<p>So there are a few people in my school who are <em>in love</em> with NYU. Why?! They can't seem to answer so can anyone here? I really do not see any merits at all in NYU. It is an extremely overpriced college that for some reason has reasonably good name recognition. In my opinion, it's for the rich prep school kids who got rejected from Columbia and want to stay in New York City while their parents can tell their friends, "oh, well my kid is going to NYU!". UC schools, Michigan, and a bunch of other state schools will save you from a ton of debt and give a the exact same degree. I know this comes off as a rant against NYU and there other private schools I could have picked out but I never understood the fascination with this school. Can anyone tell me what makes people so infatuated with NYU?</p>
<p>"UC schools, Michigan, and a bunch of other state schools will save you from a ton of debt and give a the exact same degree. "</p>
<p>As a native New Yorker who has had dozens of friends, high school classmates, and colleagues who have attended/graduated from NYU, I would beg to differ with that statement. In actuality, some of the state schools…especially UMich, UVA, and the top 3 UC schools will provide a superior degree to NYU’s based on what I’ve heard from HR colleagues, professors involved in topflight graduate programs, etc. </p>
<p>Though NYU has risen quickly in the rankings and popular esteem, it has not reached the level of those public Ivies quite yet.</p>
<p>Well if you want an urban experience then NYU certainly provides that, and then some. For many students coming from major cities anything less seems like a cultural desert. If that experience is not important to you then NYU is not the best choice. This is also the case for major (but not the top tier) colleges in Chicago, Boston, and Washington D.C. Overrated is a relative term.</p>
<p>Stern is quickly becoming a more and more well-known school. Before, it wasn’t much, but nowadays, it’s quite the place to be.</p>
<p>Not to mention the amazingly difficult entry requirements (for international students at least).</p>
<p>NYU has several extremely strong programs: Stern, Tisch and even liberals arts (English), for example. But sure, it receives thousands of apps due to its location in NYC. Of course, UCLA receives thousands of OOS apps due to its location (SoCal).</p>
<p>NYU is good for grad school, but their undergraduate programs are nothing special. There is no prestige for an NYU undergrad degree. However, you get to live in NYC for four years, which is great.</p>
<p>It ranks #16 nationally on the list of “Least Happy Students” according to PrincetonReview.</p>
<p>I can only answer for myself since I have not recently conducted a poll :)</p>
<ol>
<li>Stern MBA program</li>
<li>New York is a sexy city</li>
<li>Stern undergraduate Business Program</li>
<li>Manhattan is a sexy island</li>
<li>Internships in NYC are more available and convenient to NYU students than internships are to students at other similarly ranked colleges (Wake Forest, UNC, Mich, etc.)</li>
<li>Greenwich Village is famous</li>
<li>NYU is a top Law School</li>
<li>Best museums and nightlife than any other US city</li>
<li>Many other liberal, fine arts, and pre-professional departments at NYU (e.g. Tisch) are highly regarded.</li>
</ol>
<p>In only looking at undergrad:</p>
<p>Stern and Tisch undergrad and being in a very ideal spot in New York City. It’s not for everyone, but I wouldn’t belittle the school–those are impressive undergrad programs.</p>
<p>expensive and overrated – I agree with the first 2 posters.
But Med school is good.</p>
<p>It definitely is, and don’t forget the terrible aid!
I know some girl that’s going to pay 40k a year for NYU (she’s not that rich, but is expecting her parents to pay it all), which in my opinion is not worth it.</p>
<p>"In only looking at undergrad:
Stern and Tisch undergrad and being in a very ideal spot in New York City. It’s not for everyone, but I wouldn’t belittle the school–those are impressive undergrad programs. "</p>
<p>I’d say with the exception of those two programs along with certain strong CAS departments like history and math…prospective students and their parents really need to assess whether NYU undergrad is worth the high tuition costs considering the miserly financial aid policies. Especially considering the class-sizes for most undergrad courses and the sometime unresponsive bureaucracy/advising system is not too far removed from that of a mid-large sized state university. </p>
<p>While NYU does have much to offer…it is certainly not for everyone…even those who can afford the high tuition.</p>
<p>"It definitely is, and don’t forget the terrible aid!
