr and my parents are still religious extremist control freaks who won't let me out of the house. They want me to wake up, go straight to college, go to class, and straight back, and if I'm a minute late they flip out. And I know what you're thinking - but stargazerlilies, why don't you try having a life, your parents can't control what you do in the city? It's because if I don't abide by their rules, they will throw me out of the house, not allow me to go to college at all, or both. I need to transfer somewhere we're I'm not miserable and can have friends.</p>

15

<p>Be open to transferring but try your hardest to conquer NYU as a commuter student- it'll make you stronger.
My parents are also very conservative and never ever wanted me to leave the house- I also commute to NYU from Long Island, and I'm in my sophomore year now (I'm also in LSP). It IS really difficult in the beginning. You see everyone else being able to live such a convenient life but you always have a long commute, and you don't really have a home on campus. After one full year of commuting, I have convinced my parents to allow me to study abroad, and then I'm going to be dorming my junior year. This is my general advice.
1. Apply to other schools but keep an open mind about staying at NYU. If you're here for international relations, the opportunities for summer internships, and even internships during the school year, are endless because you're in the city.
2. Look into Greek life. I joined a sorority in last fall and I can't tell you how much it has helped me find a family and a home. The sorority house (a penthouse in Lafayette) is always there for me to stay if I need somewhere to go because I always have access to it and don't need to be signed in. If your parents are conservative, explain to them how many community service and job opportunities are open to you by going Greek. Greek life will change your entire experience at NYU if you are a commuter.
3. Stay on campus as much as possible. If your friends who go to NYU invite you to stay the night, do so.
4. Try to get a job on campus. I worked 24 hours a week in the city last semester. It was tough, but it made my parents feel guilty because I would come home at midnight because I was working.
5. Study abroad.
6. Your parents are really conservative now, but they'll see how difficult commuting is. Commuting is doable but it's hard to have a social life. The reason my parents finally allowed me to study abroad/commute is because a few weeks ago I was late to a midterm because there was a track fire and the train got stuck for 2 hours. They realized that I was losing so much time commuting - it literally takes hours out of the time that you could be interning somewhere or studying. That's what you need to explain to them, that's what they'll see after this year.</p>

<p>If in the end you think you'll be better off somewhere else, then good for you, but for International Relations, NYU is where you should be. Feel free to message me =).</p>

16

<p>Will your parents be OK with you joining a sorority or working in the city part time as shootehjoon has suggested? If you are involved in other activities and they don't know your whereabouts every minute then you will have more flexibility to hang out and socialize. If not, and all they will allow is just going to class and coming right home, you should transfer. College will not be a fun experience under those circumstances. Part of the NYU experience is spending time in the city, going to movies, shows, restaurants, shopping, etc. If your parents won't allow you any freedom to enjoy then it may be in your best interest to live away at school.</p>

17

<p>Shootehjoon - nice to know someone else was in a similar situation, but sounds like your parents are way more flexible than mine are. Your parents felt guilty that you wouldn't get home until midnight because you're working - mine would never let me get home at midnight, they would simply force me to quit my job, and if I refused to do so, they would stop paying for college. Same thing if I continually slept over NYU at night. They pretty much hold their money over my head - I obviously can't afford NYU by myself, and they're willing to pay for college as long as I abide by their rules. </p>

<p>My parents don't see me commuting an hour there and back as a big deal - when my dad was in college, he commuted just as much, and now he commutes from LI to New Jersey daily, so my commute is nothing in comparison. I guess we're a commuter family :)</p>

<p>Also, I have a job, in my hometown, but I just work weekends. </p>

<p>NYU has a good IR program, but Cornell is ranked higher. To be honest, I would rather study Pol Sci and minor in IR than do an IR major, but because at NYU the IR program is much better than the Pol Sci major, I'm doing that instead. Cornell's Govt/IR is overall stronger than NYU - look here for an explanation <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tufts-university/242345-tufts-undergrad-ir-ranked-1-a.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tufts-university/242345-tufts-undergrad-ir-ranked-1-a.html&lt;/a>. NYU didn't even make the list. As for summer internships, I live on LI, so I can easily do one in NYC over the summer, or I can go to Washington. </p>

<p>Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to keep an open mind about NYU. I do really like NYU, and if it wasn't for the commuting/parents issue, I would be in love with the school. </p>

<p>Lily - yep NYC is a huge part of the NYU experience. I'm trying to get involved in some activties, but my parents don't even want me doing EC's because most clubs meet like at 8pm - 9pm, so I come home at 10:30-11ish. I've still joined 3 clubs though. Plus during the 6 hours between class and when clubs meet, I can socialize with friends. </p>

<p>Anyway I'm definitely applying but I don't know if I'll take the transfer. I still want to give NYU a chance. I really don't like the LS Program though. Joining a sorority would be an interesting idea - rush week is over though, is it still possible to join?</p>

18

<p>There will be rush again for the Spring semester. Now would be a good time to look into the different sororities and see which ones attract you. You could get to know some of the girls so when rush returns you will be ready.</p>

19

<p>ok cool. I've never thought of joining a sorority, but it might be a good idea. Any I'll look on the Office of Student Activities Page and find out more about them. I'm hoping to find one that's more academically inclined as opposed to just beer n bong parties...although I do like to have fun. I'm sure there are several good ones to choose from. Thanks btw.</p>

20

<p>If you really want to transfer to Cornell, NYU to Cornell shouldn't be too hard of a jump to make so it really depends on if you decide you really want it or not.</p>