Student Profile
Sara
- Class: Sophomore
- Major: Pre-Law
- Gender: F
- High School: Emerald Ridge High School
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
The academics. The professors are really knowledgeable about their subject and it's so awesome to get to learn from them. I would get rid of the General Studies Program. It's for students who need to go to community college for two years first. NYU is too large. People are always impressed when I tell them I go to NYU. I spend most of my time in my room or exploring the city. What college town? NYU's administration is awful. It's too decentralized so it's difficult to know who to complain to about something. Then, when you find who to contact, there's no one above them to contact if they aren't helpful or if you want to complain about that department. The biggest controversy was liberal professors giving conservative students a hard time for being conservative, however, it's only been about two professors who have done that, so it's not as big of a deal as it was made out to be. There isn't a lot of school pride. A lot of people resent NYU for not being as much of a dream school as it seems to be before anyone gets there, but I think it's just different from what it's portrayed as, but I still love it. NYU holds some classes in the classroom inside Starbucks. There are people begging for money on your way to class. It's really big on "Going Green". It is always working on building more international campuses as well as buying other schools, such as Polytechnic University. One experience I'll always remember is when Barack Obama came to speak at Washington Square park, which is at the heart of NYU. The most frequent student complaints are that NYU isn't the dream school that everyone thought it was. It's too big. You never see the same people on your way to class. The lines for the elevators when going to class are ridiculous. Housing is too expensive for what you get.
Academic Life
Professors don't usually know your name, at least in intro courses where there are over 100 students. My favorite class was International Politics. It was taught by a really great professor who was interesting and knew the subject matter really well. He was also very good at conveying it and teaching it so that everyone understood it. My least favorite class was World Cultures: Empires and Political Imagination because the professors were very disorganized and weren't very good at communicating with their TAs, so that the TAs could help us in recitation. They also wrote the course pack and then read it during class, but tried to say that they were different even though they weren't. Students study a lot. It doesn't seem like it when it's not midterm or final seasons, but students do study a lot during those times. Class participation is very common. NYU students have intellectual conversations outside of class. Students are very competitive. The most unique class I've taken is Conversations of the West: Antiquity and the 19th Century. It was an English, history and sociology class all in one. It was an interesting combination that came together very nicely and it was very interesting. My majors are politics and math with pre-law advising. All of these departments are very helpful and really try to connect to the students. I do not spend time with my professors outside of class. Some of NYU's academic requirements are a little ridiculous and not worthwhile, such as Expressive Cultures and the language placement exams are not representative of students' knowledge at all. The education at NYU is geared toward learning and research. However, they are very helpful when it comes to jobs, career planning and internships. There's a whole center just for helping students with that and they have a lot of fairs throughout the year that give students more information about those things.
Student Body
NYU prides itself on its diversity and its acceptance of all groups of people. There is a club for every group possible. NYU is, however predominantly Jewish, but even non-Jewish people don't feel isolated because of that. There is a Kosher dining hall, but it's not something that makes people feel weird about. A non-Catholic Christian would feel out of place at NYU. I am Lutheran and I know about five Lutherans at NYU. However, even being one of these minorities doesn't necessarily make for feeling out of place because there are still clubs for non-Catholic Christians. Students do not tend to wear sweats to class like at other colleges. People do actually dress for class. Business school students usually wear a suit to class. Other students do put a conscious effort into their clothes at NYU, even if it doesn't look like it. All different types of students interact. The four tables of students in the dining hall have every type of student sitting in each chair. There may be a Muslim, a Jewish person, a Spanish person, a rural West Coast American, and a Chinese person all at the same table having a really great conversation. Like I said before, NYU prides itself on diversity because it exists and everyone embraces it and interacts with each other regardless of where someone is from. That's one of NYU's strong points. While NYU is diverse, however, most NYU students do hail from the tri-state area. That is the only generalization that can be made however because everyone else comes from so many different places, it's almost impossible to make any generalizations about it. Every financial background exists. There aren't any that are more prevalent than others. It's pretty equal. Most students are politically active/aware. They are predominantly left or center, but there is an NYU Republicans club, just like there's an NYU Democrats club. Students don't exactly talk about how much they'll earn. They more talk about how in debt they will be. Students in the business school might talk about how much they'll earn, but I don't know because I'm not in the business school.
The Best Things
New York City
The Worst Things
The decentralized administration
