Review/Q&A for Macaulay (at Baruch)

Colleges and Universities A-Z CUNY System
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I’m a freshman Macaulay Honors student at Baruch. I want to make this thread as a way to share a different perspective on the Macaulay program than a prospective student might get from the typical advertising from the college and offer to answer any questions you might have. When I applied to Macaulay, it was tied with Cornell for my top school. Since I only got a transfer offer from Cornell, I decided to go to Macaulay and try to make the best of it and see how I liked it. My experience in the first semester was so terrible that I’m now resolved to transfer at the end of this year. In this thread I’ll describe both my worst and best experiences with Macaulay. For me the sum of these experiences ended up negative. Others may have a different weighting which would lead them to a different decision. The important thing is that you have as much ACCURATE information as possible. Don’t be like me and decide after going to a few nice recruitment events.

Pros: I’ll start with the good just to give the few decent things there were the recognition they deserve. These are the factors which made this decision really difficult.

-Good Macaulay staff and professors. With one or two exceptions, most of the people who directly work for Macaulay are very nice, interesting, and helpful. The two professors I’ve had for the NYC seminar courses were both really experienced in their fields and shared a lot with us. My arts professor went above and beyond the budget he got from Macaulay by raising funds and getting free tickets from friends in the arts community. We got to see a lot of stuff as a result and he even offered to pay for taxis home from late night events for people who felt unsafe.

-Great optional events. If you do go, always check Macaulay Mondays/NOW. There are a bunch of interesting events they host. I went to 2 dinners with a fairly prominent businessman and policy analyst to discuss interesting current events topics. At Baruch I got to see former secretary general of the UN Kofi Annan speak. As part of a club at Baruch I got to attend a breakfast discussion at the UN with US ambassador to the UN Betty King along with a room full of business, diplomatic, and policy elites.

-Culture and Opportunities in the City. I’ll express my frustrations with the city later, but the payoff to putting up with that frustration is access to a world of amazing things to do and see. Just keep in mind that as a full time student you will rarely have the time or energy to see even a fraction of it all.

Cons:

Not really free. Ignore all the nice advertising about not having to pay anything or leaving debt free. First off, keep in mind that CUNY tuition is already really cheap, so if you compare it to almost any other scholarship a person smart enough to get into Macaulay might get, it is a pretty meager amount. Second, unless you already live in NYC or go to Hunter, cost of living in NYC is huge. When we did the calculations for our estimated cost of going to Macaulay, we found that it would actually be a bit more expensive than just going to a SUNY like Binghamton or Geneseo. It’s even worse if you are struggling to pay for college. One of my friends in the program told me that Macaulay actually used the Federal grants he got to pay tuition rather than paying the full amount from the scholarship. This means that he had less for other expenses like food and housing, and as a result he moved to an apartment that is an hour and a half away from the school because of costs.

They lied to us about the laptops. We were advertised Macbook Pros. Starting our year they switched to the cheaper, less powerful Air, which isn’t suitable for a lot of functions you might need out of a computer such as photo/video editing and gaming. When someone from the FB group emailed the tech guy to ask about the change, he gave a BS answer about the Air being better than the Pro which was simply false. Before the argument that it is free: 1. If I went to a SUNY with the money I saved I could have bought a better laptop. 2. Because of their decision, I had to lug my desktop into the city just to be able to use the aforementioned functions. It takes up a lot of space in my tiny room.
Also, we are supposed to have “Information Technology Fellows (ITFs)” to help out with tech issues. It turns out that these ITFs are actually just grad students who aren’t even majoring in or experts in technology. They’ve only shown up a few times, and it was always to do something pointless like “teach” us how to use Wordpress or Prezi.

Bad advisor/bureaucracy. They advertise the advising as something fairly individualized and helpful. The reality is that you share an advisor with what I estimate to be around 160 students. None of the interactions I’ve had with my advisor have been helpful in any way. She offers very little actual information or advice. For a very simple question, she sent me on a bureaucratic scavenger hunt to find the answer. One of the departments she sent me to even implied that it was her job to know the answer! Whenever I’ve wanted to do something, she either didn’t help or even impeded my ability to do what I needed. For registration we had to run our schedules by her. Before I thought this was supposed to be so she could give us advice, but it was actually just her checking to see that our times worked out. She did nothing unless she was stopping me from doing something.

