<p>Hi All,</p>
<p>Let’s do a SWOT(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for both these schools.</p>
<p>Please provide your thoughts, unbiased opinions on both schools in following areas</p>
<p>*Prestige/ranking amongst peers
*Opportunities for research
*Cost of 4 year college
*Scholorships
*environment
*crime
*Alumni network
Pharmagal is online now</p>
<p>*Prestige/ranking amongst peers (NYU higher prestige)
*crime (NYU less crime)
*Alumni network (BU probably better)</p>
<p>I too am interested in this as I believe I will be applying to both come next year but I am much more so interested in NYU. I've noticed BU seems to be an NYU safty of sorts and I wanted hear some comparisons</p>
<p>There are a bunch of threads comparing the schools on these largely meaningless grounds: search for them. </p>
<p>To summarize, the relative prestige difference between comparable schools is meaningless. You aren't comparing Harvard to NYU or BU. The relative alumni connections are relatively meaningless if you stay in the Northeast with an obvious tilt to Boston for BU and NYC for NYU (duh). The cost may differ slightly, which mirrors the other relatively slight differences. Even crime is insignificantly different; you can't find better urban neighborhoods than these parts of NYC and Boston. The same is likely true for research opportunities; I know BU has programs that directly enable kids to perform research and I'll bet NYU has similar things.</p>
<p>I can tell you that what matters is how you do, in school and then in life. Go where you want to go.</p>
<p>BU is better & you get housing.</p>
<p>financial aid & scholarships are superb [granted, not everyone is happy with their package, i'm pleased].</p>
<p>there is a lot of opportunity for research at BU in collaboration with professors or alone, it's expensive ...</p>
<p>Just one parent's perspective: my S and I toured both BU and NYU. We both felt that BU had more of a campus feel to it. NYU seemed disjointed, with buildings everywhere. The housing, although supposedly fabulous, was scattered around the area.</p>
<p>Much depends on what you intend to study and your gut feeling when you visit the schools.</p>
<p>In terms of housing, BU has a wider variability in type and quality. One advantage is you can live off campus at BU and be next to campus but try to afford that around NYU. </p>
<p>NYU does have the fun element of grad student strikes. They do a nice chant, with drums and cowbells.</p>
<p>Many thanks CC'ers!</p>
<p>I think nothing beats Boston though! Being from the NY neck of the woods (and knowing how much time it takes to get door-to-door from Columbia to NYU), I think BU outweighs NYU. </p>
<p>BU location seems far more conducive toward enhancing your knowledge exponentially purely by being next door to MIT and Harvard. I think it lends itself to extending students' education beyond the boundaries of BU...... through their interactions with their counterparts at MIT or Harvard, through the lectures they could attend, and (hopefully) through collaborative research opportunities with local area researchers. </p>
<p>Does BU allows you to have collborative research opportunities with Harvard or MIT or Tufts?</p>
<p>I think you should post this also in the NYU section. I know that plenty will vouch for NYU and tell you a lot more about the benefits of NYU.</p>
<p>To be honest, unless you have a scholarship from BU, I think you should pick NYU. The majority of people in CC would think you're crazy for picking BU over NYU.</p>
<p>There are groups that extend past the school boundaries but I don't know about labs and research. There's a South Asian group that involves students from various schools around, a gay / lesbian group, some others. You do meet kids from other schools; they live in the neighborhoods, the MIT frats are at BU and have parties, there's the entire night club, going out scene, etc. </p>
<p>It's actually kind of funny to realize that the surrounding schools shuttle kids into Boston so they can do the social stuff of the city. If you have friends at any of the other schools around, they'll be coming in to see you.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>boston is a safer town than nyc. and statistically, BU is the number one safest part of boston. i'm not sure how NYU compares to the rest of nyc.</p></li>
<li><p>boston is known as america's college town. during school semesters, about 25% of all boston residents are college students. nyc is known as the world's best city. unlike boston, which basically shuts down at 2 am, nyc does not sleep. nyc is also more racially diverse.</p></li>
