NYU Abu Dhabi Class of 2019 - Applicant thread (Post your comments & stats)

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
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Hello everyone,

For people who applied Early Decision II or Regular Decision to NYUAD: I sent my Early Decision II application two days ago (January 1), and I’m feeling excited and anxious at the same time. I’d like to hear any thoughts/questions/remarks/etc from anyone else who will hopefully be my classmate there! Also, I’m curious to see the stats of the applicants–I’ll put up mine (I know this is not the forum for that, but anyone is welcome to chance me and I’d happily chance back).
I applied as a dual U.S. and Mexican citizen; I’ve lived in Mexico my whole life.

Objective:
[ *] SAT I: didn’t submit
[ *] ACT: 31C (34E, 34M, 28R, 27S)
[ *] SAT II: didn’t submit
[ *] GPA: 97 out of 100. (98 last semester)
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/25
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): No APs at my school.
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: Calculus, Health sciences, Statistics/Probability, Chemistry, Philosophy, Economics, British Literature, Hispanic Literature, Technology, Visual Arts, Academic English, Psychology.
(My course load is a combination of the Mexican schooling program and the Global Assessment Certificate (GAC))

Subjective:
[ *] Extracurriculars:

  • MUN - Cofounded club, Chaired two committees, two Best Delegate awards, Secretary General for upcoming conference.
  • Theater - Acted in two plays: Rock of Ages and Hercules. (In the first one I was the mayor and in the second I was Pain, if you were curious)
  • Piano for 10 years.
  • Keyboardist/vocalist for a band for 3 years. Went on national TV one time and played several times at Hard Rock Café.
  • Honor Society member at my school (raised funds for education for low resource families, organized cultural events for school, have delivered several speeches)
  • Student Council member - Representative and secretary of communications
  • Web designer - self-employed, designing logos and websites. Graphic designer for my school.

[ *] Job/Work Experience: Web design, tutoring students (both middle school and high school)
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer camp counselor for three summers, visits to hospitals and orphanages as entertainer w/the Red Cross.
[ *] Essays: One about my camp counseling experience (good), another comparing NYUAD to how the Earth looks from space (the stronger one).
[ *] Teacher Recommendation: One excellent, one good.
[ *] Counselor Rec: Don’t know, probably good.
[ *] Additional Rec: School principal, probably great.
[ *] Interview: Not yet, will have one in early January at my school. (Will anyone else get interviewed? When my counselor told me about that, I thought it was weird since CW is supposed to be for that)

Other
[ *] Country: Mexico
[ *] School Type: Private
[ *] Ethnicity: White, Hispanic
[ *] Gender: Male

Additional notes: Just discovered a grammar error in my already submitted Common App essay :frowning: I wrote “begun” instead of “began”. Hopefully they’ll let it slip…
And I sent my TOEFL scores to NYU on Jan 1st (it will take a week to get there), does anyone know if that’s going to be a problem since they ask for all scores to be in their system before the application deadline?

Thanks to everybody in advance, and good luck everyone! See you in Abu Dhabi in February.

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Bump… thought this would become big, haha. I guess I was wrong.

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Hi :slight_smile: I applied ED 2 as well! I got my Albert login a few days ago and I’m so nervous. :pensive:
Our school doesn’t rank, but according to the counselor, I should be in the top 1/8th of the class.

These are my stats:

SAT: 2160 (CR: 760 W:710 M:660)

IELTS: 8.5/9 (Haven’t sent official reports yet, but mentioned on CommonApp)

Grade 9
10/10 CGPA

Grade 10:
10/10 CGPA

Grade 11:
Math: B (50-59)
Accountancy: A+(80-100)
English: A+
Business Studies: A+
Economics: A+

Grade 12 Latest:
Math: B+
Accountancy: A+
English: A+
Business Studies: A+
Economics: A+

My ECs are:

Community Service Project in Hungary
Helped the school raise funds for charity
Martial arts for 5 years
Piano for 10 years and lots of performances
Won a national writing competition
Elected School Prefect
Awards for Academic Achievement in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th midterms
National Award for Academic Achievement in 10th
Award for Musical Achievement in 10th
Model United Nations Conference - ECOSOC Committee
Represented the school at and won various interschool spelling contests
Medal for International English Olympiad
Worked part time as an accountant at a small business
Published poetry in many magazines
Fluent in 3 languages (Assamese, Hindi, English)
Learning French and Arabic

Essays:
One about writing, which was awesome. My NYU supplement was probably 7/10 at best, and I focused on NYUAD.

