<p>Seeing as decisions are coming out in a few days, I'm willing to answer pretty much any questions anyone has about NYU.</p>
<p>A little about my background: I am a senior psych major in CAS, child and adolescent mental health studies minor, and chemistry minor, pre-med track. I am also in the Presidential Honors Scholars program, as well as in the honors track of the psych major. I've been involved in a variety of extracurriculars here (including music ensembles, various clubs, and volunteering in the community), studied abroad (in London), lived in NYU housing all four years, and have taken a (very) wide range of classes.</p>
<p>I'm happy to answer questions about anything - academics, research, different programs within NYU (I have friends in pretty much every program), social life, living in the city, housing and food options, and I'll try to answer all questions to the best of my ability :)</p>
<p>Thanks for offering to answer questions! Did you do the Liberal Studies Freshman year abroad in London or another study abroad? I’m an English major and would love to end up doing that. What are your thoughts about study abroad in London? Waiting for decisions on friday. :)</p>
<p>@Schoolapalooza, things I wish I’d known:
-Don’t commit to one major too soon, take some time to explore your options
-Get involved EARLY, because later on it’s much harder to meet people than at the beginning of the school year
-Take school seriously. You’re paying way too much money to skip classes to party
-Living in the city can be isolating, so make sure it’s something that you can handle. There is no handholding, and you’re pretty much on your own for a lot of things
-Along the same lines, be your own advocate. If you want something, fight for it. There are a lot of arbitrary rules involving who can sign up for certain classes, etc, but a lot of times if you just ask, they are happy to accommodate you.</p>
<p>@afromnc, I studied abroad in the spring of my sophomore year not with LSP. I went to London because they offered pre-med classes, but in retrospect I wish I could have gone somewhere else for a little more unique experience. I also took challenging classes while I was abroad, so it made it a little less fun than it could have been. I loved London though, and it was a fantastic experience. I just wish I had studied less and played more!</p>
<p>@ilovegoldfish all CAS freshman have to take Writing the Essay either first or second semester. It’s a useless, miserable class, but literally everyone has to take it (across all the NYU schools, not just CAS), so everyone suffers together. Most people take some of the other core requirements freshman year, but there’s no requirement that you do it then, so you can put it off until later. Those classes are:
-Texts and Ideas (there are a few different versions of the class, but it’s mainly reading philosophical-type texts)
-Expressive Cultures (focuses on one specific form of artistic culture, they have ones with music, graphic novels, architecture, etc)
-Cultures and Contexts (again, there are a few versions but each focuses on a specific country/culture/region.
If you don’t place out of math (by AP or placement test), you also have to take Quantitative Reasoning, and if you don’t place out of science (by AP), you have to take Natural Science 1&2. All CAS students are also required to finish up through the intermediate level of a foreign language (four semesters if you start from the beginning), but SAT 2 scores, AP scores, or placement tests can be used to either place out of the requirement completely or place into a higher level than beginner 1</p>
<p>@Wkdk Unfortunately, it’s impossible to switch schools from Liberal Studies (LSP) during the first two years. However, the program is designed as a feeder into CAS, so as long as he would maintain the requisite GPA, he would automatically be a CAS student beginning his senior year. The program itself is not that different from CAS’s core curriculum. The main difference is that there are a few more required classes in LSP (if you look in my prior posts there’s one where I compared the two programs in detail). The CAS core classes Cultures and Contexts and Texts and Ideas are very much writing intensive great books type classes as well, so the main difference is that there are just a few more of those classes in LSP.</p>
<p>What does your son want to major in? LSP can actually be pretty great for most majors, as all the core classes are capped at 20-25 people (the CAS core classes are generally around 120-200 people). In freshman year, LSP students take 3 required classes per semester, and then have one free class each semester to do whatever they want. Sophomore year, they take 2 required classes per semester. For most majors, this is doable. However, if your son is interested in pre-med or a natural science major, LSP can significantly complicate the process. Those majors are still possible, but it requires very careful planning.</p>
<p>Thanks jazzcatastrophe for your answer! He actually is kind of interested in studying business (not totally committed), but did not want to apply to Stern. I think he planned on started with a liberal arts program and then figuring it out later. But LSP was not what he had in mind, I don’t think.</p>
<p>@Wkdk if he’s interested in business, then LSP to CAS is probably not really what he’s looking for if he has other options. The econ department is excellent though, if he’s interested in a more theory-based approach</p>
<p>@sloth83 pretty much anything you want to do, you can do. There isn’t so much of a dorm party scene (because let’s be real, there are much better things to do), people tend to go out to clubs and bars. The electronic music scene is pretty popular here, so a lot of people go to those kinds of parties and shows. Many people go to parties in Brooklyn. For my part, there are many alternative music shows available on the cheap as well. There is really no greek party scene, because greek life is minimal and generally most people forget it even exists here.</p>
<p>Social life in general, again pretty much anything you could possibly want, you can find here. I will say that you have to go out of your way to meet people after the first few weeks of classes. Clubs aren’t really a great way to meet people, but the welcome week activities are pretty solid. Freshman year dorms (and exploration floors in particular) are also great ways to meet people. Some people can be standoffish, but people are generally pretty cool. To be clear though, there isn’t much of a “campus culture” and the associated social activities, because that’s just not the kind of school it is</p>
<p>@Wkdk there is no LSP track to Stern. People can apply for an internal transfer, but the transfer rate is ridiculously low, like 1 or 2 a year, unfortunately.</p>
<p>I don’t know too much about it, and I’ve never met anyone in the program. But the chem department at NYU is stellar with people pursuing some really interesting lines of research. The program itself sounds kind of like the best of both worlds for traditional liberal arts and engineering</p>
<p>This might sound ridiculous, but can I still switch from NY’s campus to the Shanghai campus? I just found out that you can’t transfer to NYUSH so…</p>