I’ve had to deal with multiple problems registering for courses and figuring out my major because of stupid restrictions Baruch imposed that I incorrectly thought Macaulay would override. We are supposed to get priority registration, however your schedule can still get messed up in a few ways due to either Baruch or Macaulay: You can’t take courses after 5pm, so for some classes that have a very limited number of sections offered, you lose a lot of flexibility. You have to take the seminar courses which you have to compete for with all the other Macaulay students with priority registration, so you can get a bad schedule as a result. I logged on to register the minute I was able to and I still didn’t get my first choice, and as a result I have to wake up really early 2/4 days of the week. Baruch has a policy that gives priority to Zicklin students for 3000+ level economics classes even though there is a BA Econ major in Weissman. Because of this, if I wanted to take the next level of econ, I would have had to wait until way after everyone else registered just to find out if my schedule works. The only other option I had was to declare for economics now, and even then I still would have had to go through an approval process just to get the class. My advisor also gave me a hard time when I wanted to take winter classes. Another problem I’ve had is that Baruch doesn’t allow double majors between the 3 schools. When I asked why, I was given the dumbest answer ever: “They are 2 different degrees.” As if it was incomprehensible to them that they could print a second piece of paper or print some extra words on the first piece of paper.

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Continued:

Macaulay doesn’t respect my time. Macaulay has a slew of required classes, events, advisement sessions, and activities such as community service and cultural experiences. Some of these were ok, but most of them were terrible wastes of my time. I don’t like that Macaulay thinks it knows how to use my time better than I do. I’m an adult. Provide me with some opportunities that are worthwhile and I will seek them out. Just don’t force me to go to poorly thought out activities. Just a sample of some of the pointless things they made us do: We went to the Brooklyn museum, got into groups and used camera phones and tape recorders to take pictures of art and record our discussions of them. After doing 2 we could stay or leave, but it was 10pm and I lived all the way on the other side of town. Weeks later, the groups met at the Macaulay building with our laptops to… edit the still pictures and audio into a basic short slide show “video.” It was essentially a one person job so we all just stood around one laptop while one of us did the work. Not that it matters since it isn’t exactly a skill to use the basic functions of iMovie. After all of that, the website we uploaded our videos to didn’t even work.

You are still a CUNY student. Even though Macaulay has some good professors and optional courses, you aren’t taking most of your classes with Macaulay. There are very few honors courses offered at Baruch, and the one non-Macaulay one that I have taken so far was a complete joke. The Baruch courses were hit or miss. I’ve only had 3 good non-Macaulay professors so far. The rest of the courses I took were laughably easy and boring. Plus you get mixed in with a lot of really slow students who you end up having to work with in discussions and group work. In my English course, there were a bunch of people who either didn’t speak English well or were just dumb. When we wrote essays, we had to bring in drafts for our peers to edit. I would always have to read an illegible, incoherent mess that was beyond simple critique, and then I would get mine back with basically no negative comments even though I knew I needed to fix things. Sometimes bad students in your class are just annoying, and sometimes there are cases like these where they directly interfere with your education. In my 3000 level Public Affairs/Econ course which has both intro Econ courses as a prerequisite, the professor is spending the first half of the semester reteaching intro to micro because most of the class didn’t understand it the first time they learned it.

Macaulay students aren’t always smart. Although I’ve met quite a few people I would consider intellectually similar to myself, there are a lot of Macaulay students who are just completely coasting. They aren’t that smart, they aren’t interested in academic discussions, they are difficult to coordinate with on projects, etc. I think there are quite a few people who are only here because they BS’d their way through the SATs and did enough clubs to pad out their resumes. Even if I wanted to interact with them, it would be difficult to do so since everyone is spread throughout the city. Most of the time people just come to a class or a club then just leave. I haven’t ever met with anyone outside of class or school related function.

