As @halflokum pointed out yesterday- I don’t think ANY of us (Soozie being an exception as a college advisor who might see the application, read the essays, letters of rec etc) can really speak to an experience our own kids didn’t have. I am not saying it is a problem to use examples and anecdotes- I have written many posts that describe experiences from the kids I have known go through the BFA process (and we have known a lot of them). But the only place I can speak with certainty is what happened with MY kid. So if AMTCs kids didn’t apply to NYU - it makes me think she might be less of an expert on the NYU process than someone who did go through it. Hearing about how things worked out for someone else is not the same as experiencing 1st hand. After all, people may not be sharing the full story. If you want to apply to Harvard and you have a 2.0 GPA - go for it, but I would hope that you have other options too. If you want to apply for NYU and your grades are low- go for it…but IMHO, it would be wise to have a backup plan