<p>I have researched a little about NYU, but keep ending up with conflicting answers. I was accepted into the CAS, and am planning on majoring in science with an interest in all sciences. Could someone tell me a little of what you know about the physics department or the science department in general?</p>
<p>You're going to have to be more specific than that, nessundorma214. I'm a fourth-year pre-med chemistry major on track to graduate with Honors, so asking me to sum up my entire science experience here is a little rough. What exactly do you want to know?</p>
<p>Hm, well I'm not so good with the articulation thing, but I guess... um. Having a "good" program in physics or in chemistry is a pretty broad base. Are you going grad next year? If so, do you feel like NYU's program has adequately prepped you for any school you desire to pursue?... That's probably still vague. I don't know the right questions to ask here. It's just that I'm struggling between Duke and NYU. And while I'm pretty sure I'd be happier at NYU (Durham is my hometown and I'm ready for a change of scenery), I just want to be sure I can be completely happy with NYU's science department, which I know next to nothing about.</p>
<p>(and don't think I'm bashing NYU or anything. If I didn't think it was a good school I wouldn't have applied.)</p>
<p>I was pretty sure you're not bashing NYU science. :) You're asking good questions. That's a good sign.</p>
<p>As I said before, I'm not going to grad school, since I'm pre-med. I'm currently waiting to hear back from the schools that have waitlisted me. However, from the people I know in the chem department who've applied to grad school, there haven't been any problems. In fact, of all the pure science departments at NYU, chemistry is probably the strongest - the '05, '06, and '07 CAS valedictorians have come from the department, and this year's valedictorian is also a Rhodes Scholar.</p>
<p>I honestly can't say anything about the physics department since non-majors do not take the same Physics I and II courses that physics majors do. Check out the webpages for the departments that you're interested in - they're a good resource to see what upper-level electives will be available to you and what the recommended course sequences are.</p>
<p>Hope I helped a bit. If you have any more questions, please ask. :)</p>
<p>shades:</p>
<p>do you know of some example med/grad schools that your peers in NYU science are going to next year?</p>
<p>I also want to study sciences at NYU and, at the moment, I'm leaning towards chemistry, so maybe you can answer a few questions Shades. One thing that I've heard horror stories about at a bunch of colleges is Professors/TAs who don't speak English, or speak it with such a thick accent that they're incomprehensible. Is this something you've found as a science major at NYU, since it seems like a waste of thousands of dollars to study with somone you can't understand?</p>
<p>Another question I had concerned lab work. NYU, I've heard, has great science labs, but as an undergrad how much access do you really have to these facilities? The other school I'm on the fence about is Trinity College in Hartford, though it has a weaker science program than NYU I feel that maybe the access to labs (as there are no grad students) would make it a better experience. What's your opinion?</p>
<p>I am currently a freshman at NYU, with a potential major in chemistry- going pre-med. </p>
<p>Zorro101- I haven't heard of any horror stories with hard to comprehend TAs. I am only in General Chemistry, so I have only had two semesters experience- but both my recitaiton TAs and clinic TAs were wonderful. I haven't heard too many complaints otherwise with TAs that don't speak a lot of english, it's more the fact that they are hard graders or kinda arrogant.</p>
<p>Chem lab on the otherhand, last semester I had some wonderful TAs, all english and all very knowledgable. This semester, 80% of my TAs are asian, and are sometimes a little hard to understand. It's not that bad though, cause Chem lab isnt terribly hard, and you can always find the better lab TAs and ask them questions.</p>
<p>I am not too sure on the upper level courses, so perhaps Shades can comment on that.</p>
<p>mastaTTTang:</p>
<p>I don't know much about this year, but one of my longtime classmates has been accepted to Duke for med school - dunno if he's going for sure, but he's leaning towards it. Pam Tadross, CAS '05 valedictorian, is at Caltech for her Ph.D. in chemistry; Yael Elmatad, CAS '06 valedictorian, is at UC Berkeley for her Ph.D. in chemistry. Of course, those are the best of the best in the chem department, so less competitive students may be going to less prestigious institutions.</p>
<p>Zorro101:</p>
<p>Great question. Now I have to type this long and involved answer. :)</p>
<p>You will not have a problem with incomprehensible professors. We have foreign-born professors in the chemistry department, like Bacic and Jerschow (Serbian and Austrian, respectively), but they are completely understandable. They wouldn't have been hired and then granted tenure if no one could understand them.</p>
<p>The "101" classes are where you are most likely to encounter TAs who cannot be understood. My absolute worst experience was during Physics II - my recitation leader could speak a few set phrases, solve problems, and that was it. (It probably didn't help that I absolutely detested Physics II for the subject matter, so I was completely intolerant of his incompetency.) My Honors Gen. Chem. lab TAs weren't that great in English, but we all got along fine, and no one lost an eye or finger - they had good personalities and genuinely tried to help you, so that was good.. My Principles of Bio II lab TAs were from the Middle East, and they were varyingly understandable depending on the topic at hand and how excited they were about it. :)</p>
<p>In short, TAs can be a bit of a problem, but it's never an excuse for doing poorly in class or lab. Professors have lots of office hours and are available in lab courses for questions. In addition, other TAs in the lab courses are native English speakers, so you will never be completely at a loss.</p>
<p>By "access to labs," I assume you mean "research experience." To be honest, getting a research position in the chemistry department is hard. I work in the lab of the Department Chair, and he told me that the entire department has room for no more than 40-some undergrads at any given time. I had to work very hard to get the position I have now - it took 15+ resume drops, several cover letters, and several meetings to secure it. If you want to do research here, take it seriously. Find out what you're interested in, and start looking early. (My whole research career throughout college is a bit of a mish-mash, so if you want the full story, PM me.)</p>
