Is NYU your dream school?

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
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<p>bloggergirl, if you really wanted an academic setting, you wouldn’t have applied to a B school full of ibanking-obsessed preprofessionals. You would’ve applied to Columbia and NYU CAS as back-up. Transferring to Columbia shouldn’t be too hard if you do well though.</p>

<p>Xanthom keeps reiterating that NYU was ranked as a “dream school” because of average students voting, and that makes sense. Do you think only Valedictorians have access to Princeton Review? The average voter is an average student. They have no shot at Ivies but can dream of NYU. I’m surprised it was ranked as #1 dream school though; no campus, huge, no school spirit, overpriced - most people would be unhappy here. Schiesser has valid points. It takes a certain type of student to want this environment.</p>

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<p>Not to sell NYU short, because I really do love the school (so much so that I came back to get another degree here), but the whole “it’s the #1 dream school” concept is a bunch of bull. I wouldn’t say it’s because “average” students are voting but it’s mostly based on those students having the wrong assumptions and goals. NYU was never the #1 dream school until my sophomore year, after it had been announced that the Olsen twins were going to attend Tisch. It’s Sex and the City syndrome at its fullest, attracting students to a school not because of the academics, job prospects, student life, sports (or lack thereof), or anything else but because of the allure of an idealized, sanitized, commercialized New York City. That NYU is not an Ivy and is in Greenwich Village as opposed to Morningside Heights (which most non-NYers equate with Harlem anyway) makes it that much “cooler.” When I started, I remember being pleasantly surprised at how diverse in personality the student body was. Now, nearly every single freshman I see is either a petulant hipster or a bratty trust fund baby (or both). It’s almost like they’re conforming themselves to fit in with what they–and those doing the Princeton Review survey–dream of NYU as being. Most, I think, grow out of it, but the formative sentiment is still there.</p>

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<p>i don’t see how it’s new york’s (or NYU’s) fault if those kinds of people are attracted to NY/NYU. it’s not like we go around broadcasting that we’re full of hipsters. if people want to apply and come to a school under those pretenses, i don’t think it’s the school’s fault. those people will feel stupid in four years when they realized they blew all of their money chasing something they’ll never have, some simulacra of new york. it takes a lot of stupidity just to come to a school for the city it’s in. i feel like NYU does what it can to market itself as a unique school that just happens to be in Greenwich Village.</p>

<p>it’s the same thing that LA struggles with, what i prefer to call “bright lights, big city” syndrome rather than SatC. </p>

<p>we’re not even #1 dream school anymore!!! who keeps throwing that number around?! we’re number 5! STANFORD is number 1. less than 16k students and parents actually responded to the survey. we can argue endlessly about who actually responded, what the demographic is, or whatever else. </p>

<p>for those that are actually curious about this survey that gets name dropped all the time: [The</a> Princeton Review, Inc. - Princeton Review’s 2009 “College Hopes & Worries Survey” Reports On 15,000 Students’ & Parents’ Application Experiences, Concerns & “Dream” Schools](<a href=“http://ir.princetonreview.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=372901]The”>http://ir.princetonreview.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=372901)</p>

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<p>lol sex and the city syndrome. That is not how it is at all. I can’t believe NYU is behind Stanford! Although top 5 dream school still isn’t bad.</p>

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<p>

Part of it is that NYU changed dramatically in the past 30 years - it used to be a commuter school with crappy reputation, now it’s ranked in top 40. As for the hipsters, that’s mostly a result of Greenwich Village and the culture here. And with tuition/room/board over $50K a year, what else do you expect but rich people? Not that that’s a bad thing necesssarily. I wish NYU was more affordable, but rich donors are handy <em>coughTischfamily</em>.</p>

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<p>I know NYU’s history quite well, having taken two courses that touched on it extensively. It didn’t change that drastically in the past 30 years, but it HAS changed drastically in the past 10 or so. It never actually had that terrible of a reputation, but it was always overshadowed by Columbia and looked down upon because it admitted <em>gasp</em> women and Jews. Also, it was more of a commuter school simply because there was no room to build dorms. Once NYU started buying up buildings and converting them into dorms, there were less commuters but the local residents started hating NYU. It’s actually kind of sad how much animosity there is between NYU and the locals, particularly since NYU used to be so involved in the community.</p>