Recs:
One from my English teacher and the counselor. Counselor’s was generic, but my English teacher’s should be fab. :slight_smile:

Other:
Country: Indian citizen, UAE and Oman residency
School type: Private
Ethnicity: South Asian
Gender: Female

Ten days left to CW invites!! I’m so exicted! :smiley:

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@jkr119 A separate interview? CW is for that. Maybe your counselor meant the invites will come then? They should be in by Jan 15.

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@Shystarryskies‌ Wow those are amazing stats! I’m sure you will get in, and I think something that will really help you is the fact that you have lived in multiple countries and have international experience. I don’t quite have that :confused: but hopefully my leadership/desire for diversity will be reflected on my recs and essays.

Yes, my counselor said they would go directly to my school to interview me, which sounded weird, but maybe it’s because I applied for the NY campus as a secondary option and those interviews are separate? The offices for Latin American admissions is located about half an hour from my school, so I’m guessing I’ll be one of the few in Latin America to get an interview prior to CW.

And I had no idea when they send out the CW invites! But that’s soon; I’m getting excited now, although I’m a little nervous I might not get invited :sweat_smile: Well, I should think positive…right?

By the way, do you think we could maybe share our nomination/supplement essays with each other? I really didn’t get the chance to get second opinions and I have no idea whether they’re strong or meh. I could tell you my opinion about yours if you want. :smiley:

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@Shystarryskies‌ Oh, and I haven’t gotten an Albert login… does it take a while to get to applicants?

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@jkr119 Well, I submitted my app on the 27th and got it on the 31st, so about 4-5 days I guess? It’s mentioned on the website that they send it within a week. And sure! I’ll pm you mine. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hey :slight_smile: I applied and was accepted ED1, so I know what you’re all going through! Good luck everyone! I can try and answer questions about the app process or CW, if you have any!

@jkr119 Your Albert login is on your Application Confirmation email. Mine took 5 days to come through but there’s a lot more apps now so just be patient. If you don’t have it by the end of the week maybe email them? And re. your scores, I’m sure that’s fine. It’ll take some time for them to review your app anyway and if they’re missing anything, they’ll contact you as they did when they didn’t have my official IB scores.

Objective:
SAT I: didn’t submit (but did mention on CommonApp as was going to send - 1990 inc 730 CR, 600 M and 660 W)
ACT: didn’t submit
SAT II: didn’t submit
GPA: don’t have
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): don’t know but maybe top 10%?
AP (place score in parenthesis): don’t have
IB: 37/45 on diploma. Hist HL 7, English HL 7, Psych HL 6, Chem HL 6, Maths SL, Italian AB
Senior Year Course Load: IB Diploma

Subjective:
Extracurriculars:

  • Girlguiding UK - Member since age 7 as youth participant and then leader. Young leader with Rainbows (aged 5-7) for 4 years. Leader with Guides (aged 10-14) for 1.5 years. Peer educator for Brownies (7-10) and Guides for 2 years. Volunteered at Girl Guides/Scouts world conference. Activity instructor at an international Guide and Scout camp.
  • Debating Team Member - team won 2nd place at regional competition, highly commended individual
  • English Prefect
  • Youth Advisory Board Member for a social enterprise company
  • First Aid Training from British Red Cross
  • Learning Mandarin while living in China in lessons and independently
  • Attended a Summer School at the University of Cambridge

Job/Work Experience: Work experience at an MPs office. Worked at KFC part-time during school, worked as a librarian at my school, and have spent almost a year so far since graduating working as an English teacher in China.
Volunteer/Community service: 3 month volunteer placement in Ghana, working with a local NGO on projects relating to education e.g organising a community awareness event on contraceptives.
Essays: One about being a kindergarten teacher, and the NYU one about wanting more and being an explorer. Then the CW/nomination one about gender equality in the workplace in the UK.
Teacher Recommendation: Don’t know but pretty sure it was good as it was from my best teacher, even though it was a year and half after I left.
Counselor Rec: Really good. (Though I thought it was super cheesy!)
Additional Rec: Reference from volunteering in Ghana, pretty good.
Interview: I had two at CW? (Though they call them ‘conversations’ and they’re actually really informal) Both went really well, especially the faculty one.

Other
Country: England
School Type: State, Grammar
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female

I actually finished school in 2013 so have been out of school for some time, but used that time to volunteer in Ghana and work in China. My stats (especially my scores) aren’t as high as lots of people (in fact, someone mentioned at the CW that most accepted IB students had scores between 38-40!) but I think it just goes to show how much they care about the individual - especially once you make it to the CW, as basically everyone who goes to that has the grades to get in but it’s whether they like you as a person after that.

