NYU STERN...how hard is it freshman year?

<p>To all the sternies who have experienced freshman year out there....I am just wondering how hard nyu stern is in freshman year. Basically, is it hard to get a 4.0? Is calculus or econ really hard in first year so that mostly everyone would be getting B's? Just curious because of the Stern curve. Could any of you experienced people give me some suggestions?thanks!</p>

<p>freshman year you will be taking your core courses in liberal arts, like world cultures, writing the essay, etc. the only business-related classes you would take freshman year are stats, mircro, and calc (if you can even count these as business classes). several students have already taken all those courses in high school. so yeah, you should be fine. if you are moderately smart and take the classes seriously there is no reason you shouldn't get an A. but a 4.0 may be pushing it, since almost no one gets an A in writing the essay. also, if you are a terrible writer you may have trouble in the liberal arts core classes as well, which do have essays and papers due.</p>

<p>The MAP core also includes a ton of reading, so if you're not the type of person who is willing to read On Liberty or Confessions in a week, you may struggle with those. As for calc, it depends what level you take.</p>

<p>If you've already taken Calc 1/2/3 (AP, CC), Micro (AP) and 2 Stat (AP, CC) classes, do you need to take the same classes as a freshman?</p>

<p>^You have to take math, and I know the AP Econ's don't get you credit. Not sure about stats but I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't get credit for that either.</p>

<p>I looked it up and you dont.. so basically I have to take them over again?</p>

<p>Is taking them again really that bad? i mean those classes can be used to raise ur GPA ;p. </p>

<p>But the classes that u use ur AP scores to test out of , are they included in ur college GPA or not?</p>

<p>I think you can also use your AP scores (assuming you did well) to skip ahead to the next class level (if you got a 5 in calc 2, you can take calc 3), but you won't get credits for calc 2. If you have college credit for calc 3, you CAN actually get those credits to count towards a math minor or something, but I don't know if they'll get you out of the math requirement. </p>

<p>And no, they're not going to give you an A on your NYU transcript for your AP test scores.</p>

<p>Well I'd just get sick of learning the same thing twice, and in the case with statistics, three times. I took AP Stat and took a Business Statistics course at a community college</p>

<p>It may raise your GPA, but remember that each credit costs money. If you can get out of say 16 credits, that's an entire semester which is 25k.</p>

<p>My year went pretty well. When all the grades are posted I hope to have a 3.6 GPA. Only one course left to hear from.</p>

<p>JimmyC good point. I never really thought about that. The thing is I'd really like to take Stat and Calc at Stern if I get in just as like a refresher, and Stern only takes a handful of courses for credit. I think I can get out of like 12 credits</p>

<p>i dont know if they still do this, but they used to give an exam for stats and if you passed you didn't need to take the class at stern. you had to get a 4 or 5 on the ap just to sit for their exam. the nyu placement exam for stats is terribly hard though. i got a 5 on the stat ap and a 40% on the nyu placement test. i know about 10 other people who took the exam, and only one passed.</p>

<p>yeah they still have that. I'd rather take the core classes at Stern though instead of tryna skip, and use my credits on electives or w/e</p>

<p>it's not too bad freshman year. </p>

<p>the hardest class is undoubtedly wte (writing the essay). you most likely will not get an A in wte unless you are an amazing writer--the only person that i know that got an A is going to be published in next year's 'mercer street.' you'll learn what 'mercer street' is when you take wte.</p>

<p>the statistics course is quite different from what you learn in AP stat. ap stat will get you through the first test a few weeks into the class but it's pretty much new material after that. and i suggest that you take statistics in the fall because it was supposedly harder in the spring (i took it during the fall and found it to be one of my easiest courses for that semester...the kids who took it in spring seemed to struggle)</p>

<p>do not opt to take calc 2/3 unless you fall into one of the following criteria: you are VERY confident in your math, you are planning to pursue some sort of math related minor/major, you just want to put that $50k to good use and learn something. calc 1 is sufficient and no further math is required for the typical sternie. not too sure about calc 3, but if you ARE considering calc 2 be advised that the course begins with a 'review' session that basically covers half of calc bc within the first few weeks. series take up about 4 weeks and then you go into partial differentiation and vectors. pretty intensive course unless you know your stuff.</p>

<p>conv west and world cultures is a crap shoot. however, i would like to put in a good word for professor ulfers and his '19th century and antiquity' course. amazing prof and the TAs are great too. not to mention that the workload is sparse compared to the like of renzi and others. pretty easy class :)</p>

<p>natural science is pretty easy no matter what you choose. you might opt to use your ap credit if you want to take other classes that interest you instead. however, pretty good gpa fluff.</p>

<p>microeconomics is nothing like ap micro. just about everything you learned in ap micro will be covered within the first week of class. the first quiz, for this semester, was given ~4 weeks into the course and dealt with cobb-douglas functions, which requires some partial differentiation and calc 1. a pretty difficult course to get an A due to the stern curve (~35% A/A- ~50% B+/B ~15% B-/C+...) Rough estimate for the curve--specific breakdowns vary throughout the classes. Typically only the top 10-15% are supposed to get solid A's.</p>

<p>hope this is helpful for those that need it and congrats on getting in! have fun watching broadway shows at discounted prices (~40$), partying at clubs, and trying all the delicious/not-so-delicious food around the city (definitely try out "Pinkberry"!).</p>

<p>to address the original question for this thread: yes, a 4.0 is pretty hard to get. to my knowledge i think less than 5% of the freshman class had a 4.0 after the first semester (somewhere in the vicinity of 15 students). i personally only know of one person, a good friend of mine, who got a 4.0 for the entire year. it's best not to expect the 4.0 and just try your best. plus, all you need is a 3.7 (this is hard too actually haha) to get an interview for an ibanking job :)</p>

<p>
[quote]
but if you ARE considering calc 2 be advised that the course begins with a 'review' session that basically covers half of calc bc within the first few weeks. series take up about 4 weeks and then you go into partial differentiation and vectors.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>wait, isn't calc 2 equivalent to Calc BC? if so, how come partial differentiation and vectors are covered in Calc 2? i thought anything to do with partial differentiation, multi variable calculus etc is done in Calc 3..</p>

<p>the final month or so of calc2 is an introduction into calc3. you supposedly begin calc3 with a quick review of the relevant material you learned in calc2 and begin with the hard part--applications. calc2 is equivalent to calc bc but not the same, you learn more from the actual college course.</p>