<p>does NYU superscore your SATs?</p>
<p>I have no idea, but...</p>
<p>Let</a> me google that for you. </p>
<p>Alright. Check the third result.</p>
<p>Hey shades_children, nice to have you back lol. Hope med school's going well for you. Could you tell me a bit about living in the Village as opposed to living on a traditional college campus. Any negatives you've personally encountered? Thanks!</p>
<p>Do you think having an NYU degree help you get into the med school you are in now?</p>
<p>How was graduation?</p>
<p>How hard is it to keep an 85+ gpa in NYU?</p>
<p>shades_children, I just wanted to ask you a question. My D is a freshman NYU and doing pre med, she hasn't declared a major because she is on the fence right now. Last week she seemed very overwhelmed with the requirements for pre med and not being able to explore any other options or classess. She says the the requirements take all of her time and she is afraid that she will be boxed in to just majoring in Chem or Bio cause it becomes easier than having a humanities or other non science majors. She is also worried that if she ends up not going to med school, she would be wasting her time meeting all the rquirements for pre med. Was this ever a consideration of yours during your time at NYU? Did you have any msgivings? What suggestions can I offer her? Or is the usual feeling that happens on this level and this feeling will pass?</p>
<p>CoffeeAddict9716:</p>
<p>I never really disappeared - I just moved over the Pre-Med forums. :D</p>
<p>
[quote]
Could you tell me a bit about living in the Village as opposed to living on a traditional college campus. Any negatives you've personally encountered?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I've never really lived on a traditional college campus, so I can't speak about that.</p>
<p>What I can say is that you really should visit NYU before deciding to come here. You have to like city life. You will be running into "real New Yorkers" as you go back and forth from class, and they sometimes look down their noses at you. You have to deal with the hassles that New York life brings - loud noises at all hours of the day or night, the grit and pollution from heavy traffic, film shoots closing off sidewalks and streets, tiny grocery stores with claustrophobically narrow aisle, etc. It can be hard to find a calm space when everything around you is so hectic and always filled with people.</p>
<p>(Speaking of film shoots, darn you, Will Smith! <em>shakes tiny fist of rage</em> You closed off Washington Square Park and made me walk AROUND the park instead of through it! I'm still outraged.)</p>
<p>At the same time, New York is always so alive. In the Village, there are people walking around and going on with their lives at all hours, even 4 AM in the morning. Anything you want, if you have the money and time, you can find in the city. (If you can't, it probably doesn't exist.) You will never get bored with restaurant food - just go down the street to another place. There are all sorts of exclusive film openings and museum exhibits that you'll be able to go to, just by being in New York.</p>
<p>The NYU campus always made me feel like I was part of this greater living entity that is New York. Even now, when I go downtown on the 6 and get off at Astor Place, I see all of my old haunts and memories come back. In some ways, I grew up and matured because I was in New York. Not all of my experiences were good - some of them were downright terrible. At the same time, I don't think I would be the same person I am now if I hadn't gone to NYU.</p>
<p>I want to emphasize that NYU is not for everyone. Not everyone has the maturity or resourcefulness to live in a big city or deal with the NYU bureaucracy. NYU will not dump freebies into your lap - you'll have to go search them out (and probably line up). NYU will be what you make of it. If you're going to be a whiner who wants everything handed to you on a silver plate with extra gravy on top, go elsewhere. If you're willing to put in some effort, though, NYU can be a really cool place to become an adult.</p>
<p>NYJeo:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do you think having an NYU degree help you get into the med school you are in now?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>When I was applying to medical school, no one asked me about my school or why I chose to go there. It probably helped that it was from a reputable institution of higher education and not Community College of Podunkstown, but that's it.</p>
<p>The one situation where it might matter is if you decide to apply to NYUSOM ED. When I was applying, I heard that NYU prefers to accept NYU undergraduates ED as opposed to RD. The logic was, as I heard it, that if you weren't committed enough to NYUSOM to apply ED, then they weren't really interested in you during RD time because they could accept great students from other schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How was graduation?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Graduation was mixed, for me. It sucked because that was an awful time in my personal life. </p>
<p>My parents came to the CAS graduation at Madison Square Garden, which was pretty cool. We managed to get a wave going and the parents and guests in the stands started doing it, too! It's only the only time I've ever been in Madison Square Garden.</p>
<p>I went alone to the giant NYU graduation in Washington Square Park. It was hot and sweaty, so I would recommend bringing water and sunglasses, wearing sunblock, and carrying a paper fan or something like that to cool off or protect you from the sun. I had a pretty bad seat, so I didn't see much. I think the law and medicine grads had a much better view - they were in front of the stage.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How hard is it to keep an 85+ gpa in NYU?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What's an 85 on the 4.0 scale? Would that be a B+? A-?</p>
