Baylor vs NYUSH

College Search & Selection
1

I plan on getting an MBA or any Masters degree or apply to law school. This isn’t a for sure solid plan, but I do want to continue my education

Baylor University

Intended major: Biomedical engineering

Pros:

  • Strong in pre-med track (medicine as a whole)
  • Gave quite a lot of grants and scholarships. Was able to estimate out of pocket costs around $18k
  • Only 4 hours away from hometown
  • If I end up not applying for an MA, I can still make a decent amount of money

Cons:

  • Engineering department for biomed specifically isn't that great (compared to TAMU, it is lower) (I'd put TAMU in this, but Baylor's tuition for me rn is cheaper than TAMU ;-;)
  • Too close to home. I've been wanting to go out of state ever since I was a kid (I don't like TX at ALL lol)
  • Don't plan on applying for med school
  • I'm atheist and when I visited the campus, I felt very out of place and judged for not being Christian
  • 2 required religious classes
  • Extremely strict about drinking
  • There is NOTHING to do in Waco (most likely will get mugged if you leave campus)
  • Lack of diversity (I am Asian. I grew up around majority Caucasians, so I don't mind being the minority, but it would be nice to not be the 2% of the population)
  • Rape/Athlete scandals

NYU Shanghai

Intended major: Neural Science

Pros:

  • In China (SOOO far away from home) (can you tell that I clearly don't like living in my household lol rip); brand new environment and I am able to expose myself to new cultures since I would be an international student
  • Gotten scholarship
  • I get two degrees. One from NYU and NYU Shanghai
  • More prestigious
  • NYU has been my dream school since 6th grade
  • Is able to come back to NYU NYC campus for a year as "studying abroad"
  • Extremely diverse
  • Studying in another country for 3 years!!!!! How many opportunities are like that??????
  • Right in the city so there are plenty of things to do

Cons:

  • Tuition is still pretty high (around $35k a year)
  • More liberal arts and business school
  • Would HAVE to get a Masters degree to make a decent amount of money
  • Applying to Grad school at NYU is extremely competitive (5-10%), so if I go to Baylor and try to apply and don't get in, then I feel like I missed out on a great opportunity
  • Will have to take Mandarin courses (I don't mind, but it isn't easy to learn Mandarin)
2

Hi! I’m currently a freshman (neuro premed) at Baylor and saw this lmao- I totally get your concerns about being a minority on campus- I personally am an Indian American from SF so I’m not used to being a minority but I will say there definitely IS a community of Asian Americans at Baylor and it’s not super hard to get plugged in. As far as your other concerns- I took both my required religion classes online through a community college in Waco, Baylor is strict on drinking but basically just don’t get caught… there are lots of opportunities to go out and have fun haha, there were Rape scandals but I feel like they’re doing their best to make improvements to defining consent on campus (you’ll hear a lot about consent during orientation) and to be honest didn’t feel like those scandals affected me or anyone I knew in any way. I will say there isn’t that much to do in Waco but there are a couple food places, yes there are homeless people but I don’t think getting mugged is that common… as for the engineering program- I don’t necessarily know how good it is but I took Calc I last semester and it was a nightmare. I know there are a good amount of complaints about the math dept being terrible but your science classes will be great. As far as being judged, I don’t necessarily feel super judged every day I walk through campus but there are definitely a lot of extremely religious and extremely white people on campus.