New York University

Date: Oct 24 2008
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
*all comments about nyu pertain solely the College of Arts and Science (the liberal arts school).

i had fairly solid numbers (800 verbal, 750 math; 3.85 gpa) and applied to nyu as a "safety" school. i received a pretty generous merit scholarship, plus a nice financial aid package, and that pretty much clinched the deal for me. so i guess i passed up so-called better/higher-ranked schools in exchange for free tuition (take note: schoalrships dont cover living costs, which, ahem…downtown manhattan is very pricey) and a chance to live in nyc. both reasons are bad reasons to choose nyu, though. the student body is, on average, composed of wack, pretentious, Ivy-wannabes (hmm, i wonder if i'm one of those). but the profs are good. and there's nothing like a traditional "campus" so if that's your thing, then nyu is not.

i am double majoring in English and Philosophy. i was a bit disappointed with my English classes, until i got to the most advanced courses (called "topics"). topics courses rock. apparently, before i came to nyu, a sizeable chunk of the english major could be fulfilled with creative writing courses—which i personally think is…strange. now, creative writing courses have no bearing on the english major, which i think is a good thing, it makes the major seem less of a "joke" and also makes the major more "serious" and more "textual" (i have no idea if that makes sense to anybody else). b/c let's face it, creative writing courses are "easy As"/GPA-boosters. i recommend any literary theory class. they tend to be more..well…theory-based and "philosophical" than other english classes that focus more on close readings and text analysis. both are fun, though. oh, and most of the male PhD grad students i've had as recitation instructors are pretty good looking and always well versed in shakespeare or something like that. bonus!:)

i had no intention of studying philosophy as an undergrad, but i enrolled in a "life and death" class (intro philosophy class) just for fun and i'm really glad i did. most of my philosophy classes were taught by PhD grad students, who are all very smart and knowledgeable and you can tell that they are very passionate about philosophy (they sometimes get really excited when they're lecturing about something, etc). philosophy classes tend to switch back and forth between lecture and discussion, and you will almost always have one person in the class who thinks he/she knows more philosophy than the professor or grad student, and will jump at any chance to argue with the instructor—that's always fun to listen to, b/c the student never wins. (aw.)

as for nyu's reputation, i'm not really sure. with the exception of the undergraduate schools everybody knows about (the ivy league, mit, stanford, duke, and then the "public ivies" like berkeley, uva, umich), i don't know if any school has a lock on a notable reputation. it all seems kinda nebulous. nyu certainly is no harvard, or columbia for that matter (uptown neighbor), but i'd be hard pressed to be sold on the "any random student at cornell is better than any student at nyu" argument. (sorry cornell.)