<p>Dancergal92: Sounds about right. I don't know about the arrogant bit, though - honestly, if you had to grade as many tests/quizzes and answer as many questions as they do, you might get fed up, too. God bless them - teaching those entry-level courses is one of the reasons that I don't want to go to grad school. :)</p>
<p>Thanks Dancer and Shades, that was very helpful</p>
<p>I also have a question-</p>
<p>Is it smart to use AP credits to exempt out of intro Sci classes? By the time I graduate from HS, I will have AP credits in Bio, chem, envirosci (I don't think this is that helpful), and physics C.</p>
<p>I feel like I'd miss something if I skip intro classes. But on the other hand, I worked really hard in those classes in HS and dunno if it's efficient and smart to repeat them...</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>xflash:</p>
<p>Asking MORE questions?!? Just who do you think you are? :)</p>
<p>To answer your question, I'll use myself as an example. In high school, I scored 5's on the AP Bio and Chem exams and scored an 800 on the SAT II Chemistry, so it's not as if I didn't know jack about science. I still learned a lot in Honors Gen. Chem I and II, in lecture and in lab. I also learned a lot in Principles of Bio I and II, both in lecture and in lab. Neither class was what I would describe as a walk in the park.</p>
<p>Don't think of AP credit as a way to get out of classes. Think of a way for you to:</p>
<p>1) Make new friends. A lot of bonding happens in intro classes, and it can be hard to insert yourself into "friend groups" in typically sophomore/junior classes.</p>
<p>2) Increase your breadth and depth of knowledge. Intro courses cover more than AP courses do. The idea that AP courses cover a first-year college course's material is outdated.</p>
<p>3) Boost your GPA. Instead of jumping straight into second-level courses, make sure you're ready for those second-level courses and earn good grades, too.</p>
<p>Of course, it's up to you, but... new friends, a stronger basis for your future studies, and better grades? :)</p>
<p>i agree with shades. I also placed out of chemistry, but i chose to take it anyway, mainly because the advisors told me i should take chem in college as pre-med, because most med schools want to see college chemistry, and not that you used high school credits to place out. And like shades said, with just a decent amount of effort, it will probably be easier for you to score higher in those classes, which will definitely help strengthen your gpa for when you get into harder sciences. and also, i know that this year in chem, the course focused a lot on some topics that were barely touched upon in AP.</p>
<p>Thanks SC and Dancergal! Those answers help a lot. Thank YOU!!!</p>
<p>Just to make this clear, medical schools will NOT accept AP credit for the required courses. You'll have to either take them again in college, or take another course in college that covers the equivalent material.</p>
<p>So, um, I'm Yael (I randomly googled myself and got linked to this site) and maybe I could add a little about the sciences and such things.<br>
First off, not just us 'top' (totally meaningless title) students get into the best schools. I may be here at Berkeley (I got into all the grad programs I applied to which included Columbia, Princeton, and Cambridge) but my peers are at Caltech, UPenn, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Columbia, UC Irvine... just to name a few. (These are all NYU Graduates who graduated between 2005-2006). </p>
<p>As for biology, they generally do pretty well for themselves. At least one of them I know for sure goes to Rockefeller (great for biology) and I'm sure there are more ...</p>
<p>I don't know anyone from Physics who went on to physics grad school. I do know a math/physics joint major now in school for his PhD at Penn State and a physics/chem double major who is at Columbia's teachers college on some prestigious scholarship.</p>
<p>Other recent chem graduates who aren't sure about what to do next have opted to join Teach for America (which is actually quite a competitive program that places recent graduates in underprivileged schools around the country).</p>
<p>As for the other comments on the accents, thats just crap. First off, Bacic is not serbian, he's Croatian, and he speaks perfect english (probably better than most people) as does Jerschow, Geacintov, Schlick and the like who may technically be foreign but otherwise perfectly understandable. (The one professor who is somewhat hard to understand is Yingkai Zhang, but I don't think he teaches too many lower level courses). Some people think professor Chang is difficult to understand, but I thought he was great (and really funny!).</p>
<p>As for research, the chemistry department is actually really encouraging about putting undergrads in labs. TONS of labs have undergrads and there is almost never a problem finding space if you want to join a lab. (This is not the case in the Biology department where it IS hard to find a place to do research). Every year the draper (chemistry) society puts on a conference to highlights undergraduate research opportunities in the sciences (fall) and if you go you should check it out because its a great place to get a feel for the awesome work going on in all the science departments (they may be expanding it to other types of research? who knows?)</p>
<p>I think the Chemistry department does a really good job preparing students for grad school (I am not having any trouble in my program with kids from Caltech or MIT or any of those 'fancy' schools... it doesn't make a difference in the end) and I liked it a lot because they really care about you (thats why the chem students do so well you know).</p>
<p>Sorry if this was incoherent...</p>
<p>Also, I skipped intro chem (and physics) and I had no problem getting into friend groups (Though I did end up being friends with people a year older than I was). I just learned to make friends other ways, in clubs, in my dorm, in whatever. </p>
<p>If you are NOT premed, its not such a bad idea because it allows you to take more math/sciency classes to be prepared for grad school. But only seriously consider this if you know your stuff. I had four years of chemistry in HS (magnet school) and so I was pretty sick of stoichiometry. But if you've only had honors + ap then you probably want to stick it out in honors gen chem.</p>