Hi all,
I’ve been thinking about my college decisions and I can’t help but look at NYU Shanghai’s offer. However, I have some concerns regarding the school itself. From what I’ve seen, NYU Shanghai’s admissions standards are much lower compared to that of NYU NY or even NYU AD. Is this the case? There also seems to be a negative stigma of current New York students regarding the Shanghai campus. Then there’s also the issue of going to NYU Shanghai over NYU Stern (another option I’m considering). Stern has the clear advantage in terms of prestige and degree recognition.
What are everyone’s thoughts on the matter? NYU Shanghai is definitely one of the easiest ways to get into NYU but how valuable do you think the experience is? It’s certainly unique.
I would appreciate it if some current NYU and NYU Shanghai students chimed in on this.
Can’t hurt to studyd in Shanghai. China is where it is at. Consider yourself lucky.
@excanuck99 China is certainly not “where it’s at”. Like it or not, we still live in a world that is largely centralized around the west. Furthermore, NYU Shanghai (or NYU in general) is not an extremely valuable name for a resume.
If you’re choosing between Stern and Shanghai, definitely choose Stern. Stern is a renowned business school (imo, much more prestigious than NYU itself), and Shanghai… well, I don’t know much about it, but according to your own post, it’s not prestigious, and the qualifications for being admitted are rather low. Unless you have a reason to be in China (which, judging by your reply to the first response on this thread, you don’t), Stern is the much better option. Take my opinion (and that of any person on CC) with a grain of salt, though - I’m not an expert.
Calling it the “bad school” is ridiculous. It’s certainly NYU’s newest school, which means that not many people are applying yet, and it’s not very well known yet. Additionally, NYUSH doesn’t have the same means to incentivize applicants as NYUAD, meaning that fewer applicants apply or look at it. NYUAD is funded by the UAE government, which means that they can offer almost every student a full scholarship and lots of perks, which tends to draw high achieving students, and a larger quantity of students (vastly inflating its perceived selectivity and quality). In future years, the reputation may change substantially.
Hi musktard,
To respond to your question: is NYU Shanghai a bad school? No it’s not. I personally turned down full merit scholarships from top 15 schools in the States to come here and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. As a start-up school, we don’t have the same resources as an established university; however, if there is something we actually don’t have, we basically import resources from New York (we bring in amazing professors, our library has direct access to the Bobst system, and we’ve started all our own amazing clubs & team sports here). To be honest, I find my experience here at NYUSH a lot more rewarding than going to any other school in the States. Since we are still building up stuff here, you have so many opportunities to prove yourself as a leader and here everybody (including the chancellor and deans) know you on a first-name basis (almost unheard of at any other college), and you have amazing opportunities that you could never receive in New York. The city of Shanghai itself is also amazing. The expat community is small, tight-knit, and very accessible. As a freshman, I found myself mingling with CEOs of major companies, entrepreneurs, and other amazing people. This city is amazing for networking and you have so many more job opportunities and you can talk your way into so many internships (one kid got an internship at Google this year). Also, Shanghai is super cheap (good for us poor college students, also the party scene here is amazing, dorm parties are just disappointing after living here) and it’s an amazing cultural experience (it’ll look good on any resume that you can speak Chinese and have work experience abroad). You also can travel extensively through Asia when you live here and see a lot of the world in just four years. And, to be honest, if you want that Stern experience so much, you can spend up to three semesters in New York and take classes there. There are also a lot of Stern students who come to Shanghai to study abroad so you can take classes with them as well and surround yourself with people in suits if you so wish to do that. Don’t write off NYU Shanghai as a bad school, because it’s not. My suggestion, come to Admitted Students Weekend, it’s free and it’s the best way to see if NYUSH is for you.
TL;DR NYUSH is a school for self-starters, people who take initiative, and leaders. If you can dream it, you can do it and you’ve got all of the resources at NYU at your disposal. It would be foolish to throw away this opportunity.
