<p>My daughter wanted to go Wharton, but did not get accepted. Instead, she got admitted to three universities, UCLA (Economics), USC's Marshall School of Business, and NYU's Stern Scholar Program. </p>
<p>Stern has the best business undergraduate program out of the three, but the it doesn't have a normal campus and no major sports events. The question is life in an urban campus bearable for someone who will be 3000 miles from home? If she does not like NYU, how difficult to transfer to another university later? </p>
<p>UCLA is well known, but it is difficult to graduate in 4 years due to recent state budget cuts. And no undergraduate business school.</p>
<p>USC is not as strong academically, but has the number 1 football team in the country.</p>
<p>It seems to me there are a few separate questions.</p>
<p>Liking an urban campus is not really related to how many miles from home she'll be.</p>
<p>The question of how important sports are is also separate. She applied to at least two schools where big-time football is not a factor. So how important is that to her? Which is more important to her - a strong program in her field of interest or being able to attend big-time college football?</p>
<p>She can always steer her sportsfan energy into the Yankees ;)</p>
<p>I'm sort of partial to a normal campus but I'm unfamiliar with the layout of NYU. I do think that she has to be comfortable b/c she won't be coming home on weekends. Has she visited NYU? Does she like the idea of living right in the city?</p>
<p>If not, my vote goes for UCLA. If graduating in 4 years becomes an issue, she can transfer.</p>
<p>UCs are not necessarily difficult to finish in four years- a big issue I've seen is that 12 units (3 classes) is technically full-time, but if you schedule that way, you cannot finish in 4 years, you need to take 4 and occasionally 5 classes to finish on time.</p>
<p>We just visited NYU. They have a new student center that I think will create a cohesive feel. My D really wants an Urban school, and there is a certain campus feel there. Are you coming from a big city.? If D really likes that tradtional campus feel, adjusting to a big city like NYU that has an untraditional campus could be an adjustment.</p>
<p>What my D likes is Greenwich Village, the possible internships, she is actually lookng for a school with a not strong Greek System or focus on sports. And NYU has some great programs.</p>
<p>D needs to really look her style and there is a really different enviroment at UCLA and NYU. My D doesn't think you would like school in Socal.</p>
<p>Hey parent2005
you finally posted.....
So, it's down to a few days...3 or 4 days before sending in that deposit. Has your daughter been able to decide? I hope you got my PMs. Have you visited NYU Stern. You really need to visit, it could make her fall in love with the place, or realize that it's not for her.</p>
<p>We have not decided yet, but I like NYU because it has a better business program than USC and UCLA. She will belong to the Stern scholar program where they would help her with all kinds of activities, ie community service, travel and internship. </p>
<p>She did mention that she believes that she would do well at USC, but at NYU, she may crash and burn. I don't see why???</p>
<p>I feel there is too little to go on here. Ideally, I would want to hear a list of your D's college criteria and then what she liked about each school. Then I would look at any pattern there. </p>
<p>From the little you shared, however....it seems she may want an undergraduate business school because two of the three have that and she also wanted Wharton which makes three business schools she applied to. I'm not saying she needs to have an undergrad business major but it appears this might be important to her. UCLA and NYU might be stronger academically than USC but I do not know if that is important to her. The fact that USC has a football team or the "best" one, seems neglible in picking a college (my opinion) but moreover cause if this was quite important to her, she clearly did not pick schools which all had that (such as a UM for instance). Just not important here it seems, even to her. If she goes to UCLA or NYU, there are national sports teams in either city. UCLA and NYU are both urban though NYU even more so. As far as size, both are quite large. She did apply to three urban campuses that are large so apparently that must appeal to her. The fact that she was already willing to go to college across the country (Penn, NYU) means that she was ok with that so I do not think the fact that the schools are large is tied in with the distance issue. </p>