<p>lets see 90 is 3.5/4.0. and 80 is 3.0. </p>
<p>So Im guessing 85 is 3.25/4.0? It would be like a B.</p>
<p>And does the ED thing- believe to apply to all graduate,med, law school ect? Or just the med school? </p>
<p>I am interested in law school so that would be a very helpful tip if I knew I had way higher chances.</p>
<p>an 85 is a 3.0, it's a B</p>
<p>80 is a 2.5</p>
<p>75 is a 2.0</p>
<p>etc.</p>
<p>i wasn't sure if nyu looks at the highest composite score from a single sitting, or highest scores from each section from multiple sittings.</p>
<p>i'm still confused. can anyone clear this up?</p>
<p>I think that when schools say they look at your highest score, it's mostly for the school's benefit. Like I think that the schools use it to get to a team average when recruiting atheltes and the schools use it when reporting scores to us news etc. If you have a low score on a section and then a much higher score, the school will probably "use" the higher score - after all it shows that you CAN perform at that level and that you have the basic skills to succeed at the school.</p>
<p>@milk</p>
<p>hi. i'm not the OP, but my father is a faculty member at NYU School of Medicine and for a long time, he was grooming me and prepping me for medical school. when i got to NYU, i ultimately decided NOT to major pre-med (much to the chagrin of both of my physician parents.) and major in politics and communications. </p>
<p>my father said that when he did interviews, he was personally more interested in applicants that WERE NOT pre-med, but who had a strong humanities background with the science requirements completed. applicants who majored in history, english, communications, any sort of humanities, often "stood out" more in the applicant pools. these applicants had taken their science classes along with their major requirements. </p>
<p>tell your D she really needs to think about whether she wants to go to medical school. i had to think long and hard about it, and i even turned down a seat at SUNY Geneseo's B.S/MD program. i just didn't have the drive, the ambition, or the desire to go to medical school. she's still young enough that she can change her mind. what are her motivations to go to medical school? </p>
<p>good luck with everything.</p>
<p>milkandsugar:</p>
<p>I'm sorry I wasn't able to write sooner. This is exam time for me.</p>
<p>At NYU (and many other institutions) it is much easier to do pre-med if most of the required coursework also happens to be required for your major. I believe chemistry/biochemistry have the greatest overlap. It is definitely more difficult to go the pre-med route if you major in the humanities because there is virtually no overlap.</p>
<p>Like missamericanpie said, it isn't necessarily to your daughter's advantage to major in chemistry or bio simply because of the course overlap. If everything else about her application is strong, it may actually be a slight advantage during admissions to be a humanities major because she will be part of a minority of applicants.</p>
<p>It's hard for me to make an assessment of your daughter's situation because there are so many things that should be considered, but let me ask a few questions. If you think the answers to the questions should be kept private, please send them to me in a PM.</p>
<p>1) Your daughter seems to have the opinion that "requirements" means "classes that I have to take but will not enjoy in any way." While I understand that WTE isn't exactly a bucket of joy, is she completely uninterested in any of the offerings for World Cultures or Social/Cultural Analysis? I remember that as a freshman, the MAP courses felt like this heavy burden that I'd have to endure. In hindsight, the only course that was an ordeal was WTE - I think I learned something useful and even enjoyed some of my other MAP courses.</p>
<p>One of the things I would recommend doing is spacing out both pre-med and MAP requirements as best she can. I tried to arrange my schedule in such a way that every semester, I had at least 2 credits of elective - usually I had 4 and sometimes I had 6. That way, even if I disliked all my other classes, there was at least one course I looked forward to every week. I think it went a long way towards keeping a positive outlook on school.</p>
<p>2) Strictly statistically speaking, a minority of freshman pre-meds actually end up in medical school. It's wise of her to consider her options, I think. People do change their minds. That being said, would basic science coursework like chemistry or biology be a total waste in terms of her education? My opinion is that it wouldn't - it's never a shame to spend time learning about the systems that govern the physical world.</p>
<p>I think your daughter may also be having some trouble simply because she is a freshman. If she is anything like I was, college meant making a big adjustment. I graduated from the #1 or #2 (we were always trading places with our rivals across the state) ranked public high school in Pennsylvania. I took all sorts of advanced coursework and generally did quite well. But when I got to college, that all changed. I stumbled because the expectations were just so much higher than I was used to. Coming home with multiple B+'s/B's on my transcript was a first for me, and it took some of the wind out of my sails. There were moments freshman year when I had all sorts of doubts about my ability to continue doing well in school. </p>
<p>I think it's also important to realize that personal stress can contribute to your daughter's sense of the future. Again, if she's anything like I was, she may be comparing herself to her classmates and wonder if she's as good as they seem to be. She might be struggling with living on her own in a big city, dealing with roommates who are very different from her, or eating healthfully. When I was struggling outside of class, it made class seem that much more difficult.</p>
