<p>NYUADSTUDENT, I wish you the best of luck.</p>
<p>I’m quite impressed with your adventurous spirit and I do sincerely hope that you prove me wrong.</p>
<p>BTW, George Mason University shut down had everything to do with the situation in the UAE. Ras AlKhaima emirate (RAK) simply ceased its support for the university, financial and otherwise. Not because RAK didn’t have the funds, it was because RAK decided to set up its own university- they figured why support a foreign university when we can use our money to establish our own? </p>
<p>As chaotic as it may sound, it’s not at all surprising. This is exactly my point, the way decisions are made in the UAE isn’t always logical, consistent, or fair- and this is the part you appear to have limited information about. You’re impressed with a new university that is transplanted in a wealthy, yet quite unpredicatble environment. True, money isn’t everything. This makes choosing NYUAD over Princeton, Harvard or any other good university, an interesting decision to say the least. </p>
<p>That being said, the generous support from the wealthiest emirate to NYUAD can stop any minute. The UAE’s own national university (oldest and largest) is in serious financial trouble. The new, top notch international management that was hired to transform the university with promises of substantial funds, is left scrambling for money. </p>
<hr>
<p>More about the George Mason story:
[George</a> Mason Uni to close RAK branch - The National Newspaper](<a href=“http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090226/NATIONAL/302411756/1040]George”>http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090226/NATIONAL/302411756/1040)</p>
<p>NYU is different from GMU, and Abu Dhabi is different from RAK.
The goal of Abu Dhabi is to become a global center, so at this very beginning, they won’t make an unfavorable impression by stop funding NYUAD. Also, they NEED NYU. The UAE’s own national university won’t be able to attract the best professors and students from the globe.</p>
<p>@NYUADSTUDENT
100 already? I am going to NYUAD this fall. I can’t join the facebook group because it is blocked in China. Gahhhh…Four more students from China mainland will also attend NYUAD. I can’t wait to meet you.</p>
<p>@Erialc: yeah almost 100, we’re 95 
Congratulations on getting in, looking forward to meeting you in the fall!!</p>
<p>Man, i wish i could get into that facebook group so i can get to know the people better. I am so happy for you NYU and Erialc. I wish my mind was as made up as yours. Alas, im still struggling with the decision. Hope to see you guys, whether that be in AD or somewhere later in life. I will keep you guys posted once i come back from college visits next week.</p>
<p>@Erialc, do you know of a girl named Cici from Xiamen, China?</p>
<p>You guys, there is just no reason, in this case, not to take Princeton. Really. Don’t be fooled by hype. It’s hard to build a university. It’s not like social media:).</p>
<p>@kai
Yes. She is smart and outgoing, and I wish I could speak English as well as she does. Good to know so many talented people, haha…</p>
<p>For SAHS grad, college halfway around world
Trapman-O’Brien tapped for elite program in Abu Dhabi
Posted: May 30, 2010 - 12:08am</p>
<p>Yannick Trapman-O’Brien</p>
<p>By TRACEY McMANUS
He was only meaning to apply to New York University’s performing arts school in Manhattan. He wanted to study with the greats and one day perform on Broadway with America’s best actors.</p>
<p>But he checked the little box hidden on the bottom of the NYU application anyway, which asked if he’d like information about NYU’s new liberal arts campus in Abu Dhabi. He thought he would be mailed a few brochures, which he could have trashed when he got NYU’s acceptance letter.</p>
<p>Yannick Trapman-O’Brien didn’t expect that application would take him halfway around the world.</p>
<p>After flipping through the brochures, Trapman-O’Brien, 17, eventually found himself on a plane to Dubai to meet with the NYU Abu Dhabi admissions board. He’s now one of 188 incoming freshman from 21 countries handpicked to attend the school in the United Arab Emirates in its first year of operation.</p>
<p>“I was immediately blown away,” Trapman-O’Brien said of his visit to the campus. “The whole area takes your breath away. There’s so much grandeur about the whole place.”</p>
<p>After graduating from St. Augustine High School Friday, Trapman-O’Brien will study theater on a full scholarship overseas, totaling close to $250,000. The scholarship includes two plane tickets home each year, which will add to the Skype communication he is planning on keeping with this family.</p>
<p>NYU Abu Dhabi is an international research university with focus on liberal arts and sciences. Students in the four year undergraduate program receive the equivalent of an NYU degree.</p>
<p>Trapman-O’Brien has been acting since age 11 and has performed in nearly 24 plays in high school.</p>
<p>“Acting is very different from any other art,” he said. “There’s just something incredibly spontaneous, and it’s out of your control.”</p>
