<p>Here’s the views of most classmates from my urban public magnet high school during the early-mid’90s. Probably more useful as a way to compare and contrast past/current perceptions. At least the ones I’m aware of:</p>
<p>New York Private schools:</p>
<p>Cornell: Easiest Ivy to get into except for Fu, hardest to graduate from. Must bust ass for good grades…but wide-ranging greatness…especially in pre-med and the sciences. Used as a safety by the top 5-10% and as matches/reaches for those in the top 30%. </p>
<p>Columbia: Fu was much easier to get in than the college and back then, many classmates who wanted Columbia applied to Fu and then did an internal transfer to the College after one year. Practice was probably so commonplace that it probably factored in Columbia U’s no longer allowing internal transfers. Columbia College is slightly harder to get into than Cornell, but was still regarded as a safety by the top 5-10% and as matches/reaches for those in the top 30% along with Fu. </p>
<p>Barnard: Women’s college affiliated/under CU. Admissions difficulty was between Fu and College. Has a reputation among some as a backdoor into Columbia U/College for female applicants…but otherwise regarded as highly as other elite LACs. Was sometimes used as a safety by female applicants in top 5-10% of class who were applying to more selective Ivies/Seven Sisters(i.e. Wellesley). </p>
<p>Vassar: Seven Sister College gone co-ed. Admission difficulty, level of respectability, and applicant profile similar to Barnard…though I did hear it was noticeably easier for male applicants to gain admission. However, the then strong stigma of going to a former Seven Sister college meant few male applicants were willing to apply. Liberal and artsy though perceived to have a strait-laced East Coast establishment vibe.</p>
<p>Skidmore: Another former women’s college gone co-ed. Only classmate I knew who went was a male classmate who received a nice FA/scholarship package who also gained admission to NYU/CAS. Not known by most high school classmates except it was a substantial step down from the topflight LACs, perceived as populated by academically mediocre/average rich kids, and had an odd name. He never heard the end of many classmates who teased him about being admitted/attending “Skid Row College”. </p>
<p>NYU: </p>
<p>Stern Business was also regarded as respectable but not quite on the same levels as the lowest Ivies. Anyone with a B+ average and 1260+ SATs(Pre-1995) with strong quant scores has decent change of acceptance. </p>
<p>CAS was widely regarded as the safety school for rich kids who couldn’t get admitted to elite universities/LACs right a tier below the Ivies/peer institutions or to NYU-Stern. If you had a -B/B average and your SATs broke 1000, you’re basically in…sometimes with a small scholarship. Still, it has respectable academics depending on department. </p>
<p>As for NYU as a whole, whether one’s experience was positive/negative was mainly dependent on how good one was at navigating the notoriously unresponsive NYU bureaucracy, hit or miss advising, large atomized NYU student community, and the huge financial loans one had to take on if one’s family wasn’t comfortably at least upper-middle class. The issue with finances was one big reason why I turned down admission to CAS. </p>
<p>New York Publics</p>
<p>Binghamton - Where the above-average kids with NYU-Stern or Vassar stats ended up if they didn’t have the money to attend the privates in an era before the Ivies provided extremely generous FA for working and lower-middle-class students. Nearly everyone I knew hated it there and several ended up transferring out to Ivies and other elite universities/LACs after one or two years. Yes, it used to be harder to get into Bing than NYU’s CAS. </p>
<p>Geneseo - LAC-like counterpart to Binghamton which admitted kids with slightly lesser stats than Bing…but more selective than Stonybrook. Heard Geneseo is now above Bing. </p>
<p>Stonybrook - Kids with NYU/CAS level stats who couldn’t afford it and wanted to do Pre-med or other natural sciences. Most complained the campus was boring and cliquey because it was populated mostly by Long Island kids who commuted home every weekend. </p>
<p>Buffalo - Kids with slightly lesser stats than Stonybrook or Ivy-stats kids being offered full-rides like a few HS friends or those who hated Long Island. Good pre-med/sciences program, decent engineering, and humanities were all over the place. Big party school and friends who went either loved or hated it. Some of the ones who hated it or were meh about it transferred out to more elite private universities or LACs. </p>
<p>Albany - For the 2.0-2.5 classmates who weren’t able to get into the other SUNY flagships or the more elite universities which tended to accept classmates with similar stats…such as UW-Madison which accepted several classmates in the 2.0-2.5 range. In short, the school of last resort before the lower CUNYs/Community Colleges. Known more as a big party school for the bottom 10% kids who were not interested in/sick of academics. </p>
<p>CUNYs</p>
<p>CUNY’s Sophie Davis 6 year BS/MD program - Highly prestigious and respected program for classmates who want to be doctors and save money, too. Needed Ivy-level stats with topflight math and science grades to even have a prayer of getting in. </p>
<p>Brooklyn College - Regarded as the best of the CUNYs though I knew no one from my high school class who went. </p>
<p>Baruch College - Business-centered CUNY college for NYU-Stern rejects or NYU-Stern admits who couldn’t go for financial reasons. Many classmates who attended later got their MBAs from top programs…including Harvard. </p>
<p>Hunter College - Respectable CUNY and also one where I didn’t know the high school classmates who went. Heard a lot of great things about its social work and liberal arts programs. </p>
<p>Queens College - Respectable CUNY…but not on par with Brooklyn or possibly Hunter depending on who you talked to. The few classmates who went felt so unchallenged academically and frustrated at being unable to take more challenging courses all transferred out to top LACs like Reed and elite universities like CMU and Brown. </p>
<p>CCNY - Was widely regarded among HS classmates as the worst of the CUNY flagships because of widespread perceptions that many admits were woefully underprepared for college-level academics, the Leonard Jeffries controversy, open-roll admission still existed there, and the perceptions about its “dangerous” Harlem location. NO ONE wanted to end up here if they could help it. </p>
<p>CUNY CCs - NO ONE wanted to end up here if they could help it.</p>
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