Terrible technology/infrastructure: At Baruch, the old building’s elevators break down frequently, thus I often had to run up 7 flights of stairs to get to class on time, and I was lucky. Some people had classes way up on the 13th floor! Even in the new buildings, the elevators are woefully insufficient to handle the traffic between classes. I often have to wait for several elevators to go by before I get on one, and even then that elevator is jam packed. Plus, even though there are two doors in the elevator, one meant for exit, the other for entry, everyone is too stupid to follow this system, so it takes twice as long at every stop. The wifi is also really shoddy. It randomly stops working sometimes and there are even some parts of the school that are complete dead zones. The bathrooms are all just as terrible as your high school’s bathroom was. They are dirty, the stalls don’t all shut, the toilets don’t all flush, there is very little soap, the sinks don’t stay on for more than a second, and the hand driers are the old kind that are worse than just shaking your hands in the air as you walk out of the bathroom.

Food: The cafeteria is terrible and overpriced and all the food around Baruch and Macaulay are either really bad, really unhealthy, or really expensive.There also isn’t a lot of variety. Every day is basically a choice between bad pizza, or overly spicy Halal or Asian food.

Travel: This applies to any NYC school unless they somehow have dorms very close to campus: Traveling around NYC, especially during rush hour or late at night, is absolutely terrible. The public transportation system is slow and only semi-functional and as a result it is always filled with people. There have been some days where I had to wait for 4 trains to go by before I could get on one. “Express” trains often have to stop because of train traffic. HOW CAN THERE BE TRAIN TRAFFIC? Also, getting to certain parts of the city from other parts is really annoying. If you aren’t already on the west side, you have to take 2-3 trains to get to the Macaulay building.

Environment: Once again, a NYC thing rather than a Macaulay thing. NYC might be cleaner than it was in the 70s, but it is still a dirty, smelly, crowded, noisy, busy city with few places to rest between your dorm and the campus. If you don’t like random events and traffic interfering with your education or if you would prefer to breathe clean air, this isn’t the place for you.

Degree Recognition. I’m not so sure how the stats are generally, but I have first hand experience that implies to me that a Macaulay degree does not get the same weight that degrees from bigger universities and Ivies do. My Dad works for a financial firm in Midtown, a few blocks from the Macaulay building and a subway ride away from Baruch. Until he pointed Macaulay out to them, the recruiters at his company didn’t even know about it. Even once they set up a recruitment event with Macaulay, they only did so for hard to fill tech jobs. When my Dad asked why, they said that they get enough business applicants from Ivies that they don’t need any from Macaulay.

I might be forgetting some things, but these are some of the main things that stick in my head when I think about why I want to leave Macaulay/Baruch. If you have any other questions, I’ll try to answer them as best as I can. I don’t necessarily think that Macaulay is wrong for everyone, so I don’t want to totally steer you away from the program, but I want to make sure that others make this decision more informed than I did.

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Interesting read… thanks!

I am by no means expecting a lengthy response, but to what extent would you say MHC at Hunter is similar?

And also, stigmas aside, is Baruch better for majoring in Econ and concentrating in math (as you mentioned they don’t have a dual-degree program) realtive to Hunter? I’m curious.

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@ggwpafk823 Difficult to say that much about Hunter, since I can’t really know the true experience without having to deal with it first hand like I did with Baruch. However, there are a few things which at least seem different to me:

  1. Hunter provides free housing for the first 2 years, so my cost comparisons to other colleges would be different.
  2. Hunter is primarily a liberal arts college, so I doubt they have as many registration restrictions as Baruch has and you will probably find a more academically diverse student body. At Baruch more than 80% of the students are getting some kind of business degree and thus if you aren't strictly interested into business, you will find a lack of people to talk to.
  3. I get the sense that Macaulay is a bigger/better integrated program at Hunter. They have more students, they get free dorms, they host one of the major orientation events at Hunter and at that event the Hunter students all had MHC at Hunter tee shirts. All of that said though, you still have to put up with some of the dumb things Macaulay forces you to do, so I doubt it can be that different.

