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

88donothing
Sun, 05 Apr 2015 12:08:22 +0000

@Musktard I’m a student here, and I’m actually indifferent about this school (nor do I care if you come), so I’ll answer your questions pretty straightforwardly.

1. NYU isn't an Ivy League school by any means, but it's ranked by USNews today at #32. NYUShanghai itself doesn't have a ranking. http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/page+4

2. I haven't met any CEOs of big companies like JP Morgan or whatever, but I have had a class with a Nobel Prize in Economics Nominee (and a Nobel Prize Winner in Economics did come talk to our school, along with Elizabeth Chen, who someone mentioned worked in Goldman Sachs). And besides more "Stern" oriented stuff, I've met Lang Lang (a famous Chinese pianist), the US Ambassador to China, and Harold Koh (former Dean of Yale Law and former Legal Advisor of the Department of State) among other people. But you're right, we don't have as much financial services as Stern. To teach at NYU Shanghai you have to pass the "standard" to teach in New York, so technically we should have the same quality of education as Stern, but I'm not a business student so I wouldn't know.

3. From what I know about the sophomore class, most students who got into Shanghai also got into the New York campus. A lot of us have never heard back from Abu Dhabi (you can look into that if you want haha). I do understand what you mean about lower SAT scores from the US- while I have met people who had perfect SAT scores, I also met people with below 2000. Contribute that to diversity or I suppose whatever reason that better schools than NYU also take students with lower than 2000 SAT scores. Keep in mind that NYU also takes in other forms of tests besides SATs, so maybe NYU just doesn't care as much? My guess is as good as your's. A lot of people here heard that NYU Shanghai has a lower admissions rate than either campus, but that could be us giving us an ego boost because no official admission statistics has been released publicly.

4. I have also not applied to Duke or Dartmouth, but I know people who turned down MIT, UChicago, Columbia, Cornell, John Hopkins, UC Berkeley, and yes Duke. But again it's really a personal choice. There are people who chose those schools over NYU Shanghai as well.

5. As for grading curves, it's really up to the professors, but some classes I've had have curved up.

6. Comparing NYU Shanghai to Peking University is like comparing whatever school you end up going to with Harvard. Of course most people are going to say the latter. (Although some Chinese kids did turn down Peking for NYU Shanghai.) I can see where you're worried how the "China" factor is going to come into play, but from what I seem to be sensing, a lot of Chinese schools are becoming really interested in this school. Last year I'd have to explain this school on the plane to Shanghai (Chinese people like to ask why I'm going to Shanghai) and now a lot of people just know. I don't know much about China's economy, but if you really want to work in business then you should probably understand Chinese culture and Chinese if possible because China will be (is) an important superpower. Again, I have no bias here (I also do not particularly care for China) but the reality of it is that China is important.

As for internships, keep in mind none of us are upperclassmen, so I’m sorry to disappoint if we don’t have much “brandname” internships among us (not to mention a lot of people just want to go back to their respective countries after a year in China). My boss in Shanghai is really pushing for an internship for me at an investment group in Manhattan, but it’s not Goldman Sachs, so I don’t know if you’d be interested. In all honesty I’m not quite sure what everyone else is up to, you’ll probably have to ask every individual student to find out. You’ll probably get a clearer picture of internship opportunities from Stern students who studied abroad in Shanghai because taking an internship is a part of some of their courses.