<p>I assume we’re going to disagree about this, but Greenwich Village does not have a culture of hipsters (parts of the East Village, on the other hand, now do). Historically, it’s a small neighborhood of tenement dwellers, independent shop owners, activists, artists, writers, performers, homeless chess players, and aging former hippies. This whole idea that hipsters flock to Greenwich Village is that idealized vision of NYC that I was referring to. I take no issue with change and progress, but the speed with which more and more NYU freshmen conform to this homogenized social subset is disheartening when I recall a time BEFORE it was totally awesome to wear oversized neon pink plastic sunglasses and a kerchief. Basically, I just think it’s a self-perpetuating cycle.</p>

<p>I went to NYU, and I am far from rich. So were all of my friends. So, no, I don’t expect there to be only rich people at NYU, but I can see how one would make that assumption, particularly since tuition has jumped so drastically since I graduated.</p>

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<p>As a current student, I too have noticed the Sex In the City syndrome - I like to call it “Gossip Girl syndrome lol”. I’m from NY and these are the stereotypes I always heard about NYU students - Jews, Asians, gays, liberals, rich kids, hipsters, artsy types. Freshmen year confirmed these stereotypes as true. :stuck_out_tongue: I don’t fall into these categories and lots of people don’t - but hey, it’s a huge school. Yet stereotypes exist for a reason.</p>

<p>Greenwich Village has changed dramatically in the past half century. It’s hardly the good ole’ days of Bob Dylan strumming at the White Horse Tavern anymore. East village is no longer hipster central - the trend spread throughout NYC and to the rest of the country as the media latched onto it and it became mainstream. So yeah, you’ll find people with their keffiyeh’s here, but you’ll find that at SUNY’s too.</p>

<p>The animosity between NYU and the Village has only strengthened. I’m sure you read about the Washington Square Park renovation controversies (Park opened just last week btw; looks beautiful). People were making a huge fuss.</p>

<p>If NYU had a campus, this whole thing would be easier. They wouldn’t be trying to take over WSP for one thing, and basically they could manicure their own land to perfection and leave the rest of NYC alone. Instead, they’ve become the 3rd largest landowner in Manhattan - after the Govt and Church - and locals hate the school. I haven’t noticed this much tension between Columbia and the Morningside Heights Community (I live near there).</p>

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<p>Over 37,000 applied for NYU freshman admission last year; I heard that this is the most for any U.S. college. If true, isn’t this one way of saying it’s the number one “dream” school?</p>

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<p>See, I always heard the “Gay-Y-Jew” stereotype, which is understandable considering NYU’s history of inclusiveness. I also knew there were artsy kids, but the stereotype was confined to Tisch. The hipster/rich kid stereotype is newer, at least for my year, but it’s good to hear that it doesn’t completely hold. Of course, it’d be better if people didn’t keep playing into it, but whatever.</p>

<p>And yeah, I know Greenwich Village has changed, but I think a lot of the reason why misfit kids from outside NYC flock here is because of that vision of Bob Dylan playing his guitar at the White Horse Tavern. That’s definitely part of the history of Greenwich Village, but it’s an organic part, not something that should be made into a commodity and consumed as part of some social rite of passage (like what happened with CBGB’s, which, towards the end of its life, had become more of a materialist sideshow than true punk rock venue). I just hate that kids come to NYU expecting the area to be one way and then, when it’s not, either scorn it or start making it over into what they want. </p>

<p>Don’t even get me started on the way hipsters have become mainstream. At this point, I’d prefer goth kids.</p>

<p>And yeah, the WSP renovation, which picked up speed my senior year, just completely spiraled out of control. Granted, a lot of it is the city’s fault for refusing to be at all transparent, and NYU doesn’t have much of a hand in the renovation anyway, but people still blame NYU. There’s a whole controversy now about the Provincetown Playhouse and the Catholic Center being torn down; the latter’s site is going to house a giant inter-faith center (so, upgrade) and the former’s site is going to be a new law building. I’m not sure why they tore down the Playhouse, but they did. And of course there was the whole thing with St. Ann’s on 12th (which, btw, looks hideous right now). NYU just can’t win, and yeah, a lot of it has to do with the fact that they are expanding like crazy into a neighborhood already well-populated with very vocal and organized locals. </p>

<p>Regarding Columbia, I actually interviewed several non-profit directors in the area (this was for a job), and the level of hatred towards Columbia is just astonishing. When the school started pushing for more land to build a new science lab, people were being pushed out of their apartments by some really, really dubious means. However, no one really hears about it, because, well, look at the demographics of Morningside Heights and Harlem, and look at the demographics of the Village. It’ll be interesting to see how people react when Columbia starts moving on to St. John’s land.</p>