<p>The cure for these kinds of things is time and experience.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your response. Daughter is actually feeling better about things. I think she gets overwhelmed thinking about things and the committment it takes to get to med school. Relying on the statistic that a small percentage of pre meds end up in med school has her thinking what if I don't make it, what am I going to do with all these premed classes and I never explored anything else? She has many interests including art but there isn't too much room to explore these things. She is very happy that she was able to take Italian this semester(she loves the language and is very good at it) and her perspective is a little different. She is thinking of majoring in Psychology which actually gives her more options after graduation if she actually decides not to go to med school. She hasn't even started any of her MAP classes. Her schedule makes it hard for things to fit. She loves NYU and she loves the city and has adapted very well. Her friends actually want to visit her a lot and stay over. I believe the "romantic idea" of being at NYU has worn off and its down to the business of education. First semester she did well. Had it tough with chemistry but ended up doing better than she expected. She too was ranked high in her HS class(4) andf I don't think she thought it would ber this hard. IMHO her confidence was shaken, so she was questioning everything. But she has time to figure things out and so far so good. Thank you for your insight. BTW what was your major? D is afraid that most of her pre med peers are majoring in Chem or Bio becasue it just is easier than trying to navigate a major outside of the sciences. Also was NYU helpful in getting you into med school as far as the advising program?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think she gets overwhelmed thinking about things and the committment it takes to get to med school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As a freshman and a pre-med, it's perfectly natural to feel overwhelmed at times. There's nothing wrong with this. It's better to think it's more difficult than it really is than to underestimate the difficulty. Like I said before, some time and experience willl help her get a reasonable sense of what things should be.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Relying on the statistic that a small percentage of pre meds end up in med school has her thinking what if I don't make it, what am I going to do with all these premed classes and I never explored anything else?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think that's a reasonable point of view to have. It takes some planning, and in some cases it takes planning multiple semesters ahead, but I do think it's possible for her to work in some elective credits almost every semester. That way, she gets to explore things she thinks are interesting.</p>
<p>MAP courses can also be a source of interest, too. I didn't take my Social and Cultural Analysis requirement until my first semester senior year. In retrospect, if I had discovered my interest in history, policy, and urban planning earlier, I might have tried to get a minor in one of those areas or use my elective credits to take those kinds of courses. Unfortunately for me, at that point my schedule was basically rigid because I had to finish up my degree requirements and thesis in order to graduate.</p>
<p>
[quote]
BTW what was your major? D is afraid that most of her pre med peers are majoring in Chem or Bio becasue it just is easier than trying to navigate a major outside of the sciences.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>A lot of people are just going through the motions because chem or bio are easier majors, timewise, as premeds. I certainly felt that way about some of my peers. As a chem major who was actually passionate about the subject, it was annoying to sit through classes when I could tell some people just didn't care. I do think that being in Honors classes for chemistry did a lot to filter that out, though. I wish I would've been able to take the Honors section of Principles of Bio I and II, but it just didn't fit into my schedule as a junior.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Also was NYU helpful in getting you into med school as far as the advising program?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings about NYU's pre-med advising. It clearly worked for a lot of my peers, because a lot of people I knew got into some really great medical schools - Duke, Harvard, Columbia, etc. That being said, I must've just missed the memos or whatever, because I didn't have any sense of what sorts of schools I should be applying for or the importance of applying early. That ended up being a HUGE problem for me during the application process.</p>
<p>I would advise your daughter to go every semester for pre-med counseling to make sure she's on the right track and hitting all the targets that she should be hitting. I would also check out the Pre-Med</a> forums here at CC - I believe that current medical students like BlueDevilMike, BigRedMed, norcalguy, and me give valuable advice that you might not necessarily hear from the school.</p>
<p>Thank you so much. I hope I can ask you things in the future as they come up.</p>
<p>Dear shades_children:</p>
<p>Thank you for taking time to answer all of these questions!</p>
<p>1) Do you feel that the competition of NYU is cut-throat? Is there a lack of a nurturing or supportive environment because of all of the competition?</p>
<p>2) Is it easy to learn from the lecture classes?</p>
<p>3) Do you feel the large-ness of the classes takes away from the personal relationships with professors?</p>
