Ask questions about NYU here

I’m a freshman at NYU this year and College Confidential helped me a lot during my application process so I’m back to help anyone who needs it. Ask me anything about campus life, etc!

(Please don’t make this into a Chance Me thread because I’m not an admissions officer and I cannot comment on whether or not you will get in. If you go through my old posts, you will find my stats. I hope that helps.)

MODERATOR’S NOTE: Anyone is free to ask or answer questions in this thread. As the OP requested, NO “chance me” posts are allowed.

What is the best housing options for incoming freshmen?

@Cmichael23 Depends on what you think is important. Most freshmen live in the dorms, and there is some debate on which one is the “best” one. Rubin Hall is cheapest, but it has no air conditioning. Weinstein Hall is in a convenient location and has good dining options, but the rooms feel like prison cells. Founders Hall has spacious and newly renovated rooms, but it is a bit of a walk from campus. University Hall has a kitchen in each apartment and has good dining facilities and is in a lively location, but it is also a bit of a walk from campus. Lipton Hall has decent dining options with gluten free / vegan / vegetarian specific options, and it has the closest walk to class buildings. Brittany Hall is decent but is in a weirdly quiet location and is forgettable. Third North is the “party dorm,” if that’s your thing, and the rooms have kitchens but they are filthy and the rooms are small and old.

Thank you for the great information! That will help a lot in choosing which hall I would want to live in if I am accepted.

@Cmichael23 Best of luck! The stress of college apps will be over before you know it.

re: Third North. Kitchens and bathrooms are really not bad if you are familiar with NYC housing in general. The dirtiness is because many students choose not to clean. The advantage of NYU is that each dorm has their own bathrooms and sometimes kitchen–so you do not have to share with an entire floor. The disadvantage is that it is the dorm’s occupants responsibility to keep the bathroom and kitchens clean throughout the year. Common areas at 3N are as clean as those in other dorms. As a parent, I would not consider it a crazy party dorm. Most partying at NYU is low key and not taking place in dorms.

How does declaring your major work? Are there any impacted majors that have limited enrollment or are you pretty much guaranteed to get the major you want within your particular school?

@uskoolfish everyone is bound to have different experiences, of course. Third North does have a reputation for being the party dorm, but it is also a big dorm and there will also be many students who live there that aren’t into that culture. However, it does seem to have more cases of “lax” RA’s than other dorms. Not sure why, that’s just from personal experience.

@lancelot15 you don’t officially declare your major until right before your junior year. It is pretty easy to switch majors within your school. The only exceptions I can think of are audition or portfolio based programs, and the International Relations major in CAS.

Hi! Thank you for offering! I want to go to Sterns and applied EDI
I was wondering if you could give me an estimate of my chance
Female, Indian

STATS:
High School: a very good New York Public School
GPA: 97/100 weighted. ( no school ranking)
APs: didn’t send but took: (physics, us history, lang, and euro in the past) (currently: calc AB, stat, lit, gov, micro, bio)
took college level business classes (3) and investment class
SAT II: US History 750, Math II (720)
SAT: 1450 (760 Math, 690 English)… took another yesterday
ACT: 33 (superscored) --> 31 math 35 English 33 reading 31 science
National Honor Society, National Spanish Honor Society, an National Business Honors Society

HS Involvement:
-DECA (bus. club): state finalist 10th grade and VP of Written Events (11th) and VP (12)
-Speech and Debate: won a bunch of trophies from 1st to 4th in local tournaments & went to a few national level tournaments
-National Art Honor Society : just a member
-Varsity Girls Golf (Captain): one of the best teams in the region w/ undefeated streak for 4 years. won lots of 1st places and personally county honors
-Published an app on google play store
-Research was submitted to the major competitions like Siemens,worked in a local university to conduct research for a few months, and won a local award.

Outside School:
worked at Kumon
created an organization to teach local kids basic level coding for free
came in 3rd for regional golf competition

Essays: on golf.