@vlhernandez @jazzcatastrophe I apologize if I offended you by using the term ‘bad’. Would you agree that it’s the least selective NYU campus? That seems to be the general consensus at the NYU New York campus.
Hi Musktard,
I wouldn’t say that it is the easiest of the 3 to get into. It is important to realize that NYU is excited to get people to come to the school as it is still new. Therefore if you indicate an interest in this campus they are likely to consider you for this campus over the others, because lets face it in order to have a successful school we need to people, this does not directly translate into it being the easiest campus to get into. Because this is one of the more internatonal campuses there is a range of educational backgrounds here. We take different tests, only half of us get in on the “normal” ACT and SAT tests the Chinese students take a different national test called the Gaokao which is way harder, and they must test into the top tier to be accepted. So any statistics you see might be skewed. Also as you have correctly pointed out we are a new school, many people have not heard of this campus and so naturally there are fewer people applying to it, but even just between the two grades already here and the one you could be a part of the number of applicants has increased greatly. So in some aspects it may seem a little easier to get into, but in reality we are all held to the same stanfard. The classes are not any easier and the students are just as successful as the other campuses.
@kateth14 I’m talking about people applying from outside of the China. From my understanding, many people picked Shanghai as their second choice but we’re still only admitted to that campus. What would you attribute the lower average SAT scores and GPAs of admitted NYU Shangai students to?
BTW Thanks for taking the time to address my questions!
@Musktard just to let you know Shanghai is more selective than NY and as selective as NYUAD if you look at the statistics from this website for the class of 2018 http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2014/04/07/nyu-receives-over-52-000-freshman-applications-to-its-global-net.html. Also interest in the Shanghai campus has increased by 31% while for Abu Dhabi it is increased by 26%. I’m sure you can do the Maths, also there are various courses here at Shanghai that are more difficult than both New York and Abu Dhabi… so take that into consideration. Here’s the link for your class: http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2015/01/13/record-breaking-60000-students-apply-to-nyu-largest-increase-in-15-years.html
It is not an easy ride getting into Shanghai, in fact it’s extremely difficult. The admissions office here looks for as @vlhernandez has said, “self-starters, people who take initiative, and leaders” not just another student who is good enough for a university. Also if you’re worried about Stern vs Shanghai, yes Stern is brilliant, but Shanghai is different it has an edge, it is a financially booming centre and it’s not everyday you can rub shoulders and have one-to-one meetings with CEO’s from the likes of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan amongst various other distinguished companies. Either way if you choose Stern or Shanghai each will have its own pros, so it would be a win-win situation.
Also following on from @kateth14 SAT’s don’t really say much about Shanghai due to the various educational systems that our students come from. The Chinese for example do the gaokao, while international students who do the IB don’t need to send their SAT scores through, and rely on their predicted grades. So an answer about the SAT range for NYUSH wouldn’t be a fair representation although I can guarantee that those who did it average above 2000. Also I don’t think it is safe to say that majority of people put Shanghai as their second choice as such information isn’t disclosed, unless you have access to information that we don’t have. Furthermore Asia and the developing world is becoming the next big thing, to counter what you said previously, I think you need to to look at how the shift is slowly starting to move to the East… and saying that NYU is not a valuable name for a resume is absolute bullocks, seriously.
Hi Musktard,
No problem as has been mentioned a fair amount of us don’t actually get in based solely on our SAT scores. Like many universites in the US NYU is interested in a certain type of person, a person who will do well no matter the situation and who can do things other than make good test grades. Also many of the students here took AP, IB, or A level classes meaning they may have had a lower unweighted GPA, which is generally what people put in for their GPA when applying and based on the school system a 3.5 might be a really good score. Many US high schools are criticized for having too many valedictorians so I wouldn’t worry too much about the number as our school is a bit too diverse to be limited by the normal US university standards. Yes we are part of the US university system, but we are also part of China, as NYUAD is part of the UAE. So I wouldn’t be worried by these statistics and just worry about figuring out the best university for you based on your interests and your financial situation because we can’t tell you whats right, but we can tell you none of these things you are worried about stopped us from coming. Everyone has their doubts when coming to somewehere so new, but that’s just part of the fun!