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@vickyness‌ No wonder you got in! Congratulations!
And thanks, I’m much more calm now that I’ve seen many people are having the same worries but that it’s normal. Well, let’s hope they like me as a person lol. See you in August!

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@vickyness Hi Congratulations of getting accepted to NYUAD 19’! I applied ED II to NYUAD and have a small question. I got my Albert ID but it shows that NYUAD has not received my SAT 2 scores neither have they received my high school transcript. I sent my SAT 2 scores on 27th December but I’m guessing they’ll receive them soon because I have the receipt.
My main concern is the high school transcript. My counselor uploaded it (stamped by the school) on Common App in my school report but I’m not sure, do I have to mail them a hard copy of my high school transcripts stamped and sealed as well? I live in Dubai, so it wont take much time and I’m really scared because there are around 9 days to the CW invites!
Please reply, and once again CONGRATS!!!

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@vickyness‌ Your profile sounds amazing! And it gives me hope that admissions is truly holistic :slight_smile:
I was wondering, if you don’t mind telling me, did you receive any financial aid/scholarships? I’ve read about how generous NYUAD is, but I wanted to know if that’s true for every student.
Thanks, and congrats! Hopefully we’ll be classmates come August :slight_smile:

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@jkr199 Thanks! Yeah, worry away but there’s really nothing you can do until the CW! Try and ignore all the stuff about financial aid theories too - we don’t think it works for AD and you only get a change when they’ve made a final decision, whichwwon’t be until after CW and almostthe ddeadline.

@ssk594 As long as you sent everything you’ll be fine. It takes a while for them to process everything and check the boxes (my application fee box still isn’t checked even!). You don’t need to send the transcript by hand either. If there’s a problem they’ll contact you, but assume it’s fine otherwise.

@shystarryskies Thank you! I avoided posting my stats/changing etc before I found out as I didn’t think they were good enough, especially compared to the sort of things people post here! Btw, I would think you and @jkr119 would both get invites to CW at least, then it’s down to you as a person! And re. financial aid, I got 100% covered as did a lot of others, maybe 2/3? Everyone got something but I know there’s a handful of people that got accepted but can’t afford it :frowning:

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@vickyness Thanks! Yeah, I’ll just wait and see - there’s really nothing else to do. See you in August!

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@vickyness Thank you so much! But woah.
Couldn’t afford it? I thought NYUAD covers everything. They’ve even mentioned it on the website! I suppose they received more than the Emirate was willing to cover though :frowning:

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@shystarryskies Most people still get plenty of financial aid but it’s not completely limitless, and with the class size increasing they’re having to scale back the FA a little. I think its been like 3 or 4 people out of 80 that haven’t got enough and I know some of them are trying to appeal.

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@vickyness‌ thank you so much. Could you please tell me how CW went and what kind of questions they asked you?

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CW is amazing! Like I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed it, and would have done even if I hadn’t been accepted. It’s this crazy non-stop weekend with so many new people to meet from all around the world, which I think was my favourite part. I think I got about 9 or 10 hours sleep the entire time as we just stayed up chatting all night! It’s a chance for them to see what you’re like, but just as importantly for you to actually see NYUAD and if you’d fit in etc. Just be yourself, talk to as many people as you can (including the admissions staff who are really nice and try not to think about them judging you!) and have a good time.

As for questions, you have two interviews on the last day - one with a faculty member and one with someone from admissions. They asked me a bit about my essay (the nomination/CW one), what I’d like to study, how I’d found the weekend/NYUAD, my life and what I was interested in. Nothing scary or too difficult, and they really were just conversations. In my admissions conversation, we spent a good few minutes discussing British universities and the culture of drinking/Freshers week, so really nothing to do with NYUAD! I could, and have talked about the weekend for ages but you really just have to experience it for yourself! Fingers crossed for you getting an invite! If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask :slight_smile:

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@vickyness‌ That sounds awesome! Thanks for being so helpful. :slight_smile:

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@vickyness‌ wow! that sounds amazing! by the way how was the stay at the hotel? Do you remember the name? and did you have a room mate? Just curious and excited!

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@ssk594 It really was :slight_smile: No, now that Saadiyat is open we stayed in rooms there, which was nice being on campus and seeing what dorms are like (they’re not exactly dorms and are laid out differently but the bedroom’s are pretty close).