<p>I have nothing against NYU. As a Rutgers philosophy students I can truly say I look up to NYU as they have the only philosophy department in America that is better than Rutgers. But what is the big deal about NYU? They give little financial aid, it costs 50k to go there, and there is basically no campus. Why do high school students want to go to NYU as much as they do?</p>
<p>They don’t want to go to NYU, they want to go to NYC. =)</p>
<p>All joking aside, it’s becoming far more selective, and it has always been a well-respected institution.</p>
<p>My buddy, who’s a Pell Grant and TAP recipient, got around 36k in total grants from NYU and the federal + state governments, and it only costs him about 6k a year, since he’s living at home and commuting. NYU has become a realistic choice for low-income students, especially native New Yorkers, and its endowment is becoming stronger by the year.</p>
<p>And, as all Fordham, NYU, and Columbia love to kid, New York City IS your campus!</p>
<p>It’s all about The City. And more than that, it’s all about The Village, and a bit more broadly, Lower Manhattan. There’s an undeniable allure to the place, and there’s a mystique to a neighborhood that has long aspired to be the intellectual hub of a city that in its turn has aspired to be the intellectual capital of America. It’s all a bit overblown, IMO. NYU has some great people on its faculty. Its philosophy faculty is rightly regarded as the strongest in the country, and probably in the English-speaking world. But overall its faculty and programs are quite mixed, and it has a huge student body and not much of a sense of community given the powerful forces that pull its students and faculty in disparate directions in New York City. Still, many people are drawn to it because it represents the chance to be in New York, not just the way Columbia is in New York in a quiet outpost at its fringes; but right there in the throbbing heart of the metropolis. It’s exciting, for sure.</p>
<p>Exciting, yes, but you have your whole life to do the NYC thing…you only have 4 years to do the COLLEGE thing…which is a different beast…</p>
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<p>But four years to do the NYC thing on your parents’ nickel? That’s got to be part of the allure. You can do NYC later, but you’ll be footing your own bills.</p>
<p>Some of us will be footing our own bills all through college, you know… not everyone goes on their parent’s dime.</p>
<p>the NEW YORK city life, which NYU encourages with its lack of a core campus. the fact that it is centered around the Village, which is much more attractive to most people than Columbia’s pseudo-harlem location, the prestigious alumni, and also, the growing name. NYU is seriously one of the fastest growing and most consistently growing schools in the past few decades.</p>