I
am a physics major at NYU. I am in
my third year. My opinion of the school and
my experience have changed significantly since being a freshman.
At first, I didn't feel very comfortable or grounded, but
that changed as I got to know my fellow physics
majors. They are all very intelligent and a few
are some of the smartest people I have ever met.
Everyone in the program is extremely friendly and helpful.
We all work together on homework sets and study
together for exams. It is not competitive. The
work can definitely be intimidating at times, but you might
be surprised to see what happens when you stick with
it. It is a challenging, interesting, and rewarding path
to take at NYU. Some teachers are better than
others, but overall I feel they are quite good and
quite helpful. One of my few criticisms of the
program is that there are not the many electives offered
at any one time. There seems to be a
shortage of classes from which to choose sometimes. I
haven't compared NYU's number of offered physics electives to that
of other schools, though.
As for the rest of
NYU, I am pretty neutral. The core requirements were
mostly not that great, but a couple of them were
very interesting. It can be somewhat irritating to deal
with these courses when you just want to focus on
your major, but I imagine this is the cases at
many schools.
I grew up in Brooklyn and
I love New York. It's a great place to
be.
NYU is probably a better place for outgoing kids.
If you make the effort to talk to people
and are not skiddish when it comes to hanging out
with people you don't know that well, it could probably
be really great, socially, right from the beginning. As
I said, it took me kind of a while to
find a group of people, and occasionally it has been
pretty depressing.
There are so many experiences at NYU.
I have a feeling mine is pretty unique. My
description may be drastically different from that of most people.
I can say that I have had a pretty
positive experience with the physics department, though.
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