As a student who transferred because of the intolerable conditions there I can offer this http://oncenturyavenue.org/2014/12/the-rise-in-student-transfers/ from the student newspaper. However NYU-SH is trying to address some of the issues, like clubs and lack of amenities. But the utter disregard the upper staff had for the very real issues that science students had was what really made me decide to leave the school. But here’s the thing. Most of the students who like NYU Shanghai like it not not as a school, but as a cultural opportunity and opportunity to meet interesting fellow students. If that’s enough then go for it. As a side note, opinions on the school are highly divisive with both sides attempting to shut down the other. For me personally I view it as a terrible experience that has made it nigh impossible to apply for other schools, but many students love it to death. That being said, if you have any specific questions feel free to as.
And to be a little petty: That person up there talking about NYU-SH being a place for dreamers and self starters? NYU-SH is currently woefully under-equipped in resources for non-business students.
@Musktard Here’s how admissions at NYU Shanghai works, our student body of each class is split into two subsets: 150 international students and 150 Chinese nationals. AFAIK last year more students applied to NYU Shanghai than AD and that’s a fact, what you mean by “admissions standards” however is very ambiguous to me but from my own experience I can tell you that I’ve met some of the most interesting people here. I’m really curious to know why so many people in NY have such strong opinions about the student body in Shanghai because I have friends here who occasionally write for the Guardian “for fun”, serve as business advisors to European venture capital firms, own their own music record labels or have served abroad in an Army. I mean I really hope I don’t have a bias but the bar seems pretty high to me.
Stern is undoubtably a good school but it’s nature very different from NYU Shanghai. It’s not only unfair to compare the two but also you’re limiting yourself to some vast generalisations. They’re different entities under the NYU umbrella looking for different things and they’re also for different kinds of people seeking different things from a school. In a nutshell, NYU Shanghai is not a pseudonym for NYU in China, it’s an entirely different entity with affiliations in China and the US and it is so for a specific purpose. I could tell you I also got offers from a plethora of top tier schools but what it really comes down to is why I chose to come here and that’s because the opportunities you get here are almost unparalleled. I agree that, “we still live in a world that is largely centralized around the west.” but you have to admit that the west has essential working components in the east. Now I want to avoid the whole East and West debate here because I don’t think it’s relevant but since you seem to care about resumes so much, here’s something: since Shanghai is in an FTZ, almost every possible western firm has a presence here, especially financial institutions. These firms are always looking to hire undergrads and because NYU Shanghai has somehow managed to make a name for itself on this side of the world, they’re not only hiring people from our school, firms like Morgan Stanley, JP M&C and HSBC actually host networking events at our school every now and then. That’s just one aspect of the opportunities available here that I was talking about. Even Harvard Business School recognises that because they too have a center for jobs,internships and research in Shanghai on the same street as us, which btw is the Shanghai equivalent of Fifth Avenue. As for the comparison with Abu Dhabi, I don’t get how one is supposed to be better than the other since they’re our sister school and we’re both based on the exact same model. The only striking difference I would say is that Abu Dhabi has an unreal amount of resources backing their school activities which would explain why they get the amount of publicity they do, needless to say that they’ve also been around for much longer than we have. I, for one, think that they’re a great school doing great things but I’d much rather be in Shanghai over Abu Dhabi simply because it’s all about location, location, location.
FYI, I also deeply care about how potential employers will perceive my resume. Personally, I feel that while NYU Shanghai itself carries no inherent cache that you can bank on (because we haven’t even graduated our first class yet) but it’s intriguing and you’d be surprised how intrigue can actually get you in the door and after that it’s all you, doesn’t matter even if you graduated summa cum laude from an Ivy. Here at NYU SH, you can actually go and talk to the Provost or the Dean or one of hundreds of the renowned guest professors visiting from UCB, NYU, Cambridge et cetera in your free time and let me tell you that they will actually listen to what you have to say. So if you need that shiny letter of recommendation you definitely have an advantage at a smaller school where you’re on a first name basis with almost everyone.