Also I am applying for business in:
EA:
Ross, UVA, Fordham, IU, villanova,
Regular:
UNC, Cornell, wash U etc… any recommendations?
Thanks for any help you can give.

also how is life like at Sterns?

I’d be really surprised if you didn’t get in as ED. If not, its stern’s loss. Life at stern is what you make of it. Professionally, you can access anything you want and need if you reach out early on and are proactive with meeting upperclassmen who can later on help you with your career. Socially, it can be kind of a judgmental place. People will want to hang out with you if you’re either very smart & ambitious, outgoing, attractive, and/or wealthy. Basically, these are somewhat determinants of what a future successful person will be, and the more of these characteristics you have, the more likely you’ll have a great social circle. Sort of superficial, but many people in stern will basically value and analyze you based on your characteristics as they would for a company. Not all will be like this. Others will be friends based on common interests and hobbies, and similar personalities.

What you do for fun is basically what the city offers. Lots of great places to explore, bars/nightlife, and also study away programs. Make the most of it during your freshman and sophomore years, because junior year will be more intense and job focused, especially if you’re aiming for IB, S&T, Consulting or any other highly desired field.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Can you chance me for ed1 please?
NYU Tandon (undecided in engineering, I also put lsp as second choice.)
30 ACT (superscored (E34 M32 R22 S30)), 29 without superscore (E34 M31 R22 S30)
97.78 GPA Weighted 94.54 UW.
Toefl 108 (I am International)
I had a studio for game making with my friends. And our game was on Steam spotlight (Sadly, I quit because of unhappy argument about the next step, he aimed too high I think. ).
Second place of TechCrunch Shanghai 2016
Third Place Def Hack NY
+2more hackathons but no awards.
School Leadership team
Few more activities like Club president, tutor.

JV XC 1 year
AP Physics 1
AP Physics 2
AP Calc AB
AP Calc BC
AP Computer Science
AP Computer Science Principle
Why NYU essay is decent.
Thanks

How are your job placements, and did you apply elsewhere besides New York?

@Ysom2022
Thank your for your input!
I’ve heard other people say that its pretty competitive too. Do a lot of people double major? Is there a lot of free time?How difficult are the tests and homework? Is it a heavy load?

Sorry for all the questions… I’m just really curious.

Hi everyone,

After not using College Confidential for 4 years, I just stumbled upon the site again and remembered how helpful it was for me back in high school. I wanted to create a thread for NYU, where I’m about to finish my last semester. I understand that many of you may have questions about admissions, college life, social life, future job placement etc… and wish to get some insight from an actual student. I know I for sure did.

My background:
High School:
Top 250 Nationally, from the northeast
GPA: 3.57/4.00 unweighted. Top 40-50% of my class. Upward Trend: FR: 3.1, SO: 3.7 JR: 3.9
APs JR year: Bio (3) Calc BC (4), US History (5), Euro History(5), Physics (5)
SAT II: US History 800,
SAT: 2170 (800 Math, 700 Reading, 670 Writing)
HS Involvement: 3 clubs, no positions. 2 sports, not recruited. No awards, no research.
Other: Asian Male; Upper middle class; Parents did science/research; 2nd generation
ED to Dartmouth: Deferred then rejected
EA/RD Schools accepted: UMich Ross Preferred Admit, UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt, NYU Stern
Essays: Definitely good since even 4 years ago, I was still considered just an average/slightly below average candidate in the applicant pools for the schools I applied to. Focused a lot on interest in business/finance/investing.

College:
NYU GPA: 3.73/4.00
Involvement: 3 organizations, 2 leadership positions
Internships: FR (None), SO (Wealth Management), JR (Investment Banking)
Full-Time Career Placement: Reputable Investment Bank (same firm as junior summer)

Feel free to ask me anything and I’ll try my best to answer. Will be as upfront as possible

@imsiaocong Should be fine for Tandon. You exceed the standards for acceptance at Tandon.

