<p>Hello! Right now I am a junior in high school, and I have been exploring college options for a couple years now but only recently became serious about NYU (Stern). I live in a suburb and am pretty conservative in my views. I have always loved NYC and cities in general, but as I read more and more about NYU I have concerns that I am hoping current NYU students can answer:
1. How are you paying for the extreme tuition?
2. I've read that Stern students are pretentious, rich and exclusive; is this accurate?
3. Is the atmosphere extremely liberal?
4. How connected are the students?
5. Do you regret not having a typical college experience?
6. How manageable is the courseload?
7. How big are the class sizes (I never believe that teacher:student ratio they give on websites!)</p>
<p>I am sure I have more questions, but it's pretty late right now so I can't come up with them right now!</p>
<p>Hopefully to alleviate some concerns:</p>
<ol>
<li>I received a generous scholarship from Stern (~$20k). I was thoroughly surprised considering all the things I heard about NYU’s financial aid, and I was not a very strong applicant, or at least I don’t think I was. I took out the federal subsidized loans, but not the unsubsidized ones. And my parents are paying for the rest.</li>
<li>Completely false.<br></li>
<li>NYU, in general, is a very liberal school, but there are conservatives. In Stern, I think most people are socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. But I can’t say for certain.</li>
<li>Stern does try to do as many things as possible to create a community for its students (i.e. Stern Cohorts), but other than that, its really up to the individual to go out and meet new people. If you’re looking to be friends with everyone in your grade, Stern may not be for you.</li>
<li>I was deciding between Stern and UMich (Ross). Both schools, in terms of social atmosphere, are very different, basically opposite. Sure, sometimes I wish I could paint myself maize and blue and go to a sports game, but I definitely do not regret choosing NYU and living in NYC.</li>
<li>The course load is very manageable if you have good time management. Some classes are more difficult than others, and require more time. If you take 4 of those types of classes in a semester, then yeah, you might have a difficult time. But if you plan your schedule well, you should be fine.</li>
<li>Class sizes vary. Your first year at Stern, you’ll typically be taking your liberal arts requirement in CAS. Those classes can be quite big (~70-100). You’ll have some small classes like Writing the Essay (WTE) or Commerce and Culture that has like 20 kids. Microeconomics is around 200 kids in the fall, and 70 kids in the spring. Most business core classes (Foundations of Finance, Intro to Marketing, etc.) are around 70 kids. Class sizes decrease as you take more advanced business electives.</li>
</ol>
<p>(1) Scholarship + parental contribution paid for mine. Many students, however, have to take on considerable debt.
(2) Amongst my CAS and Tisch friends, we always perceived the Stern students as quite pretentious - this is due to the Stern students who only wear suits all the time, to every class. Of course, my friends and I have friends in Stern. However, we became friends because the Stern students were taking CAS classes or double majoring in CAS.
(3) How conservative are you? NYU is one of the most liberal schools in the US and, this past year, was ranked as the most politically active school. If you’re conservative on LGBTQ rights and issues, then NYU is probably not for you - especially since NYU is located in the village. If you’re not familiar with the LGBTQ movement, something called “Stonewall” happened in the same part of NYC as NYU. And, to this day, the village is known as the ‘gayest’ part of NYC. If you’re conservative when it comes to social policies such as social welfare, socialized healthcare, etc. then you might want to stay away from the politics, sociology, psychology and philosophy departments. But, remember, EVERY top University is going to be liberal (Gtown and ND potentially being exceptions) - they range from somewhat liberal to very liberal.
(4) Students are as connected as they make the effort to be.
(5) I would not trade my NYU experience for any other school. I love my current campus university, it’s wonderful. But there’s nothing like NYU.
(6) So long as you can manage time well, it’s not very difficult.
(7) My classes ranged from 8-30 usually.</p>
<p>@NYU2013 Not every Stern student wears a suit to class. People wear suits because of interviews, work, networking sessions, or presentations for class. The percentage of the Stern population who solely wear suits to class, just to wear a suit to class, is less than .01%, if even that.</p>