<p>So I have a very difficult decision to make but one that I am extremely grateful and happy to make. NYU full tution+ enough money from fafsa and tap to rent a nice car to commute to campus (I live in Brooklyn) OR duke at 25k a year? Besides Duke at 25k a year I also have Cornell at 17k and Northwestern at 12k. I want to major in Physics (specifically astrophysics but no schools seem to have that since its very particular). Anyway my question is this: how is the scholars program at NYU? How is NYU physics? I want to go to med school after.</p>
<p>My parents are not helping me pay for college so basically I will take loans for undergrad and med school but I want to do surgery so hopefully paying back those loans won't be too much of a burden. </p>
<p>Please let me know your thoughts on this guys and I will definitely be seeing some of you on Scholars Weekend!</p>
<p>Take the money & run - you dont’t want to be burdened with debt + in New York you’ll have a lot of opportunities to make connections in the industry you want to eventually go into. </p>
<p>I think NYU does have a astrophysics specialization or major. I don’t know too much about physics at NYU but people that I say that have taken physics classes at NYU say its very intellectually rewarding. </p>
<p>You also get free trips abroad for spring break/winter break for the scholars program and other special considerations and perks - I would highly consider NYU in your case. </p>
<p>If you plan to go to Grad School i would go with the school that gives you the most money. </p>
<p>Honestly, the main perks of scholars are the winter break trip freshman year, the spring break trip sophomore year, and getting to put it on your resume. Everything else that scholars do, anyone else can do also. The quick run down is that you have to take a biweekly class freshman and sophomore year, maintain a 3.65 GPA, do volunteer work every semester, study abroad at some point, apply for a Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund grant, and complete the honors track in your chosen major. A lot of people end up dropping it after the first two years because there are so many requirements and not all that many obvious perks after years 1 and 2.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve only taken intro classes in the physics department, but it’s my opinion that the physics department couldn’t care less about their undergrad students. The classes I had were disorganized, unclear, and the “tests” consisted of a grand total of 14 multiple choice questions because the professors were too lazy to create and grade real tests, meaning that one question wrong drops your average substantially (for perspective, the chemistry department gives normal problem-based exams and hand grades them for all 800 students in general chemistry and another 800 in organic, and the biology department gives multiple choice tests, but with 50-70 questions on each). I don’t have experience with upper-level physics classes, so I can’t speak to those. NYU does have a department of astrophysics and cosmology, so you would likely be able to do research if you wanted to.</p>
<p>Also I would 0% recommend driving to campus every because there’s no where to park ever :P</p>
<p>If someone does drive to campus every day, they’d have buy the monthly passes in one of the public parking garages. I can only imagine how expensive that would be.</p>