As far as majoring in Econ/Math: Assuming they don’t have any similar registration restrictions, I think it would be better to go for it at Hunter. The BBA in Econ at Baruch isn’t that mathy and you can’t double major with it and if you take the BA then you get stuck with the problem I’m running into. I’ve even spoken with a senior who is doing econ and they told me that the bureaucracy of signing up for classes doesn’t get that much better later on.

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Hello Darthelmet,

As a macaulay honors student in Baruch majoring in Accounting or Finance, do you think it would be possible to transfer to NYU Stern if i maintain a high GPA, gain work experience, and join clubs. Or if you know of any cases of someone transferring from MH Baruch to Stern or another business school with similar standing. Im also considering Binghamton, which school do you think is a better business school. I have read many conflicting things online. Also if i would have a slightly better chance trying to transfer from binghamton.

Thanks in advance.

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@Daisox
I wouldn’t know that much about how the Business schools stack up to each other since I’m not doing any business majors, (probably one of the reasons I shouldn’t have gone to Baruch in the first place in hindsight) but I can say a few things things:

  1. You should be able to get into either of those schools pretty easily as a Macaulay student keeping up a Macaulay GPA. I got into all of the schools I applied to (including Binghamton as well as some private colleges on a similar level with NYU) with the exception of Cornell’s transfer offer, and they are still basically accepting me, just 1 year late, so if an Ivy will take me without another application, I’m sure you could easily get into a public university or 2nd tier private school.
  2. NYU would probably be better known than Binghamton just because Binghamton is a state school. Doesn’t mean Bing or Baruch are necessarily worse, but that’s just how things go.
  3. I had a prof for the Arts IDC Seminar who taught some courses at NYU before coming to Macaulay. He didn’t have a positive view of the students there. Could just be anecdotal but I’ve heard similar feelings from others about the school.
  4. Your financial situation might play a role in the decision. I got scholarships from some of the big private schools I applied to which brought them down to cost a bit less than Cornell with the NYS resident discount. We could have afforded them, but we decided that good but not great private schools weren’t worth that price when I could go to a good public for much cheaper or an amazing Ivy for just a little bit more if I waited a year. Unless you can fully afford NYU or you would be getting a lot of need based aid, I would think a bit more about whether or not it’s worth the premium you are paying since I don’t think most schools offer merit based scholarships for transfer students.
  5. While I turned out to not like NYC that much, it is a great place with a lot of opportunities, especially for a business student. I don’t know if NYU has on campus dorms or not or whether you would care if they didn’t, but I know now that I would consider this to be an important point. If you can tolerate NYC, the internships here are definitely a plus.
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Thank you so much for the response!

  1. I wasn't accepted to NYU Stern as an early decision applicant, probably because of my low SAT scores ( 2060). I had no subjects tests when i applied but i plan on taking them in may(math 2) and june (World History) before i graduate.
  2. I was wondering if i worked really hard over the next year, if i would be able to transfer to NYU Stern. I was debating between trying to transfer from MCH Baruch or Binghamton to Stern. I heard that a high GPA in MHC Baruch might not weigh as much as a high GPA from Bing. However i heard of cases, where students from MHC Baruch were able to transfer to Stern.
  3. Yeah, i also heard mixed review of the students. However, as you mentioned i was hoping to be in an environment with motivated students, which im afraid that Baruch might not have.
  4. My parents will be able to pay some, and i am willing to take out some loans if necessary.
  5. Yeah, I can understand that if you were not born here then the atmosphere of the city can take some getting used to. I wouldn't need dorms which would be a plus if i stayed for MHC Baruch.
  6. Which is why im trying to decide if the prestige of Bing is greater than MHC Baruch. I heard that outside NYC MHC Baruch is not as known as Bing.
  7. Also i am hoping to understand my chances so i can find a college more suited to my stats, so that way freshman year i would know if i should take the courses needed to transfer to Stern or if i basically have no shot and should focus my energy on a different school.
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@Daisox
Ah I misunderstood your post. I thought you were already at Baruch and deciding between Bing and NYU. If you are set on going to NYU after a year, then I would suggest just going to Binghamton while you wait. Macaulay has a lot of extra things they require you to do which vary from interesting to terrible but none of them are really useful especially if you plan to transfer. Your course options would also be limited since 1st semester they basically set your courses for you and 2/6 of them are required Macaulay classes that probably won’t transfer as anything relevant. The quality of the classes at Bing and Baruch are similar enough that you would probably just be better off without the distractions of Macaulay or the city. I probably would have gone to Binghamton this year had I known for sure that I would be transferring to Cornell.

