<p>1)At which is it easier to maintain a 3.5 GPA?
2)Which one has better connections in terms of internships, research,etc.?
3)Which one is more worth it's lofty cost?
*I received 20k in grants for NYU. I don't know about USC yet, but my parents can't submit their tax forms until after the SIR.</p>
<p>USC and NYU are the same academic-wise and you’ll get the same education at both. Pick based on which college you like more: USC is in California, warmer weather, traditional atmosphere, NYU is nontraditional, no campus, no sports, in NYC…
Neither are worth sticker price so pick the one with better financial aid and atmosphere you prefer.</p>
<p>Bio is going to be difficult at both; at NYU, the introductory course is a huge weed-out class where the curve is set up so half get a C+ or lower; first semester there were nearly 600 students and next semester there were like 400 - so a lot of science majors change their mind after freshmen year. I’m sure it’s the same at USC, it’s a difficult subject. Bio is the most popular major at NYU so the classes are bigger than in neuro, chem, biochem, physics, etc.</p>
<p>I’m currently a bio major at NYU who is about to finish my sophomore year. I can’t comment on USC, but I can provide some insight into the bio classes I’ve taken at NYU up to this point. So far, I would say that my experiences in bio classes have been sub-par. The first year of bio (Principles of Biology) is basically a review of what you learned in AP biology (we even use the same Campbell/Reese textbook), except it’s taught by almost a dozen professors over two semesters (I had a single teacher teach the entire course in high school, so I don’t understand why they can’t just hire a professor to just teach the course like they do for General Chemistry). Each one gives lectures on subjects related to their fields of research, but many of them are just that, researchers who seem to have little experience teaching. All of the exams are multiple choice and the test questions are oftentimes poorly worded. The curve is set up so that if your average is anywhere in the low to mid 80s, you’re virtually assured an A, although getting an 80+ average is easier said than done.</p>
<p>Most bio majors take Molec/Cell in their second year. Unfortunately, the previous professor who lectured on the course for over a decade recently accepted a position at NYU Abu Dhabi, so now we have various other temporary professors filling in for Molec/Cell II. Again, several of them are not so good at teaching and sometimes you can tell that they just read about the material the night before the lecture. This is not helped by the fact that the primary text we use is supposedly a graduate-level textbook, and much of the information in it is not even covered by the course. However next year, there are only supposed to be two main lecturers for Molec/Cell, and one of them is the director of the Ph.D program in NYU’s biology department so hopefully it will be better by then. The grading for this class is even more lenient, especially for the first semester. Anything in the 70s is probably going to get you at least an A- if not an A. Keep in mind that the curve for both Principles of Bio and Molec/Cell work in such a way that at least 10% of grades awarded must be As, which should give some insight into how difficult the course is. The exams are half multiple choice, half written (Except for the final, which is all multiple choice). The written part is usually very hard since most of the questions focus on hypothetical experiments and their results, so students must know how to utilize the knowledge they’ve learned, not just memorize or understand it.</p>
<p>As for maintaining a respectable GPA, I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask about that. Bio comes naturally to me and I’ve done very well in all of the bio classes with relatively little effort compared to the amount that I put into other classes (My bio GPA actually contributes positively to my overall GPA). A reasonable amount of students drop bio after their first semester (I would guess around a quarter or so), but it’s not nearly as bad as Molec/Cell. We had around 190 students in Molec/Cell I during the first semester and that number has dropped to around 100 in Molec/Cell II (Molec/Cell I focuses mostly on molecular biology which many students find to be extremely difficult).</p>
<p>I’ve heard that the higher level bio courses are generally much better and also easier than Principles and Molec/Cell since they focus more on a specific subject such as genetics or microbiology, and as such the professors are more knowledgeable and competent since they generally teach in subjects that are very closely related to their research. I guess I will see next year whether that claim is true or not.</p>
<p>I guess in the end what I’m trying to say is, you need to be either very good at bio or study very hard in order to survive the first two years at NYU as a bio major. As a pre-med, your life will be even more difficult since most bio majors who are pre-med take principles of bio in conjunction with general chemistry and some (like me) also take molec/cell and organic chemistry at the same time in their sophomore year. I’m sure that the situation is very similar at USC and other comparable schools, but from what I’ve seen so far, NYU is not worth it if you care about biology to any significant extent. I personally did not come to NYU because of its biology program. I only majored in biology because it’s the subject that I’m best at and I believe it to be the best route to obtaining the highest GPA that I can for applying to med school with. Basically for me, it’s a means to an end and despite the fact that I believe the classes to be relatively ineffective at conveying useful information, I personally have no regrets about majoring in biology at NYU.</p>
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That’s partly because Neural Science majors are required to take Molec Cell I and then we take Molecular Cell Neurobiology instead of Molec Cell II, which explains why the class shrinks over the year.</p>
<p>everything else Kentric said is really valid, imo, especially about the first 2 years vs last 2 years with more specialized classes. I personally did come to NYU for its science programs because i’m in a science scholarship program, but I think bio is the worst of the science programs here; it’s very large and impersonal. Biochem, Chem, Neuro and Physics majors are generally happier with their experience overall imo.</p>