I know some girl that’s going to pay 40k a year for NYU (she’s not that rich, but is expecting her parents to pay it all), which in my opinion is not worth it. "</p>
<p>I turned down NYU’s admission because I’d still be on the hook for $23K/year even after a scholarship…if I commuted from home. Did the cost-benefit assessment and found it wasn’t worth it especially considering that I’d have to be paying that myself and I’d be stuck in a school full of high school classmates who were bitter about not making it into more prestigious schools like Columbia, Cornell, Tufts, Oberlin, etc. :p</p>
<p>My DD was interested in NYU, so we visited this summer. I think the most disappointing thing (for her) was that it just didn’t give the feel of a college campus. It was just much too urban for her. Also, they had the most disorganized college info session of all that we went to, which didn’t help the impression. After the visit, she’s decided not to apply to NYU.</p>
<p>No real campus, no campus life. Some great departmental faculties but a very high student-faculty ratio and not a lot of personal attention. Costs equal to Ivies but without the FA cushion and without the Ivy-grade credential at the end of the line. Overrated? Well, duh . . .</p>
<p>"Costs equal to Ivies but without the FA cushion and without the Ivy-grade credential at the end of the line. Overrated? Well, duh . . . "</p>
<p>That logic only makes sense if people currently rate it the same as those providing said “Ivy-grade credential”. You’ve only implied that it is over-expensive, compared to those schools anyway, not over-rated.</p>
<p>By that logic most every private college in America, save perhaps 2-3 dozen, is over-rated.</p>
<p>“Internships in NYC are more available and convenient to NYU students than internships are to students at other similarly ranked colleges (Wake Forest, UNC, Mich, etc.)”</p>
<p>Ya think?</p>
<p>rjkofnovi: I am curious, really, do you have a radar which identifies posts that mention UMich or … never mind</p>
<p>@ Topic
NYU is a good school. I would not call it overrated per se. Like most schools, its rep is built on some of its professional schools. So let it be. It has a great international rep and would be good for international students</p>
<p>“…more prestigious schools like … [snipped] …Oberlin, etc”</p>
<p>NYU’s prestige has soared over the years, a greater jump than all but a handful of other colleges. Sadly, Oberlin’s has not. It was historically a perennial “top 10” LAC, but this is no longer the case. When you were applying perhaps Oberlin was clearly more prestigious. A few years ago, when D1 was considering transfering out of Oberlin, she was considering NYU and said that NYU was considered more prestigious by her peers. There have been others on CC who have transfered from Oberlin to NYU, presumably they did not feel they were going down the prestige ladder to do so.So let’s just say this is, at least, less clear now than previously. Though at one time, and for a long time, it was certainly and obviously the case.</p>
<p>^ I was going to say as much but since cobrat is an oberlin alumni, I just wanted to save myself the pain of bickering on a saturday. I would say Oberlin has never been considered prestigious in the vague sense of the word. It however has a solid academic reputation compared to NYU amongst people who are aware of quality.</p>
<p>"I would say Oberlin has never been considered prestigious in the vague sense of the word. "
It certainly seemed pretty darned prestigious in my eyes, when I was applying to colleges. YMMV.</p>
<p>For one thing, when I was applying, Oberlin was more selective than:
Bowdoin,Pomona,Hamilton,Tufts,Wellesley,University of Chicago,
Vassar ,University of Pennsylvania,Davidson,Johns Hopkins,
Duke,Carleton. To pick some off a spreadsheet I made, using data from that time. It was ordinally #22 in overall selectivity based on that old data, but #40 using data from 2005 (I did the analysis in 2007). That was combining SATs and admissions % using my own “home-cooked” method. I included LACs and the liberal arts colleges of universities, where data for these were segregated, all on the same spreadsheet.</p>