NYU Shanghai Is NYU's "Bad School" Right?

Anuragr
Sat, 04 Apr 2015 18:48:18 +0000

@Musktard‌ Here’s how admissions at NYU Shanghai works, our student body of each class is split into two subsets: 150 international students and 150 Chinese nationals. AFAIK last year more students applied to NYU Shanghai than AD and that’s a fact, what you mean by “admissions standards” however is very ambiguous to me but from my own experience I can tell you that I’ve met some of the most interesting people here. I’m really curious to know why so many people in NY have such strong opinions about the student body in Shanghai because I have friends here who occasionally write for the Guardian “for fun”, serve as business advisors to European venture capital firms, own their own music record labels or have served abroad in an Army. I mean I really hope I don’t have a bias but the bar seems pretty high to me.
Stern is undoubtably a good school but it’s nature very different from NYU Shanghai. It’s not only unfair to compare the two but also you’re limiting yourself to some vast generalisations. They’re different entities under the NYU umbrella looking for different things and they’re also for different kinds of people seeking different things from a school. In a nutshell, NYU Shanghai is not a pseudonym for NYU in China, it’s an entirely different entity with affiliations in China and the US and it is so for a specific purpose. I could tell you I also got offers from a plethora of top tier schools but what it really comes down to is why I chose to come here and that’s because the opportunities you get here are almost unparalleled. I agree that, “we still live in a world that is largely centralized around the west.” but you have to admit that the west has essential working components in the east. Now I want to avoid the whole East and West debate here because I don’t think it’s relevant but since you seem to care about resumes so much, here’s something: since Shanghai is in an FTZ, almost every possible western firm has a presence here, especially financial institutions. These firms are always looking to hire undergrads and because NYU Shanghai has somehow managed to make a name for itself on this side of the world, they’re not only hiring people from our school, firms like Morgan Stanley, JP M&C and HSBC actually host networking events at our school every now and then. That’s just one aspect of the opportunities available here that I was talking about. Even Harvard Business School recognises that because they too have a center for jobs,internships and research in Shanghai on the same street as us, which btw is the Shanghai equivalent of Fifth Avenue. As for the comparison with Abu Dhabi, I don’t get how one is supposed to be better than the other since they’re our sister school and we’re both based on the exact same model. The only striking difference I would say is that Abu Dhabi has an unreal amount of resources backing their school activities which would explain why they get the amount of publicity they do, needless to say that they’ve also been around for much longer than we have. I, for one, think that they’re a great school doing great things but I’d much rather be in Shanghai over Abu Dhabi simply because it’s all about location, location, location.
FYI, I also deeply care about how potential employers will perceive my resume. Personally, I feel that while NYU Shanghai itself carries no inherent cache that you can bank on (because we haven’t even graduated our first class yet) but it’s intriguing and you’d be surprised how intrigue can actually get you in the door and after that it’s all you, doesn’t matter even if you graduated summa cum laude from an Ivy. Here at NYU SH, you can actually go and talk to the Provost or the Dean or one of hundreds of the renowned guest professors visiting from UCB, NYU, Cambridge et cetera in your free time and let me tell you that they will actually listen to what you have to say. So if you need that shiny letter of recommendation you definitely have an advantage at a smaller school where you’re on a first name basis with almost everyone.
Since you asked a question here, I’m assuming you still have an open mind about this and still weighing all pros and cons like you should. I know college decisions are a lot of pressure and every piece of information you get is important which is why I’d ask you to not make the rookie mistake and fall for hearsay but actually look at things more objectively. If you want, I can put you in touch with current portal students and/or study away students from New York and Abu Dhabi so you don’t have to gauge the “negative stigma” that makes zero sense to me because you need to actually experience something to have an opinion about it but hey, that’s just me. I’m also not trying to get you to come here because this school isn’t for everyone (they’ll repeat it a million times at the student weekend because it’s true) and if you’re looking for a more traditional school with the expectation of stability or reputation, it would really make no sense for you to come here and regret it for the next 4 years but if you’re looking to experiment and make the best out of your education yourself, you might just be a good fit. Good luck!