<p>I just finished my first year at a tier-1 southern state school and was left very disappointed by how restricted I felt. As a Biology major I took mostly science and math classes, but throughout my high school career I was very interested in literature and writing, and participated often in the school theater. However, in my university most of these courses are restricted to majors and I was able to take only one creative writing class so far, and a joke of a theater class that was closer to theater appreciation. Needless to say, I did not have a happy year academically.
I decided I would transfer at the end of my second year (my high school GPA is atrocious, but so far I have kept a 3.9 college GPA), and while searching for potential schools, I fell in love with the idea of an open curriculum. Brown University was the first I found that offered this, and through the internet I found out about Gallatin. I can't accurately convey over the internet just how appealing designing my own academic program seems to me, but suffice it to say I found it positively incredible. However, coming from a very structured system, I don't quite understand how Gallatin works, or even what it is! Could someone give me a quick explanation of Gallatin and how their programs work?
Also, I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me how their admission system works. From what I've gathered from old threads, they either look a lot at your essays, or it is random (which I find hard to believe).
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Gallatin is one of the schools within NYU. It is small and based on multi-disciplinary approaches. Students develop a course of study around a theme or idea and take courses from within Gallatin as well as across the other schools of the university that support this line of intellectual enquiry. The student has a mentor/advisor to work with in developing his/her program. There is a supplemental essay for the application where one can outline an initial idea, which is a good way to show why the applicant wants to be at Gallatin.</p>