Hi everyone! I am a current senior in high school applying to colleges at the moment.
I really wanted to know if majoring in Liberal Arts at The New School in NYC is the same thing as being in Gallatin at NYU. I am just curious.
THANKS!
Not sure what you mean by “the same thing.” They are different institutions. They are similar in their emphasis on individualized study and their locations in the heart of Manhattan. NYU is significantly more prestigious and competitive for admission.
I think what you’re asking is if they are similar, and yes, they are. Gallatin’s program is organized around a generative idea - a theme - and is intended to be interdisciplinary and integrated. In other words, you are basically proposing a self-directed major that you feel isn’t represented or encompassed by any of the existing majors at NYU (or perhaps elsewhere) that you want to study in a purposeful, deep way. This is important - it’s not simply taking a bunch of classes that sound interesting to you, but crafting an area of study that is focused and has both breadth and depth. I am having a really hard time finding examples of actual Gallatin concentrations (as opposed to made up ones on the Internet). There is an old NYU blog (I think called NYU local?) that has a tag called “[strange] Gallatin majors”, where [strange] is actually a pretty common profane initialism. If you search you’ll find it.
Eugene Lang’s program is very similar.
To get started, you’ll work closely with your advisor to develop a proposal outlining the themes or subjects you plan to study along with and a selection of courses. Typically, the chair of Liberal Arts reviews and approves the path of study statement no later than the second semester of a student’s sophomore year. Junior transfer students must have path statements approved during their first semester in residence.
What I don’t think most students realize is most universities let you design an individualized major or self-directed course of study. There are some that have it baked into their educational system; examples are [Program 2](http://program2.duke.edu/) at Duke, Hampshire College, Bennington College, College of the Atlantic’s human ecology program; St. Olaf’s Center for Integrated Studies; and the New College of Florida and Evergreen State College’s quirky free-ranging programs (both are public, though).
But almost every college also has an interdisciplinary studies/integrated studies/individualized major. And some are recognized for supporting it more than others - like Swarthmore, Oberlin, and Emory. Of course, the college needs to have the coursework to support the program you want, which is one thing that Gallatin definitely has - with a giant research university like NYU there are thousands of classes to take advantage of. The New School is going to be a bit more limited (especially in the sciences). A small LAC like Swarthmore or Oberlin might not give you the classes you want. But any other large research university might offer the same or even more options.