<p>But before heading to college, Trapman-O’Brien left his mark on the local art world as well. He founded the Student Artist Festival of St. Augustine last year, which was an obligation he carried out after attending the Aspen Ideas Festival in 2009.</p>
<p>His festival took 24 student artists and matched them with professionals at performing art and visual art institutions. Some sat in on dress rehearsals at the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and others observed senior art presentations at Flagler College.</p>
<p>It ended with a showcase in April where two students were each awarded with a $1,500 scholarship. St. Augustine’s science teacher Brian Braddock, who helped Trapman-O’Brien plan the festival, said the festival will grow into an annual event.</p>
<p>“He did all the leg work,” Braddock said of Trapman-O’Brien. “He’s a hard worker.”</p>
<p>The festival stemmed from Trapman-O’Brien’s and Braddock’s trip to Aspen for the ideas festival last year. Trapman-O’Brien thinks it also boosted his application to Abu Dhabi, for which thousands of others applied.</p>
<p>He and 12 other high school students from the U.S. received the Bezos Scholarship to attend the Aspen festival, where he had lunch with world leaders and discussed global issues. He said it prepared him for a college life abroad, which is full of unknowns and excitement.</p>
<p>“I know I’m not ready, but I’m ready to not be ready,” he said. “It’s just what I want. I want to do this wide open thing that could go anywhere.”</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Yannick Trapman-O’Brien</p>
<p>Headed to: New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus</p>
<p>Hidden Talent: Making people laugh</p>
<p>Dream Job: Actor</p>
<p>Coffee and conversation with which icon? (Dead or alive): John Lennon</p>
<p>Top destination spot: London</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t really understand what you are talking about. It sound like you have been accepted into both Princeton and Yale, so you must have some good advice. Would you chance me?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/957028-chance-please.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/957028-chance-please.html</a></p>
<p>I think his mother posted above ^^ to brag and get the article online. Was there ever any indication he ever was accepted at P & Y?</p>
<p>hmmm… well NYU Abu Dhabi doesn’t even have a wiki page 
but princeton does!</p>
<p>Actually Fauve, yeah, I did post it being proud and all - He got early admission into NYU Tish School for Acting - and so never even finished his apps for P & Y since this was his top choice - but given the chance to go to NYUAD as theatre major he jumped at the chance. So now he’ll never know if he could/would have made it into P or Y, but other than being ****ed at his mother for posting the article, it doesn’t seem to bother him.</p>
<p>Not to offend NYUADmama, but why would your son give up Tisch for Abu Dhabi to study theatre? I get the premise of being a new university with a full ride and all the positives that rather promising, but theatre?</p>
<p>Friends of mine at NYU are involved in Broadway internships/shadowing actors, serious student productions, etc. Theatre in Abu Dhabi vs. New York absolutely boggles my mind. </p>
<p>Aside from the large scholarship, how will the produce great theatre work/experiences when there are less than 200 students in the entire student body…? How many students are majoring in theatre?</p>
<p>I understand the school was crafted as a full-fledged liberal arts institution, but, theatre requires people.</p>
<p>I’m extremely curious.</p>
<hr>
<p>Regarding an old post about the “you can always say you went to NYU,you don’t need to specify which one” argument:</p>
<p>After reading an NYT article on NYUAD (with interviews of future students and faculty), I was under the understanding that the degrees from NYUAD will say “NYUAD” and not just NYU.</p>
<p>biglawhopes: well, this really doesn’t fit in this thread - but I really already put my foot into it - but, Tisch also gave him scholarships - not a full ride, but enough to make it through - still, the experience itself counts heavy for him (and for being an actor later) his theater teacher is a NY, NYU teacher and he can take up to a year “abroad” taking classes at nyu tisch, and they have acting work shops, and next year a new load of students will come, and the next, and the next…, etc. I’m sure the whole experience will be a mind boggle -
I am sure that I never promoted you can always say you went to NYU instead of NYUAD - why would anyone want to do that?<br>
I’m not easily offended, and this was so not offending. I am deeply sorry though that I posted the bloody article though, and understand my son’s embarrassment with his dipsy mother.</p>
<p>One thing that irks me about NYUAD is that they tout a ~2% acceptance rate when anyone who applied to NYU needed only check a box that said they might be interested in NYUAD to count as an application.</p>
<p>here is something from another NYUAD thread in CC. Its like a reality check . </p>
<p>That NYUAD can be compared to HYP is precisely that - HYPe!</p>
<p>Its part of the ruthless strategy by the NYUAD management to plant hypes like this in CC & other sites .