<li><p>BU and NYU are similar in the racial diversity of their students.</p></li>
<li><p>boston and nyc are about equal in weather. surprisingly, the nj and nyc area is just as cold as boston. but only when wind chill is factored in, boston becomes colder.</p></li>
<li><p>i think boston is a lot cleaner than nyc.</p></li>
<li><p>BU is far more generous in grants and financial aid. NYU is often cited as the college where most students are dissatisfied with aid.</p></li>
<li><p>BU's campus has more grass and parts that take u out of the urban feel. BU has a long strip of quiet land at the "BU beach", just a 1 minute walk from comm ave's traffic. based on the one time i visited NYU's washington square park, it was very loud and congested with people. i'm from nj suburbs and wanted an urban college that would still let me enjoy open space. i think BU gives the perfect balance for that.</p></li>
<li><p>traditionally, NYU is more prestigious, especially in its film school and business school. but it not only depends on what u want to study but also on your efforts. a quality education is possible at both schools.</p></li>
<li><p>the surrounding city areas of both schools have many off-campus restaurants.</p></li>
<li><p>BU is known for fantastic on-campus dining hall food. i've never eaten at NYU.</p></li>
<li><p>BU is better-known for its athletics, both on an intramural level and at the intercollegiate level. at BU, i can at least root for a team, especially our ice hockey team. at NYU, 4 years may pass without ever sitting with your classmates at a sports stadium.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>both BU and NYU are good schools. no matter which one u choose, you'll probably learn to live with it. i am probably biased for BU, but i think if i went to NYU, i'd be seeing all these factors in a different light. i could be just as happy as i am now.</p>
<p>i think if u want a school that will impress more US News readers based on ranking, choose NYU. if u want a school that will give u a better education, look further into each college for more information on your major. and if u want a school that will give u an enjoyable 4 years, visit each campus and decide for yourself.</p>
<p>Just a few things to note about the above post, which was quite helpful.</p>
<p>NYU's Greenwich Village was the safest precinct in Manhattan last year, safer even than Columbia's Morningside Heights neighborhood/</p>
<p>I will agree that BU is must more helpful in terms of grants in the financial aid package. At NYU, they "covered" FULL tuition, room, books, everything... however, with the loans I would still be in about 115$ dollars of debt when I graduated.</p>
<p>BU is definitely cleaner, that's a plus</p>
<p>Though Boston may be the ultimate college town, New York is often regarded as a sort of "world capital"- different feels, same excitement</p>
<p>Housing at BU is definitely easier to live in (as in, it's closer to actually being on campus) That said, NYUs is pretty damn fantastic, even if it is further away in many cases. </p>
<p>Just my opinions.. I'm in the same boat but heavily leaning towards BU for financial reasons...We'll see</p>
<p>There are TONS of threads on this issue (look through my previous posts) but here is one that I posted awhile ago: </p>
<p>I attended UW-Madison before attending NYU for a summer (where I had a total blast). However, after visiting Boston University, I only applied to transfer to BU and will graduate from there in May. I know a great deal about both schools and I absolutely love both schools. But these are some of the main differences I saw:</p>
<p>I think the administration at both schools is about the same - as well as the education. BU is known for the quality of the professors (seriously, some will blow you away), while the general quality of NYU is considered better by a lot of people who matter - grad school admissions, rankings, and such (and, well, this is important). We're also right across the river from Harvard, so, well, that definitely gives us an inferiority complex. </p>
<p>I loved NYU when I first attended. However, New York is definitely changing and isn't the same as it used to be. The average person who lives on Manhattan is pretty rich, whereas the population of less wealthy people in Boston is much more prevelant (in New York, they seem to only concentrate in Chinatown and Harlem). Additionally, as a majority, the rich people in Boston, unlike New York, are not business people but are professors or from old money. Thus, because NYC is wealthier/has newer money, New Yorkers tend to wear flashier clothing/care more about what you're wearing. Being seen at the "hottest" club in New York is much more important than it is in Boston. I know I'm not talking about BU and NYU, but these are important differences in the overall feels of where you're going to be. </p>
