<p>got into NYU, but to gsp :( Where should I go, gsp or cuse? My sister who is currently attend nyu said that gsp is nyu's community college :( any truth to that? btw this quote really got me thinking if i should accept nyu's offer.</p>
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I found this message board through my brother, who's applying to college this year, and thought I would see what people were saying about my school. I'm a senior at NYU, graduating this year, and I went through the GSP program. Many people are saying it's kind of crappy and for kids not as smart as those who got into CAS, but I don't really think that's true. Many of my friends in GSP got better grades than kids in CAS- I honestly think admissions is a crapshoot. My roommate is a GSP alum and she is graduating with a 3.9 GPA and going to Oxford for grad school next year, so it's really a matter of how hard you want to work in college.
GSP is a great program- the small classes and personal attention are wonderful (although if you want to sleep in a lecture, it's not the place to go), and I honestly learned a great deal. I got rid of all my core requirements and didn't have to take boring MAP classes, and actually got to know most of the people in the program. The program in Florence, which I participated in, is also amazing, because if you really enjoy studying abroad, you get to go your sophomore year and then again later on if you so choose and your schedule allows. It really allows almost any major, except International Relations which is pretty hard to get into at CAS, and I honestly don't know of anyone who did not get accepted into their internal transfer school of choice. As to the 1 or 2 kids into Stern, I know at least 3 from my year, and while it's not that common, there's a handful of people who go from GSP to Stern, and they do well. I would take as many APs as possible, though, because NYU does take them if you do well enough on the exams, and I have several friends who graduated early despite going through GSP. I could have graduated this fall semester, but I love the city so much that I chose to stay for the spring and graduate then.
As to who gets into GSP... I had a friend who got into NYU and he had SAT scores of 1120, and I also had friends in GSP with SAT scores of 1500, so that's why I say admissions is really a crapshoot. There are nicknames of "Generally Stupid People" or whatever, but everyone takes it as good-natured, and most people in GSP are really happy with it. There's Facebook groups dedicated to how awesome it is, lol. I would recommend it to anyone who got in, because you get a really close-knit program in a huge school, and sometimes in your first year, you want that. The classes are not that bad (although there is a LOT of writing and reading; I wrote on average 2 paper a week one semester) and you get all the requirements out of the way without dealing with incredibly large lectures and recitations. Your diploma says the school you graduated from, so no one knows you were ever in GSP, if that bothers you. I know it can be a disappointment to not get into CAS or Stern or Gallatin, and GSP seems like a lame, oh-you-were-this-close second prize, but if you really want to go to NYU, this is almost a better choice than CAS. I guarantee the people you meet will be just as smart as those who did get into the schools, and even if you do decide it's not the place for you, it's easy to transfer out.
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