Bustles

Did you miss mine, yasi?

windylane

Hi Yasi-- thanks for taking questions. I'm a prospective junior year transfer for fall 2009, and was wondering what your opinions are on how much NYU (and Gallatin specifically) values leadership positions. I am going to be a freshman R.A. next year at my current university, and my reasons for transfer are mainly academic. I don't know what R.A.s are like at NYU, but at my school it is definately a position of prestige, especially for sophomores. It's considered a "staff" position... I get reimbursed for housing and meal plan, etc. How do you think this would affect my admission to Gallatin?

atelierjpn

yasi: Career wise, I would like to mix business with art, either operating and/or art directing an advertising or design firm. I think being in NYC is a huge part of my draw to NYU. I wrote in my application short essay that I want my concentration to be "The importance of visual arts in international communication and marketing" Interestingly enough, I was going to apply to Steinhardt as a communications major before deciding to go Gallatin. I think NYU having a communications department is better than Soka not having one at all, but I would like to know more about why NYU’s department is a joke. Also, not paying for grad school sounds great, so if that actually has happened it makes me feel a lot better. Thank you so much, your input is helping me reach a much-needed decision. I am starting to think that NYU really is worth the money too.

yasi

yeah sorry busties. i don't really know much about those programs at other schools so i'll just tell you about gallatn. the only requirements are a basic liberal arts core (your choice of any math, social science, and writing) and a certain amount of credits taken in gallatin itself (you choose from interdisciplinary seminars, writing courses, art workshops, community projects, internships, independent studies, etc). other than that you can take classes in any department at NYU. i suppose the interdisciplinary seminars at gallatin are unique, they don't fit it any one discipline (since they draw from many disciplines) and cover a multitude of non-generic subjects. there are classes about violence, hip hop, the body, arabic poetry, everything. they are limited to something like 25 students and they are more discussion than lecture oriented and there is a LOT of writing. also you work very closely with your advisor to construct your concentration. in order to graduate you have to do a colloquium, which is a two hour discussion with three professors of your choosing about your concentration- you have to tie together all the work you did and identify unifying themes throughout your study, and also come up with a book list of 20-25 books from different disciplines and time periods to discuss. my concentration was "Orientalism: The Politics of Identity," and that's probably one of the more straight-forward sounding ones. i'd say the theme of a lot of the seminars (the ones i took anyway) is the social construction of X. reality, identity, etc., etc.

NYU > Gallatin

yasi

windylane, i'm not really sure how much your RA position will help you. it certainly can't hurt, but i don't know if i would say it's a "position of prestige" at NYU. people do compete for the position since it includes free housing and mealplans (which i think is standard) but i think NYU will look more at your academic performance than anything else.

yasi

atelierjpn, i'm glad i could help. i would definitely visit both universitys if i were you, if you haven't done so already, that should really help you decide. what you said in your personal statement sounds potentially theoretical, and in that case i think gallatin would be a good choice for you. there are definitely a bunch of seminars on visual arts and communication courses, and of course you could still take courses in the actual Comm dept. looking at the gallatin course offerings for the fall (which i recommend you do), the following interdisciplinary seminars sound like they might interest you:

Contemporary Aesthetics and Cultural History
Culture as Communication
The Photographic Imaginary
Thinking About Seeing

the reason i say the Comm department is a joke is because the classes i took there were very easy, not very interesting (to me) and not at all academically rigorous (with the exception of Intro to Media Criticism which was cool), and my peers were pretty ditzy. however, i know the department has revamped the curriculum since i've been there, but i don't know how it's different. i think Comm is for people who are more professionally then academically oriented, people who know they want a career in PR, marketing, or journalism. i was interested in the media but also wanted more intellectual stimulation so i switched to gallatin, which was much more up my alley. you just have to do some research and figure out if it's right for you.

here is the link to the Fall 08 course descriptions: http://www.nyu.edu/gallatin/current/...ngsrevised.pdf

yasi

i should add gallatin offers a bunch of art workshops, which sounds like a major plus for you atelierjpn. examples for the fall-

Digital New Media
Creating a Magazine: From Inspiration to Prototype

atelierjpn

Thanks for the course descriptions yasi, it helps a lot. I have visited both universities, but I have had a lot more time at Soka since it is close to home. It seems to me like the format of Soka's classes are all really similar to the Gallatin course offerings. However, as I mentioned before, Soka lacks the media and art, and the range of classes that NYU offers, and the internship is something that I am looking forward to doing, and I can't really get that in Orange County, CA. I think Soka is a purely intellectual school, while Gallatin is mostly intellectual, but allows to you to mix in some professional skills as well. Is that an accurate representation, or am I completely wrong? The photography class sounds amazing by the way.

yasi

Yeah I would say that about sums it up. You couldn't ask for a better location than NYC in terms of internships (and fun in general) and Gallatin makes it really easy for you to do them for credit. Good luck!

noseymom

Yasi, I am a mom of an incoming Gallatin student. He is in the scholar program, do you know anything about that--
He got in ED so he chose a residence hall early, but it is in Washington Square. What would you say you wish you had known about before you came to NYU and specifically Gallatin?
Thanks,

yasi

well i transferred in my sophomore year (from steinhardt) so i don't really know much about the scholar program except that they get to travel which is awesome (congrats to him). i guess i wish i had narrowed down my interests more quickly (which i might have had i been in gallatin from the beginning) but i didn't really figure out what i really wanted to focus on until my last year. which was fine, but i could have developed it so much more and gone to more events, films, lectures, club meetings, etc. i guess i would advise him to explore as much as he can but figure out what he loves, and take advantage of all the university and the city have to offer with regards to it. one other thing i would have done was move out of the dorms after freshman or at least sophomore year. they are the same price or more than apartments and you have to share bedrooms and deal with passive-aggressive roommates and drama and whatnot. there's really no advantage besides the social aspect, which pretty much evaporates after the first year or two. what else...i wouldn't have chose florence as my semester abroad, but that's probably a personal preference. OH i definitely would have been more proactive about cultivating relationships with professors. i didn't really get the confidence to approach them (and thus form more personal relationships) until late, but it made all the difference in my experience (and letters of recommendation for grad school..). it's easier in gallatin since the seminars are small but i took a lot of huge CAS lectures too. and i would have done more internships. tell him to get as much out of the experience as he can, gallatin is great, the city is amazing (sooo much more to do than just drink) and the four years fly right by.