@ANormalSeniorGuy Job placements seem to be as follows based on what I’ve seen:
Breakdown of placement and payouts.

Each grade will have 650-750 students.

Investment Banking: about 60-65 kids will graduate going into IB each year. Probably 35-40 went into bulge brackets. Around 300-400 students will apply to an Investment Banking job per year. Very competitive.
Base Pay: $85000
Signing: $10000-20000
Expected Bonus: Anywhere between $30000-85000.
Hours: Anywhere between 70 to 100+ hours a week.

Sales and Trading: Around 10-15 students will get a S&T job. Almost all bulge brackets. Around 40 students show interest in Sales and Trading per year.
Base Pay: $85000
Signing: $10000
Expected Bonus: High bonus if you’re a superstar, otherwise low bonus. Perform too poorly and you’ll be fired easily
Hours: 60-70 a week.

Consulting: Not as sure about this field. Seems like 30-40 students get a consulting job. Many students want Consulting, but NYU Stern places badly for it. Big 3 firms: McKinsey, Bain and BCG do not recruit at NYU. Consulting is inferior to the previous two.
Hours: 60+ per week
Base Pay: $65000 Signing: $5000 Expected Bonus: $5000

Non S&T Markets Related Roles (Asset Management, Equity Research). Another 25-30 or so combined will get something in these fields.
Base Pay: $75000-85000
Signing: $10000
Bonus: $0-10000

Back Office, Marketing, Other Fields: You don’t want to end up here…

@NYCcitylover if you’re in stern, here is generally how things are:

Competitiveness: Freshman and Sophomore year are not too competitive. People often work together in school. There are always a few people who aren’t willing to help, but these students develop a reputation for being that way and no one will help them out as a result. This tends to hurt people more than it helps in the long run.

By the time sophomore year ends, your GPA will no longer matter. It’s all about internships and jobs. Everyone wants to maximize their chances of getting an internship. Things get more intense, and people will become more cold and self-oriented. Some people who you think you can trust may withhold information/deadlines from you, pretend they don’t know things, mislead you, spread false information etc…Just be careful with what you hear. The recruiting process isn’t as structured and transparent as it should be, so some may actually be uncertain, but want to sound like they know what they’re talking about. Try to create a group of very close friends who you 100% know you can trust, and work together to help each other succeed, both in school and career-wise.

Recruit with friends who have the EXACT SAME career interests as you for efficiency. Know by mid sophomore year what you want. Don’t recruit for every career that sounds good, if you do, you’ll likely just do badly in all of the interviews. If you’re going for Investment Banking, study with other students who are also 100% set on IB, and spend all your efforts on that field alone. If you fail to land something, you’ll have plenty of time to prepare for Consulting or Asset Management interviews, since their recruiting cycles typically begin after the IB and S&T cycle ends.

Double Majoring: Its extremely easy to double major in Stern. A “major” in Stern is just 4 elective classes. Most people do two majors, and some even add a minor.

Free time: There is plenty of free time. 3 day weekends are extremely common after freshman first semester. Each course you take typically meets twice a week for 75 minutes per class. If you take 4 classes, you’ll have 10 hours of class total per week out of the 168 hours in the week. Most classes don’t have much homework: either none at all, or around 5 HW assignments total, and they take around 2 hours each to complete.
Also, some people join student organizations. Take a few months to explore which ones you’re interested in, then just focus on a couple. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Ultimately, being IN the organization doesn’t help too much. Knowing the upperclassmen definitely will help you tremendously if you become their friend. The junior/senior you become friends with as a freshman may end up going to GS, JPM, Barclays etc… and can vouch for you when you apply there two years later.

Difficulty: That depends on your professor, your level of intelligence and how hard you work. The “Stern Curve” may people anxious, although it tends to help more than it hurts. It allows a maximum of 35% of students in each class section to get an A or A-, which is better than most curves in other universities. You’re also insured by getting the very worst grade of some form of B. Some people can get 50% on all their exams and get curved to a B in that class. Many stern classes also have exams where averages may be in the 60s or 70s. Sometimes, your 75% could become an A-, and an 85% could curve to an A. If you have an easy professor, many will think the exam was easy and do well, and the cutoff for an A- could be a 96%. If you score a 95.5, it could be a B+.

