I ♥ New York University

Today marked the final stop of our college--New York University, more commonly known as NYU. Today also marked the hottest day thus far with it being 100 degrees with humidity and a chance of thunderstorms. With our packed schedule and the unbearable heating, I was immediately reminded of our first week in New York--just like old times, right?

Mrs. L had us meet her at the university's Welcome Center, where we waited for the start of our scheduled information session and tour. Like all of the our other tours, NYU's tour was preceded by an informative seminar. NYU's information seminar was somewhat unique, however. Not only did they have a video presentation, but they also had a Power Point presentation, which I found to be very  helpful and informative when used  in conjunction with the admission officer's words. 

NYU has a total student body of about 40,000 spread across their 14 New York-based buildings. NYU does not have an conventional campus, instead it has various "colleges" scattered around the city. Each department specializes in a certain academic field, such as the College of Arts and Sciences, which houses the school's humanities and sciences departments as well as many of NYU's general courses. Students are given a pool of over 280 courses to choose from. To ensure that all of their students remain well-rounded, NYU requires all of its students to various general education courses that may or may not relate to a student's major. The student to teacher ration is about 12:1 and the average class size is less than 30 students. Students are guaranteed to have 4 year housing, and there are currently about 10,000 students residing in NYU's several residential halls. NYU also has a wonderful abroad program, with it's major programs being set in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. The Abu Dhabi and Shanghai schools are considered "portal campuses", as students spend their entire four years their, effectively making them independent institutions. For more orthodox abroad options, students may choose to study in places such as Berlin, Germany or Sydney, Australia.  In addition to that, NYU also has a internship program that has over 90% of participants acquiring full- or part-time jobs.  

In terms of admission process, NYU is pretty standard. They only have three major guidelines:

1. For students to have chosen their desired portal school upon admission; they have can choose between NYU's New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai campuses.
2. To complete the common application as well as NYU's supplement essays. 
3. To submit all files by the given deadline. 

During the admissions process, things such as a student's grades, extracurriculars, teacher recommendations, standardized testing, and essay responses are taken into consideration. The average student GPA is between 3.6-3.7 and the average SAT score ranges from the low 600s to high 700s. Topics for NYU's supplement essays include "Why NYU?", "What are your academic interests?", and a random "wild card" question, with last year's wild card being "What intrigues you?"

Due to the research I had to do for a certain blog post, I actually knew a lot this information beforehand. That's not to say, however, that I didn't learn anything knew at all. I was able to find out a lot more about NYU's abroad programs and admission process, which proved to be very vital information that I wished that I could have added into the original blog. 

After the information session, came our tour. We visited some of the local major buildings including the College of Arts and Sciences,  Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, and their main dining hall, Hayden Hall. I really loved the school's campus as well as it's atmosphere; it was both beautiful and unique, while still being able to  create a sense of community. All of the facilities were state of the art, well designed, fully equipped, and most importantly, air conditioned. 

In case you couldn't tell, I really love NYU. Everything from the campus, to the academics, to the student body itself is absoultely perfect. Ever since I did my research on the school a few months ago, I knew that I was certainly interested in attending, but after experiencing it in person I can definitely see myself going to NYU--it's practically my dream school!

Before going back to campus, we visited the World Trade Center Memorial. Being able to stand right where the tragedy struck was almost too overwhelming, especially after seeing all the names of those who passed away on 9/11 inscribed on the memorial. Seeing such an awful tragedy be converted beaufitul piece of art was somewhat uplifting.

We later returned to the dorms to get ready for our final dinner with Vassar alumni, Ken Miles and Alexandria Dempsey. A third alumni, Brian Farkas had planned to join us, but was unfortunately unable to do to work.

During dinner, I spoke with both Ken and Alexandria about their lives before and after Vassar as well as why they chose Vassar. For my entree, I had a short rib that was an edible portion this time along with a piece of sword fist. As for dessert, I had an assortment of chocolate chip themed pastries. I really enjoyed tonight's dinner, as well as Ken's and Alexandria's enthusiasm--this dinner only helps to secure Vassar's place as one of my top Ivy League schools.

I honestly can't believe that we've made it this far so quickly. We've gotten through a lot so far, 6 colleges tours, 4 dinners, and 2 full weeks school at Columbia University. Now the only thing real obstacle standing before me is a 5 page research paper due Monday afternoon.