Is NYU Steinhardt MT ED 1 worth it?

Hello! I posted a similar thread on the “What Are My Chances?” board but I am also posting this here for a more MT based perspective. NYU Steinhardt is my number one school and I am considering applying ED 1 for their BM MT with a second interest in CAS (probably undecided or for a Politics major). I’m not sure if it’s the right thing, but I am leaning heavily towards it. I was accepted and attended the Steinhardt summer program as a rising junior so I have already passed my prescreens. Here are some of my stats:

  • 3.93 UW/4.57 W GPA
  • 34 ACT (35 english, 36 reading, 31 math, 34 science)
  • APs: Bio (4) Lang (5) APUSH (5) Environmental (5) Music Theory (5)
  • Senior year course load: AP world, AP calc AB, AP Lit, honors Italian, honors music theory II, choir
  • extracurriculars: 4 years in the drama club(participated in nearly every show), intern for a US congressional campaign, worked professionally at a regional theater, pianist who has played at Carnegie Hall three times, auditioned for and accepted to all-county, all-regional, and all-state choir, classical vocalist who has sang at Carnegie once, winner of multiple piano/voice competitions, intern at local newspaper, main contributor to the school newspaper for one year, stage manager for multiple productions at school and other theater companies, co founded a non profit music organization and produced an event for the organization that raised ~$1k, (hopefully!) president of the school choir for senior year

I understand that much of my admission chances fall on my audition, but I will also be considered for a second non-audition academic major if I cannot be accepted for music - also, if I am accepted for academics, the decision is no longer binding and I can apply to other schools. Is applying ED1 worth it and will it help me increase my admissions chances? Thanks so much!

Have you run the NPC? Would you need to take on ANY debt at all for a full four years at NYU?

1 Like

I just ran it with my family - I wouldn’t need to take on any debt according to the NPC.

2 Likes

Then I do not see any problem with applying ED. Your stats are great. Obvious here on CC we cannot comment on your audition.

Best of luck with this. Make sure that you also apply to a range of schools including a couple of safeties (if there are any safeties for a performance major). I also would pay some attention to the relative cost of different universities. It is not easy to make a living in most forms of music performance.

1 Like

Interesting. I am not sure applying ED for auditioned programs at NYU gives you any boost and it might cause problems. You can decline your admission if you do not get into the BM MT program and get into CAS (or whatever your second choice is) but be aware, that you must accept your second choice within the time frame allowed (and I cannot find what that is). In other words, do you KNOW that you want NYU no matter what and will give up the BM option at any school in favor of just going to NYU? Or is NYU CAS kind of your back up plan if you do not get into any BFA programs you like better? Because it sounds like you will not be able to wait around for results from other schools to determine if you are taking the CAS (and I would be shocked if you did not get in with those stats and ECs (considering music would now be an EC)). Hope that makes sense. I would call the admissions and get answers to those kinds of questions first.

Apply ED to any program you know you would like to attend and can afford to attend if offered admission. That can be difficult to ascertain, but if you’ve done your homework and you feel strongly that Steinhardt is where you would like to be, then it’s definitely a route to consider. I learned about a couple of students who applied to NYU ED and they are so glad they took this route. They got into the program they wanted, they found out early, and senior year turned out for them to be a lot less stressful.

NYU makes you apply to just one (at least performing arts) school – Steinhardt or Tisch – and it’s great that you have determined you’re most interested in the Steinhardt offering. Best of fortune!

I would like to conclude by saying I found the expected cost was only accurate 40% of the time (so every 10 schools applied to, 4 times the numbers turned out to what I thought they would be, but in the other six cases, the numbers turned out to be either much more favorable or much less favorable than I was anticipating. I didn’t find NPC and other tools to be that accurate. This may or may not be a matter of concern for any individual applicant.

1 Like

My D went that route last year, did the summer program and did not get in. The audition was her least favorite, she sang a song they had recommended in the summer program and she felt they didn’t remember her at all. She wished she had applied to Tisch which accepted many more students. In retrospect it was all probably for the best as she ended up at a great school, and I believe financially you have no leverage with an ED offer.

Did she apply ED1?

Yes