Hi! I am a high school senior who was accepted into NYU. NYU was never my first choice; I was rejected from Princeton my dream school. I want to major in CS and NYU doesn’t have a strong engineering program. I was thinking about going to NYU and then transferring into a better school like Columbia but I am just kinda scared to do that. They say to transfer you need to maintain a +3.5 GPA and the courses are pretty tough. I wanted to ask which option is better - transferring or staying in NYU?
Well you don’t have the option of transferring now – either way you should do your best. Do you have other options of schools that might be better for your major?
I wouldn’t count on being able to transfer to Columbia. Most top-level schools aren’t very enthusiastic about that kind of thing, and Columbia’s website says it accepts less than 10% of the people who apply for a transfer. It’s also unlikely that Columbia would accept all the credits from your very expensive NYU classes.
There’s nothing wrong with a CS degree from NYU.
Thanks for replying. Nope, I don’t have any other options. I only applied to Princeton, Harvard, and NYU.
I don’t think Columbia is better than NYU. It’s an IVy and a bit more selective but better. That’s silly.
@frozengirl9 But NYU does have a strong program in Arts & Sciences – which also includes CS. Do you have to study CS in the Engineering School?
Many large universities have CS programs both inside and outside of the engineering school. At NYU, there are two different undergraduate CS programs. One is in the School of Arts & Sciences (at the main campus in Greenwich Village). The other is in Tandon School of Engineering (at at the old Polytechnic campus in Brooklyn).
It’s true that the Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn isn’t as selective or as highly ranked as the main NYU campus. But the Arts & Sciences CS program, at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Greenwich Village, is pretty highly regarded. For example, the Courant graduate CS program is currently ranked #30 nationally by USNews. OK, that’s not as high as Columbia (#13), but it’s still pretty high, and comparable to some other Ivies (#25 Brown and #43 Dartmouth).
Here is a comparison of the two NYU CS programs:
https://engineering.nyu.edu/tandon-and-cas-cs-programs
CAS Computer Science is definitely a good and reputable program. I know a lot of people in it who are doing great research and have great opportunities and futures open to them. Since it sounds like NYU is your only option, I would definitely go and go to CAS CS and try your best to maintain a transfer-level GPA, and if you still want to try to transfer when the time comes, go for it. But don’t stress too much! NYU is still a great school and whether you stay for 4 or 1 year, you’ll get a good education.
Columbia is not a good choice for CS unless you want the Ivy cachet, which will not impress recruiters anymore than a CS degree from NYU or UMass Amherst for that matter.
Looks like you got way too exotic with your college list. NYU is a bad option for CS, because of the cost.
Prestige doesn’t matter in computers. Can you afford to go to NYU and graduate with less than $30k in debt? If not, then you’re going to sabotage your future. A $100,000 a year starting salary from a tech company sounds good from a prestigious school, but in NY, that’s paycheck to paycheck. After deflating the cost of living and taxes, you’re making $45k a year. Add $1,500 a month in student loan payments and a broken leg. You’re toast!
What you need to do is get get rid of this “prestige” thinking. Find a school you can afford, get your degree and find a good job, preferably in a place with a lower cost of living. You can go to a community college and transfer, or you could take a gap year and get a scholarship somewhere. Your adult self will thank you later 
Northeastern has a good CS program and you’ll probably get in as a transfer
You would probably be better off at an in-state public university. If you want to major in CS, you should be applying to schools with very good CS programs that you can get accepted to. If you are from New York, then there are SUNY’s that are very good. If you are from Massachusetts, then U.Mass Amherst is excellent for computer science.
There is nothing wrong with a CS degree from NYU if you can get it without too much debt. How much do you expect to be borrowing for 4 years? What state are you from?
I think that you have four reasonable choices: You can plan to spend four years at NYU and graduate from there. You can plan to spend one year at NYU and transfer to a more affordable choice that you could get into, which might be a SUNY or U.Mass or somewhere else depending upon your grades and your state of residence (but it probably isn’t an Ivy League school). You could start at community college and transfer. Or you can take a gap year and apply to more realistic options – including safety schools and including affordable schools with strong CS programs.
Which one I would do if I were you probably depends upon how you feel about NYU, and what your budget is.
I have worked in high tech for many decades. The Ivy League is not going to impress software hiring managers.
@DadTwoGirls: Which schools are likely to impress hiring managers ?
I assume that Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Berkeley, CMU, Univ. of Washington, Illinois, Texas & Georgia Tech should impress hiring managers for CS. but can you share the names of a few others ? Michigan & Wisconsin ? Cornell ? Princeton ? Waterloo ?