Since you asked a question here, I’m assuming you still have an open mind about this and still weighing all pros and cons like you should. I know college decisions are a lot of pressure and every piece of information you get is important which is why I’d ask you to not make the rookie mistake and fall for hearsay but actually look at things more objectively. If you want, I can put you in touch with current portal students and/or study away students from New York and Abu Dhabi so you don’t have to gauge the “negative stigma” that makes zero sense to me because you need to actually experience something to have an opinion about it but hey, that’s just me. I’m also not trying to get you to come here because this school isn’t for everyone (they’ll repeat it a million times at the student weekend because it’s true) and if you’re looking for a more traditional school with the expectation of stability or reputation, it would really make no sense for you to come here and regret it for the next 4 years but if you’re looking to experiment and make the best out of your education yourself, you might just be a good fit. Good luck!
I think the article Xeros shared is pretty interesting. http://oncenturyavenue.org/2014/12/the-rise-in-student-transfers/
@listmin123 The NYU Shanghai officer I talked to explained to me that this statistic includes anyone that includes NYU Shanghai on their application so that article is pretty disingenuous. The rest of your post is pretty irrelevant. Are you a student there? If so, your argument and the manner in which you present yourself isn’t too convincing. I know that is rude and I’m sorry but you seem obviously biased and your argument isn’t very coherent. Are you telling me you’ve “rub[bed] shoulders…with CEO’s (sic) from the likes of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan”? I find that hard to believe. NYU by itself is already considered a tier 2 or tier 3 school. I’m not sure what would dispose Lloyd Blankfein to spend his time with random students from a school of NYU’s caliber. To be clear, I’m not even considering the Shanghai affiliation. And please do not try to explain to me that NYU SH has more pull in financial services compared to Stern.
@listmin123 That’s a very fair point. What would you attribute to the lower SAT scores from US applicants to? There seems to be many people on CC with NYU SH as their second or third choice that were ultimately rejected by all of the campuses except NYU SH. Is there an explanation for that? The “best fit campus” argument doesn’t hold because each campus does admissions separately. Also, NYU is certainly a valuable name for a resume but it will not get your foot into the door for many jobs unless the word ‘Stern’ is appended. Unfortunately, NYU is just a tier 2/3 school in the states. Consider CC ‘top universities’ section, for example.
@kateth14 Many people take AP classes. That isn’t an excise for a low unweighted GPA. Have you gone through the CC profiles of people accepted to NYU SH compared to people accepted to NYU AD/NY? There’s a noticeable drop in quality.
@Xeros97 Thanks for sharing your experience with me. I’m sorry you had a rough time there. Where did you transfer to? Do they have a transfer office?
@Anuragr I really appreciate your response. I suppose my worries have more to do with culture we exist in and less to do with the school itself. College has become a system of social meaning as opposed to a means towards education. There are so many workplaces that seem to value ‘luxury’ brand college names. NYU (sans Stern) already has a comparatively weak name so the fact that many people (even in this thread) seem to believe Shanghai is the lesser NYU campus worries me. NYU SH doesn’t seem to compare much weight in China itself either. I’ve looked through the campus recruiting pages of many schools with offices in China and they are far more interested in schools like Peking University. Then there’s the fact that China’s economy has been de-stabilizing all year. What will industries look like in Shanghai when it’s 2019? I’d appreciate your responses to my concerns.
Hi Musktard!
I am currently a freshman at NYU Shanghai and was seriously thinking about transferring last semester. It’s important to understand that as a university that is only two years old, there are lots of challenges and new experiences to take on. This can be overwhelming - our university’s culture requires that you are present 100% of the time, going to school events, going to class, creating clubs. I know that when I came to Shanghai, it was my first time on this half of the globe. Surrounded by new peers, half from China and half from the rest of the world, it shook me up a little bit. I went to boarding school for high school, but was a bit thrown off by this new jump, so I thought about transferring.
