College Park Gemstone or NYU? Advice please.

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Maryland - College Park
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<p>I got accepted by New York University and UMD College Park, waitlisted by all of my "on targets", and denied/waitlisted by all of my reaches. Assuming that I won't get into any of my waitlists (based on my luck so far), I'm gonna be looking at one of my three safeties: UMD CP, NYU, or Franklin and Marshall. I'm probably gonna end up trying to transfer, but with such a low transfer acceptance rate at the college that I would love to go to, I'm not getting my hopes up just to get them stomped into the ground again :). </p>

<p>I've been notified that I have a full ride with only 2k worth of loans a year for 4 years at Franklin and Marshall. I'm an in-state Banneker/Key Scholar at UMD and accepted into Gemstone. I'll also be in the neighborhood of a full ride to NYU based on my financial predicament. F&M is a great college, but I don't think that I would go there over UMD or NYU. I'm stuck between NYU and UMD right now.</p>

<p>If I go to College Park, I'd major in engineering and participate in Gemstone. If I were to go to NYU, I'd major in computer science or maybe also minor/major in something finance related. I like both schools and both computer science and engineering. My question is, which one would be better to get into a top tier graduate school, assuming that I do equally well and at both colleges?</p>

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<p>Equally respected. There is no difference. Grad school apps are point and shoot GPA combo…then they look at your involvement/etc…comparing between two respected schools is last on their minds. Gemstone, however, would look FANTASTIC on a grad school resume. It’s a lot of hard work to be in that program, and it shows. If it’s MD + Gemstone versus NYU + no similar intensive doctoral like research papers…then of course MD would come out on top.</p>

<p>I know comp sci at MD is ranked higher than comp sci at NYU.</p>

<p>Engineering is probably ranked higher at MD.</p>

<p>My guess is finance is ranked higher at NYU.</p>

<p>It’s not like one is Harvard and one is a Louisiana State satellite campus :P, though. So that ranking crap doesn’t matter. </p>

<p>I think it’s going to come down to what environment you like best. NYU is a city campus, MD is a traditional college campus with access to a nearby city. They’re very different. If you’re into sports, obviously MD is the way to go. If you don’t give a damn, then eh. MD has beautiful green lawns but as engineering major unfortunately your classes are on the ugly half of campus. I imagine the student body is quite different, too. MD has a lot of Average Joes - even the sorostitutes (ahem, excuse me, lol) wear sweatpants to class :). I have this image of NYU students being very hipster or more well-off generally, etc. But I’ve never been there. So I have no clue. Entertaining yourself, eating, housing, etc. in the city is probably more expensive. So you may find it somewhat easier at MD to go out, grocery shop, etc. without breaking the bank, and it may be easier to hold down an internship in the DC-area as opposed to in Manhattan. Considering you got a full ride, though, seems like it’d be fairly easy to work while in school and support yourself in either case.</p>

<p>I would be curious to know what campus involvement is like versus campus involvement at UMD. From what I have heard (second-hand), there’s more of a campus community at MD, in terms of large showing to campus events etc. Makes sense since College Park itself is not so exciting…NYU’s immediate area…well that’s a different story. But, perhaps the campus community makes it easier to be part of the leadership on campus and plan larger events. I dunno. Might wanna look into that.</p>

<p>You have two great options, though…full ride to both…way to go ;).</p>

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<p>Thanks for the reply!</p>

<p>I’m disappointed that I don’t have another option, ideally a “crimson” option, but I realized yesterday that I have to take what I have and make the best of it. From what I’ve researched and from what you’ve told me, both schools are great, but I’m leaning more towards Maryland because of Gemstone. Of course, after more research and a visit to NYU’s campus, I’ll make my decision of whether or not I’ll be leaving Maryland!</p>

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<p>Hahaha…well…you will find students at MD who got into the crimson option but couldn’t afford it. Or something similar…my friend turned down a full ride to Columbia University for a full ride here because the Columbia Uni scholarship came with strings attached.</p>

<p>Or students like me who got into other Top 10 unis but had parents who didn’t “trust them” enough to send them out of state.</p>

<p>Another friend, in fact, turned down NYU because MD was cheaper…her parents had the EFC to send her to NYU (she also got a significant scholarship), but they just refused to pay for her education at all, so she is working 30 hrs a week at a high paying job just to make tuition at the state uni.</p>

<p>So, I would say you could be in a much worse situation. At least you don’t have to live with the annoyance of knowing you got in, but are forced to attend somewhere else for various other reasons :P. </p>

<p>Now you have two great options and there’s nothing to regret, no matter the choice you make, and the choice is in your hands :).</p>

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<p>Saying NYU is a city campus is a bit misleading. NYU basically has no campus and is just buildings scattered through the city. Most of its “campus” is public property. The buildings are NYU owned, but I don’t believe the space between is.</p>

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<p>Probably doing Electrical Engineering at NYU’s new school of engineering, and I have visited it and its awesome, come to NYU!</p>

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<p>NYU would be the way to go, but can you acclimate to living in NYC? It’s very exciting, but not a traditional college campus.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/academic-programs/nyu-poly.html[/url]”>http://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/academic-programs/nyu-poly.html&lt;/a&gt;
(on the NYU website)
<a href=“http://www.nyu.edu/academics/schools-and-colleges.html]Schools[/url”>Schools and Colleges]Schools[/url</a>] and Colleges
(look for NYU-Poly)</p>

<p>I have given this speech before on someone else trying to decide on NYU engineering and so here it goes for you… lol hope you find it informative!!</p>

<p>Here is the facts about NYU-Poly, being a school of NYU will add more prestige to the school. Plus for EE you will be expected to research, develop, design, test and supervise the manufacturing of electrical equipment, specializing in power generation, transmission, and distribution, communications, and electrical equipment manufacturing, are all skills which will be taught at Poly. NYU-Poly students are well prepared for a career in engineering. One in every twenty engineers in the US are NYU-Poly grads. And because the faculty provides real world experience (believe me I toured NYU Poly and their intro to engineering course is very tough- building robots ) and demand a high standard of excellence, making Poly students among the most sought after you professionals upon graduation (They have a lot of really good companies that come there- Bechtel, The Bronx Zoo, ExxonMobil, GlaxoKlineSmith, Google, IBM, Johnson Controls, Lincoln Laboratories, Lockheed Martin, Merck, MTA, NASA, Northrop Grumman, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Pfizer, Wyeth, and the list goes on and on and on…) they have relationships with corporations and government agencies like NASA of which 3 NYU-Poly grads were astronauts, to help recruit engineers into jobs! Plus faculty and students have had nobel peace prize winner, a wolf prize winner, and other unique distinctions. I know this because I toured poly and I am going to pick it over my other choices, especially since I want a job right after school (pay off loans, maybe grad school who knows). (Its also the second oldest private engineering institution in the country)… The i2e philosophy allows for anything to happen with your education whether you want to be in research or start your own business with an invention you created. Chose NYU-Poly- it will be an awesome experience and with NYC right there, there are immense possibilities! Now, its up to you to choose!</p>