Try and take half of your classes outside of Stern. Those are generally easier (but a lot of grunt work). You can easily do 2 stern + 2 non stern courses each semester, or 3 stern 1 non-stern classes each semester, while still double majoring and graduating on time or a semester early.

Dorming: The best place is actually OFF campus after freshman year. Make your friends, and then move out ASAP!

Best freshman dorms: Palladium, Uhall, Founders, and Third North: They cost ~$8000/ semester. Bad deal when you have to live with 3-5 other people in a run-down suite. RA’s and even suitemates/roommates may not necessarily be lax about drinking or any other activities that students typically may enjoy.

P.S. if you can, avoid Rubin Hall. It is full of cockroaches and it has no A.C, making it unbearably humid and smelly during warm months, and this makes it pretty very difficult to sleep and get work done efficiently.

Most economically-wise students move off-campus after freshman year. It is better to live in a place with people who have similar lifestyles & habits/ can tolerate yours, and where you can act freely without getting penalized for something minor. It’s also cheaper to live off campus. Most students I know pay between $1300-2000 a month to live in much nicer places than the dorms, have their own bedroom, and/or be closer to campus.

What do people usually think about Gallatin Students, is it true that people tend to avoid them? And how good the community is regarding exploration floors, cause I really want to be in the big apple big screen, but it’s in the Brittany hall, and it seems like people don’t really recommend Brittany

Could someone please chance me for ED1?
I’m applying to CAS (Gallatin as second-choice) as a Global Public Health major with a concentration in science
GPA: 3.75 (my school weights AP classes but not honors, so my counselor told me to say my GPA was unweighted)
– my grades did drop a little bit first semester of my junior year because my sister was in and out of the hospital, but I was able to pull them up during second semester. I wrote about this in the additional info section of the common app.
–By graduation I will have taken 9 AP classes and 6 honors classes
– I’m in a premed program offered by my high school, and since I was in that program I wasn’t able to take any IB classes (scheduling conflicts). I explained this on the additional info section as well.

SAT: 1440 (740 reading, 700 math)

SAT 2s: 710 molecular biology

ECs: Two years of holding state-level positions for Key Club, Key Club secretary for my high school the year before that. I also started a club to help students with disabilities at my high school get opportunities to do community service. I’ve played softball for four years-- JV captain last year and I’ll earn a varsity letter this year. I also have NHS and Link Crew. I’ve worked at Firehouse Subs for the last year and a half as well

Essays: I wrote my common app essay about the little girl I’ve babysat for the last three years, who I started babysitting when she was six months old. I wrote about how our relationship formed and how ultimately that was how I learned that I wish to become a pediatrician. I wrote my NYU essay about how I developed a passion for political science and international relations last year during the 2016 presidential election, and I wished to combine these interests with my interest in biology and medicine to ultimately work with UNICEF or Doctors Without Borders. I also said that the amount of diversity on NYU’s combined with the study abroad program will help me pursue this goal.

So far I’ve been accepted to University of Pittsburgh (OOS) University of Alabama (OOS) Grand Valley State University and Arizona State University (OOS). I’ve applied to and waiting to hear back from Penn State, University of Michigan, and Northwestern.

Any comments are greatly appreciated!

I’ve been spending the last few months as a giant stress ball-- my every other thought is my NYU decision. I have a countdown. I want to go there so badly. I read about how some students will send a letter to colleges (usually the ivies) around this time of year updating them on their senior year happenings, which could boost their admissions decision. Has anyone ever done this and had it work?

More general NYU questions: what professors and classes should I try to take, and which should I try NOT to take? Lol. What is the most interesting class offered? How many classes is it normal for freshman to take? Any general advice?