That said, if Baruch would work out better because you don’t need to pay extra for housing expenses, if you are up front about your intentions to transfer, you might be able to skip at least some of the really stupid stuff Macaulay makes you do. I finally did this this semester because I didn’t want to have to go to some of the events and my advisor completely understood and was friendly about it.

So I guess that is the way to look at the schools:

MCH=Cheaper option that provides some opportunities to do cool things to do as long as you can get out of doing the dumb required things.
Binghamton=No distractions. Study hard for a year then transfer.

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Thanks, if i decided to stay for MCH and told them that i am planning on transferring, would it be possible to try to take more of the required math Stern courses or is their course system too rigid.

1.have you heard of any cases of a macaulay honors student transferring to Stern or a school of equal or greater standing.
2.Do you think that schools see binghamton as having higher rigor than baruch MCH or are they also equal.
3.Are the extra things courses or volunteer/project things, because if they are project/volunteer work wouldn’t that look nice on a transfer application.

Once again thanks for answering.

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@Daisox‌
Not sure about class structure. I didn’t ask about not doing the volunteering until I was already a few weeks into the 2nd semester, so by that point I had already taken the 2 Macaulay Seminars and Freshman seminar. If you could get out of those somehow it would free up your schedule by a lot, but I don’t know what the outcome would be if you asked before registration.

  1. I haven't heard of it specifically, but I imagine it happens. I don't think getting into one of those schools would be an issue.
  2. They're similar, especially if you aren't going to stay there for more than a year. Freshman courses at any college are going to be fairly basic anyway, so there isn't going to be a huge difference between the two for your purposes. If you were to graduate from one of them, then Macaulay probably makes more sense just because it's a special thing that goes on your diploma.
  3. The 2 required things that may get in your way are 10 hours of volunteering starting in your 2nd semester (on top of that, some advisors make you do this in a group) and a series of Macaulay Common events related to the Macaulay courses. Sure, if you are ok with volunteer work, it probably looks nice on an app/resume, but there is almost no value in the common events. They are all around the city, take up a lot of time, and are so poorly planned and haphazard that by the 2nd event half the class didn't show up. There is almost no value to be gained from them in any way. There are some interesting voluntary events, but the required ones aren't worth your time.
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Hey there! Are you transferring to Cornell? I’m a Cornell ED deferred applicant. I applied for Macaulay @ Baruch as well. Coincidentally, decisions will come out later today. If I do get in, I might consider it, but I thought your experience was very informative nonetheless!
Cornell has been my #1 but I have a strong feeling I’m going to end up with a rejection or luckily a Guaranteed Transfer (I have a legacy).

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Hey! I just got into Macaulay Honors at Baruch, and I wanted to read up on the quality of classes and everything some more and found your post. I don’t think anyone has really talked about the negative aspects of the program before, so this was really interesting to read, especially since Macaulay itself isn’t a really well known program and there’s not much information available about it.

I applied for an English major, so I’m mainly interested in the quality of those classes but after reading your posts, I’m a bit worried. Are all the classes that bad? And would the English program here measure up to the ones at UVa, NYU, UMich, BU and UCLA? These are all colleges I’m seriously considering along with Macaulay, and I was wondering how drastic the differences in quality would be.

Thanks for all the additional information though. It was really helpful to read about Macaulay through a different perspective.

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Hi does anyone know when Dean’s Scholar Program will start letting students know if they’ve been accepted/rejected?

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@atsishah‌ I received my acceptance to the Dean’s Scholar Program on the same day as Macaulay! (3/15)

Btw does anyone know the difference between Macaulay and the Dean’s Scholar? They seem to offer the same thing…full tuition, Macbook Air, etc.

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@airspirit I think the main difference is that you don’t get the dual degree from Dean’s Scholars and you don’t get as much money in the study abroad grant thing. You also can’t take classes at other campuses.