<p>However, to give New York more credit, NYC has about twice as many neighborhoods (that are known for their own feels, etc.) than Boston has. ...But all just seem to be getting stereotypically wealthier and wealthier to me. </p>
<p>BU is located in a more commercial, run down area. There are highways all around us (which I think is rather unsightly), while NYU is situated right next to WS Park and Broadway and is surrounded in skyscrapers on all sides.</p>
<p>I'd say the students are as similar as it gets if I were to compare NYU and BU kids to those at all other US universities. However, BU kids definitely are much dorkier than NYU kids. But they're nice dorks. BU is famous for its international population, and I'd say that groups mix pretty well compared to other universities. My good friends have been from China, New Zealand, Mexico, Bolivia, Bulgaria, London, Japan. And I'm definitely not alone in that. </p>
<p>I'd say in general NYU kids are more into the scene, whereas BU kids are just there. The NYU kids definitely feel more pressure to pay attention to what they're wearing (though BU definitely has some well-dressed people, but I think the pressure at BU is a lot less than what you get in New York). </p>
<p>And yeah, BU's grade deflation is not fun. It's not THAT bad. It's not like you'll think you're getting an A and you'll get a B. But it is like, you think you're going to get an A and you get an A- or a B+. This happens frequently. My semester grades are always lower than what I expect them to be - whereas at NYU and Wisconsin, my semester grades were almost always what I expcted. And this is incredibly frustrating. I can't even name how many classes I've been sure I got A's in at BU and then ended up receiving B+s. I think a lot of the professors hand out tons of As on the midterms before teacher evaluations, and then completely change their grading methods on the finals. It's frustrating but you get used to it, and this doesn't happen in all classes - but it sure does happen a lot. So, yeah, at BU, I feel like I don't always get the grades I deserve. I just took a class with a bunch of intelligent, hardworking kids - there were about 15 of us. My professor gave me a B+ when I'd worked harder in that class than any other. She apologized but said that she had to draw a cut off somewhere. I don't really see this happening at most schools where if the professor sees you doing the work, they give you the grade. </p>
<p>Anyway, hope I helped.</p>
<p>NYU might be near Broadway the street, but it's not near Broadway, as in where all the theaters are.</p>
<p>Well, you know that Wisconsin has been reported in the NYTimes as having a lot of grade inflation.</p>
<p>NYU is in a great neighborhood. The Village and SoHo have turned into a form of shopping mall but it's still a great area. You will not feel part of any college town or larger college age group being there.</p>
<p>It also depends on what you want to major in. NYU is known for its arts program (Tisch) while BU has a reputable communication program (COM).</p>
<p>Honestly, go with your gut feeling from visiting both schools. BU is in Boston but there is a bit of campus feel to it, while NYU is seriously just in the middle of the bustle. Both schools are great, it's really just a matter of matching the school to your style.</p>
<p>Tisch overlaps partly with COM - in film and TV - and partly with CFA - in acting. But Tisch is not a complete arts school.</p>
<p>sorry to get off topic for a bit - but does the grade deflation decrease your chances of getting into a good grad school?</p>
<p>No. And there is no grade deflation. BU's average grades have gone up but not as fast as at some other schools. Do you really think grad schools are stupid, that they don't know the average gpa of a college? Think of it this way: BU gets 34,000 applications and ends up with 4,000+ students while grad schools may have a handful up to the low hundreds in a class. The numbers of applicants aren't as vast and they look at you more closely. You seriously think a 3.5 from a school where the average is 3.4 is better than a 3.4 where the average is 3.1? The averages are all reported figures.</p>