<p>4) What are things you feel you would warn someone about before coming to NYU - such as things we/they should be prepared for?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do you feel that the competition of NYU is cut-throat? Is there a lack of a nurturing or supportive environment because of all of the competition?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No, I didn't think NYU was particularly competitive. Some of the students in the giant pre-med courses could be a bit unfriendly, and there are apocryphal tales of Stern students stealing notes to try to sabotage their classmates' study efforts, but I personally didn't feel affected by it. I often felt a generalized anxiety about my academic performance as compared to others, but I certainly didn't try to demoralize other people to make myself feel better.</p>
<p>NYU is not big on hand-holding or nurturing - it's best if you get that out of your head right now. NYU provides a lot of resources for you, and they will tell you all about them, but don't expect NYU to dump things into your lap. You will have to get up and use them yourself. If you don't think you have the discipline or maturity for this kind of environment, I strongly suggest you go elsewhere for college.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is it easy to learn from the lecture classes?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I can't answer that. It depends on the subject, the lecturer, and you. Is it a subject that comes easily to you? Is the lecturer any good? Are you going to class? Those are all things that will affect your ability to learn from lecture.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do you feel the large-ness of the classes takes away from the personal relationships with professors?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It can, but it's easily remedied if you raise your hand to ask questions, speak to the professor before/after lecture, or go to office hours. Office hours especially are a great way to get face time with your professors. I can't emphasize this enough. They can be rewarding on the academic, professional, and personal level. Again, NYU will not dump personal relationships with professors into your lap - you will have to actively cultivate them. It can be really rewarding when you do.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What are things you feel you would warn someone about before coming to NYU - such as things we/they should be prepared for?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Good question.</p>
<p>You should visit NYU before deciding to come here. I cannot stress this strongly enough. Some people have bizarre fantasies of how cool New York/the Village is and become really disappointed when the reality doesn't live up to their fantasies. You really need to see what being at NYU is like before you make your decision.</p>
<p>The corollary to this is that you need to like New York City, because once you're here, there won't be any escape from it. If you can't stand urban life, this is not the school for you. You can read what I wrote in the first half of post #205 in this thread for more on NYU and the city.</p>
<p>Finally, you need to have some understanding of NYU's culture. The administration and bureaucracy here can be hard to deal with - this is a fact of life and you aren't going to be able to change that. Like I've touched on before, NYU (and NYC itself) demands a certain level of discipline and maturity from its students. I personally feel that significant amount of the student whining about the school is the result of people expecting to be taken by the hand and led to every single opportunity or cool experience. NYU has a ton of resources and a plethora of activities and events, but you are going to have to take advantage of them.</p>
<p>If you think these things are too scary for you, then you shouldn't come here because you'll be really unhappy. Conversely, if you think you can rise to the challenge and thrive in this kind of environment, then go!</p>
<p>Thanks a lot. I think I would love NYU - I love NYC, and I love urban life. I feel like I can handle competition. Now, however, there is just the matter of attempting to pay for it IF I get in.</p>
<p>Thanks again, shades_children.</p>
<p>AP credit......can't skip a class but can take a harder level?</p>
<p>maybe I'm missing something but whats the advantage of taking a harder course in a subject or field that someone does not even plan to major in</p>
<p>for instance I have a 5 in Bio....so if they accept it then it means that I would take Bio 2 (or whatever the next level is) instead of taking Bio 1 right?</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in finance and I'm going to need to keep my gpa up...so wouldn't it be better to take the easier class/ retake the same class and get higher grades?</p>
<p>
[quote]
for instance I have a 5 in Bio....so if they accept it then it means that I would take Bio 2 (or whatever the next level is) instead of taking Bio 1 right?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You could just forfeit your AP credit. And if you mean to take Molec-Cell as a freshman by skipping Principles of Bio, it's a bad idea if Scicchitano's still teaching Molec-Cell. Scicchitano is really demanding, and a lot of sophomores wipe out, to say nothing of the green freshmen who don't really know what to expect of college-level coursework.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I plan on majoring in finance and I'm going to need to keep my gpa up...so wouldn't it be better to take the easier class/ retake the same class and get higher grades?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes. That and the fact that AP Bio is NOT equivalent to Principles of Bio I and II, no matter what the department says. The department will let you skip Principles and go straight into Molec-Cell, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.</p>