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Hi there! Hi there!

I’m currently a sophomore at Baruch in the Macaulay Honors College and I wanted to add some comments to this post.

First, Macaulay is NOT a program so everyone needs to understand that. It is a college, which is why we have a graduation and receive a degree from there.

I turned down a big scholarship from NYU Stern to attend Baruch @ Macaulay and I do not regret my decision one bit. Because of the flexibility and options here, I switched my major out of business and am now creating two majors in the liberal arts. CUNY has such a wide community and it’s a pleasure being a part of it.

Although the laptops aren’t perfect, everyone needs to understand these are FREE Apply laptops! I honestly don’t see many schools giving these away.

In terms of paying, NO, Macaulay DOES NOT take out from your PellGrant! I receive a pell grant check every semester because Macaulay does not take out the money. They do take out from TAP, but because TAP is only for tuition, which Macaulay covers so it makes no sense to receive TAP.

I have friends attending many different schools, including Barnard and NYU, and guess what, they are going to be drowning in debt after graduating and Macaulay students, or even CUNY student for that matter, do not. Macaulay gives me the opportunity to study abroad, which I have done once and am doing this summer and winter again. I am only paying for food and souvenirs on each trip thanks to Macaulay and financial aid.

Most employers and graduate/lawschools I have spoken to have heard of Macaulay and find the college to be a real treasure in NYC. I am going to be applying to law school next year and already know I am going to stand out by saying I am from Macaulay. I never say I attend Baruch, but Macaulay Honors College at Baruch and trust me, it makes you stand out!

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I apologize for the incorrect information on the grant. This was based on what a friend told me, so perhaps it was a matter of misunderstanding their financial situation.

Beyond that, whether you call it a college or program is irrelevant. The extra piece of paper doesn’t really matter. For the most part it functions like a program on top of your home college.

2nd, as I said, if you look at the laptops in an economic sense, they aren’t free. You’ve chosen Macaulay over another college. In my case, my other option was to go to a SUNY like Binghamton or Geneseo which would have been cheaper after taking into account cost of living. So the money. I’d save more than enough to buy a laptop on my own and still have it come out to less than Macaulay with the “free” laptop.

@airspirit Yeah I’m transferring to Cornell. Good luck!

@rhea23 I couldn’t comment on other English courses since I didn’t take any my 2nd semester after finishing ENG 2150. However, in my experience with other classes, it tends to be pretty bad. For example, this semester I’m taking a 3000 level economics and policy course which requires both intro econ courses to register in. Most of the class understood so little of the fundamental material that the prof made the entire first half of the semester review of intro to micro. Even after a half semester of easy review material plus 2 DAYS of in class test review, the average on the midterm ended up in the 60s on a test which I got an easy 90 something on. So I’d be a bit concerned about the quality the courses.

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Hi @Darthhelmet,

Current graduating senior here at Macaulay Baruch. I just wanted to comment on some of your cons that you stated in your review of Macaulay, because quite frankly I think some are a misrepresentation of the Honors Program at Baruch. The best way I can think of doing this is going through your cons and giving my honest opinion on each con you have. I’ll try to keep it brief and notice that I do agree with you on some points.