Only 4 students out of 300 transferred last year and that is a pretty negligible percentage. But more than that, students transfer from other schools all the time. It’s important to remember that our school is brand-new. It is more than understandable that some students are not quite up to the challenge that it asks from you, but also that there are many, many reasons for transferring. Some students have left for health reasons, some for family reasons; these have nothing to do with our school.
As for the opportunities here, they are unlike anything else. We are literally building this school. If you want a school with tons of resources, a reputation ready for you, a ready-made class schedule for you to fit into, then go to Stern. It seems to me like a lot of these problems you’re seeing in NYU Shanghai are problems that arise from us being a two-year-old school. A lot of our school is constantly being formed and re-formed, which can be stressful at times. Yet, it makes for an incredible environment to grow and learn, to adapt to change, and to learn so much.
I personally was offered the opportunity to have office hours with Elizabeth Chen this semester - our Senior Executive in Residence, who recently retired as a managing partner at Goldman Sachs. Now I am by no means an accomplished business or economics student, but was offered this opportunity because we take advantage of everything here. There are so many internship available from a ton of firms here. I know first-hand from applying for internships this summer, companies do take our school seriously. CEOs from accomplished business firms have been at our school - if you’re looking for information about NYU Shanghai do not discount information you get when it comes from current students.
Because above all, I am a current student. I don’t want a member of the incoming freshman class, who I am going to have to attend school with for two years, to not be wishing they had chosen Stern the whole time. Everyone in my school loves it here. We adore Shanghai, we adore NYU, and sure there are challenges. We literally have been a school for two years. Transferring comes, but it comes anywhere. I am sure that people transfer from Stern as well. Next year, we’ll have tons to offer you and I know that my freshman class is so excited to welcome the next class. We cannot wait to meet you all at Admitted Students Weekend - come, see these “intolerable conditions” for yourself.
@Miller123 Thanks for sharing. Would you happen to know who is interning where this summer? How is the grading curve? Also, (please try to remove your bias), would you attend NYU Shanghai over Dartmouth or Duke? I will not be attending ASW so unfortunately I will not be able to see the school in person.
Hello, everyone!
I am also a student at NYU Shanghai. Let me begin by saying that not everything is perfect here. But is it anywhere? Certain aspects are still not well organized. But I doubt that most universities can change and improve at the speed NYU Shanghai does. Several people did indeed transfer. Yet, most of them had health or family issues. Some students are unhappy with the science curriculum. But not because the courses are not good or because the professors are not dedicated: but because it is too hard. And yet, MIT’s reputation or standards are not questioned when students commit suicide because of stress.
The main reason NYU Shanghai is facing so much criticism and speculation is its uniqueness and its age. When I say “uniqueness”, I do not mean to say it is “extraordinary”, just unique. Why? Because it is an American university in China. That is pretty unique. And because it is part of NYU’s Global Network. That is also pretty special. Combined with its existence of only 2 years, the result is that people still do not know what it is, what to expect. It has not yet created a tradition, it has not yet defined itself as a school. Choosing to come here may seem to be a gamble, but it is not. It is just a risk that you should only take if you know it is not too big for you.
As far as academic standards go, I would like to remind you that NYU Shanghai students also receive a New York University degree. Also, students from New York, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai can all study at any of the other campuses. That being considered, it would have been impossible for NYU not to have ensured that the standards are equally high everywhere. In contrast, for those of you who believe an NYU degree is not “worth” much, I have two things to say: 1. The “value” of an NYU Shanghai degree is not yet known. It could be huge. After all, nobody has one yet. 2. If all you care about is a piece of paper, then look no further than the first ranking you can find online. That should be enough to help you make a decision.
In response to the last questions posted, I don’t have a good overview of who will be interning where, but I do have two friends who have received internships from Google. Also, I did not apply to either Dartmouth or Duke, but I did reject Imperial, UCL and NYU New York (among others) in order to come here. I do not regret my decision.