HYP between them have centuries of established glory & experience while NYUAD has 0 years ! I think its criminal to con & lure young kids with free air tickets on Abu Dhabis national carrier (that is flying half empty anyway) into an experimental situation that has known to have failed several times !!</p>
<p>Kids are conned into dumping admissions into well proven educational systems of established universities to join in on an experiment in an insipid city with strict laws on even kissing in public ( let alone LBGT issues!!) , no democracy & populated by laborers from poor countries who spit all over the neat streets. A city devoid of book shops & libraries, devoid of scholars as traders, builders & oilmen are all you see.</p>
<p>NYU AD is playing with the lives of hundreds of students with a LAC situation that has no experience at all. UAE on the other hand has lots of experience with regards to US universities in the region -</p>
<p>check these out !</p>
<p>" The University of Southern Queensland closed its Dubai Knowledge Village campus in 2005 after a year, and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise University shut down recently, also after a year."
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise University DAE</p>
<p>" George Mason University has closed its campus operations in Ras Al Khaimah (UAE)".
The Ras Al Khaimah Campus - George Mason University, George Mason Uni to close RAK branch - The National Newspaper</p>
<p>" Michigan State University is shutting down its undergraduate campus in Dubai, saying that it has lost millions of dollars on the effort … failing to attract enough students"
Quick Takes: July 6, 2010 - Inside Higher Ed
Michigan State To Close Dubai Campus : NPR</p>
<p>NYUAD’s hype sounds exactly like this…" We’re here to stay", promises Dubai campus head --------- We’re here to stay, promises Dubai campus head - The National Newspaper</p>
<p>sorry -the links in the cut&paste are dead. i hope this works.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/new-york-university/743025-nyu-abu-dhabi-12.html?highlight=NYUAD[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/new-york-university/743025-nyu-abu-dhabi-12.html?highlight=NYUAD</a></p>
<p>I feel NYUAD needs to be encouraged and seen in a positive frame of mind . After all even HY& P were once just days old !</p>
<p>I go to NYU-Poly, and I’ve talked to a lot of people who work on the curriculum at Abu Dhabi, and I know what the word on the street is.</p>
<p>The ultimate verdict? Imagine graduating from Abu Dhabi. You’ve only just left. The most exhilerating, eye-opening four years of your young life. Just IMAGINE all the stories you can tell friends, family, potential employers about your experiences at Abu Dhabi.</p>
<p>Now, imagine trying to tell them stories about SUNY. About NYU-Stern. About MIT. About Yale. About Deep Springs College. Absolutely nothing comes close… and it’s no secret. You have traditional, boring, and difficult vs. untraditional, lively, and difficult. Abu Dhabi isn’t for everyone; you need to be pretty hell-bent on living an exciting life - something to tell your grandkids about. And we do all believe this is it. if you can’t tell from my obvious enthusiasm, we at NYU are super-excited about NYU jumpstarting an entirely new type of “league.”</p>
<p>Amen to that, static75!</p>
<p>The NYUAD thread is located [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/new-york-university/743025-nyu-abu-dhabi-12.html]here[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/new-york-university/743025-nyu-abu-dhabi-12.html]here[/url</a>] and is where I’ve been mainly posting my questions. I’m an Intl. Student from NZ hoping to apply to NYUAD ED, so I am patiently waiting for the Common App to come out. I’m technically Class of 2011 for high school, though I graduate in Dec 2010 because of where I live. NZ itself is a multicultural bubble based on the huge immigration we have so I am very excited about the prospect of living and breathing globalisation!</p>
<p>You know, if only they could merge these two threads… seeing as what we discuss over there is about NYUAD’s “viability” which really is the same thing as the “prestige” discussed here.</p>
<p>So, um, hi everyone I guess :D</p>
<p>You know you’re clutching at straws when you’re resorting to hyping up “the stories you can tell” in order to promote a school. No, not its educational quality, nor its level of recognition, its achievements, its placements… That’s just sad.</p>