  1. "Not really free" - I suppose you're right here. There are hidden costs like the ~$250 per semester "Student Fee" that each Baruch student has to pay so we have a large Undergraduate Student Government budget. Costs of books and online teaching tools can run you about $200-300 a semester if you buy each book. I'd recommend libgen.org for free ebooks, but the teaching tools will cost you about $50-80 a class, if it's required. Transportation: $115 a month if just metro, anywhere from $250-$300 a month if you take the LIRR (which I do). Assuming that you pay $250 for student fees, $250 for books and "teaching tools" (Connect Plus), and your transportation is $120 a month (8 months), your 4 year "free" education at Macaulay comes to $7,840, not cheap but still less than the cost of one month at a private school!
  2. "Laptops" - They gave you a more portable, lighter, faster, Macbook Air. While it isn't as powerful as the Pro, I think the vast majority of students prefer the Air because it is so light and does what we do most: Internet and Word. If you're doing heavy Photoshop or Video Editing, it probably won't get the job done at your desired pace
  3. "Bad advisor/bureaucracy" - Don't know the specifics of your circumstance but I'm sure this isn't just a Baruch problem. In fact, having an advisor as a Macaulay student is one of the best things. Some are more helpful than others, I'll give you that. But it is still an advantage and I'm not certain that any institution has mastered the bureaucratic element
  4. "Registering" - This might be a problem specific for your major (Econ in Weisman) and I think it's valid if what you said above is correct. There are definitely issues here but usually a trip to my advisor or the registrar's office quickly fixes it. Also, finding the problem early (before your time to register) is the best bet here. If you wait until the last minute you're gonna have a bad time...
  5. "MHC doesn't respect your time" - Okay, I can understand this, but I think you need to realize the fact that people are naturally lazy. I'm not saying you are, but if MHC just made all their events "optional" there wouldn't be anyone going to them, simply due to a convenience factor. They are trying to give you a well rounded education. I personally love all the events that MHC offers, they bring in top notch speakers and the discussions always influence the way I speak about that topic. They just want you to have a more broad understanding of the world and I really appreciate that.
  6. "You're still a CUNY student" - I can agree with that here. You will encounter the same troubles as many CUNY students. When you apply to a job, you're applying from Baruch, not necessarily from Macaulay. You can boast about how you're an Honors Student, but from my experience, the Macaulay brand is slowly but surely making it's way to big corporations (think big banks and big four accounting firms)
  7. "Tech/Infrastructure" - I agree that the 23rd St. building is pretty old, but unless you're a science student you will only be taking 2 classes max there. The tech in the VC and the library is top notch and comparable to private institutions. Everything is clean, well lit, and tech focused. Wifi is pretty good from my four years here.
  8. "Food" - C'mon man, you're in NYC. Stop complaining about the cafeteria food. You literally have hundreds of choices within walking distance. For affordable restaurants, there are dozens of thai and indian spots two minutes away from Baruch. There's a chipotle, panera, chop't, just salad, pret, and a bunch of delis literally walking distance from here.
  9. "Transport" - to be expected. Again, its NYC. The MTA can suck sometimes. Most commuting times of students are between 30-60 mins. If you plan on commuting, it's certainly doable, but can definitely be annoying at times.
  10. "Environment" - if you love NYC, you'll love Flatiron/Gramercy. It's fast paced, a lot is going on, and it's classic NYC. If you want a green grass, wide open space campus, go elsewhere
  11. "Degree Recognition" - I can say this as a graduating senior with a job locked up at a bulge bracket investment bank. Having a degree from Macaulay Baruch is not the same as UPenn, Harvard, UMich, Columbia, or NYU but the ROI is unbeatable. The network, while smaller at some firms, is certainly there and people are definitely willing to help you out in terms of mentoring.

Overall the people at Macaulay are some of the smartest and most intellectual folks I’ve come across. If costs, distance to home, and being in the city are important to you, as they were for me, Macaulay Baruch is the logical choice. Definitely glad I made it. I would’ve been in the same position if I accepted that NYU admission, only with $100k+ in debt :slight_smile:

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how comparable is deans scholars to macauly at baruch? or not comparable at all?

Also, if I could ask, as I have been searching for some time and have not been able to find a definitive answer, how exactly does academics at Baruch work? How do you “select” a school? Do you just get put into either Weissman or ziklin based off a tentative major preference? Is it easy to transfer between the two? Im looking to major in Econ and concentrate in math and explore it as much as possible, but really, all I want to do is get a taste of everything, but the focus on business at Baruch is a bit scary.
Unfortunately, baruch is the best bet I have right now to gradute debt free. Is baruch a good choice for me?

My options right now are:

vassar- 8k net cost per year
baruch- full tuition (deans scholar), can commute from queens, although would probably prefer to dorm/rent sometime after freshmen year
stony- 12k net cost per year (no way!)
and a few waitlists that im not naive enough to bet on

Sorry for highjacking the thread, but what would you do?

I really do love the city and would love being able to graduate debt free, but the supposed lack of a “stimulation” environment as this thread seems to suggest is a tad bit concerning.