<p>I am familiar with University Scholars because my own child was selected as one for next year at NYU but at the Tisch School and we went to a luncheon for this a couple weeks ago on campus (within Tisch). There were fifteen selected in her school and I will venture to guess the same might be true at Stern. As you are well aware there are many perks but one of these is a very small nurturing "niche" within a larger university. For my child, I see it this way....she has Tisch, her college within the university (your child has Stern), then she has her musical theater studio (CAP21 with 60 kids per year)....ok, not sure the equivalent for your child at Stern, but then she is part of University Scholars, 70 kids in all of Tisch (likely similar at Stern), and this is like a "family" in the other wider circles she will be part of at NYU. They meet every other week, go on paid trips, have speakers and much else. The deans of this program are kinda mentors to them all four years. It really is a chance to be part of a small very very great thing in a larger whole. And then there is the individual college or program. </p>
<p>I mean I am not into large schools myself but I think if a child applies to this size school, she has thought about this issue. For my child, it is not 3000 miles from home, and more like 300 miles but on the other hand, it is another world from her rural life on a dirt road in the mountains in a town of around 1200 people. Still, I think she found the right place for her college preferences. </p>
<p>I am not sure I get the part about crash and burn but would have to hear her articulate more about that. </p>
<p>Good luck but most of all, your daughter has some fine acceptances. And University Scholar seems pretty special from what we have seen.</p>
<p>USC makes it easy to be a college student. You need a car to really be tempted by greater LA. </p>
<p>It is not AS easy to be a college student in the middle of New York City. The city can be overwhelming and wildly tempting. Everyone in New York lives a breakneck pace. Crash and burn is the order of the day. She is smart ot recognize that tendancy from afar.</p>
<p>Some kids can live with that, some kids thrive on that, but some kids would drown in that much stimulation.</p>
<p>Which kind is she? She will probably decide in a day or two? :)</p>
<p>New York can be overwhelming. and NYU is very much a New York City school (more so event than than Columbia, which has at least a semblance of a campus inside the 116th Street gates). If your daughter feels she would be happy at USC and feels NYU mght not work for her, then it seems to me shoudl should go to USC. USC is certainly more than respectable academically, and it appears to be getting harder to get into and seeking academicalyl strong applicatns more aggrssively; it also has great name recognition. Your D will get a good education at any of the schools you mention, a keep in mind that an important part of being at college is the non-classroom aspect of education, so I would say let her choose the school where she thinks she will be happiest and do best; that sounds like USC at the moment.</p>
<p>Will someone describe the campus at NYU for me? I visited Greenwich Village and Washington Square a couple years. It was in the evening so I did not see the campus at all.</p>
<p>There is NO campus at all. NYU is one of the largest property owners in the city, but it is all concrete buildings. The dorms and classrooms are housed in buildings that just look like the rest of the city, interspersed with bookshops, restaurants, coffee-shops, bustling streets filled with taxis, people going to work and homeless people. It is like many other large cities. Definitely not clean.
As a visitor to the area, you will not "see" the campus, because it is impossible to see.
Some kids would love it there, having so much to do, so many choices with musicals, funky stores, vintage clothes, bookstores, amazing food. It could be overwhelming for others. My D loves to go into NYC with friends just to spend the day. There is always something going on.</p>
<p>UCLA doesn't even have a biz program, nor do many top GRAD B schools. But, their biz-ecom program is phenomenal, and prepares kids well.</p>
<p>If you look at the grad rates, you'll note that the UCs don't appear to do so well in 4 years....but, don't forget the demographics of the acceptees. The UC's accept 1/3 of the class from low income groups, many of which HAVE to work PT to support their education and/or their families. So, graduating in 5 years is a good target for these kids. 2) Taking the minimum 12 units won't cut it, but kid will enjoy another year on the parent's dole. 3) Many classes at 8:00 are not full.....but, kid has to get out of bed. IMO, graduation timing should not be an issue for kids that WANT to get out in 4.</p>
<p>Parent: going to Stern just bcos its rated higher is not relevant, IMO. The issue is Big City vs suburban vs urban. NYU doesn't really have a campus per se, its building are intermixed in Village. Someone has to LOVE NYC to want to go there, and if your kids is leaning towards 'SC, then the Big Apple ain't a good fit. However, of the SoCal schools, I'd lean towards UCLA for a broader liberal arts experience, unless accounting if of great interest.</p>
<p>Parents of current students can add to or correct my descriptions, but as a former resident of and frequent visitor to NYC (and a family member of past NYU graduates), here are my impressions.</p>
<p>NYU now spreads over many blocks, though these blocks are not necessarily contiguous; for example, there are new dorms at 14th Street, near Union Square, which is several blocks north of Washington Square Park, around which NYU centers. WSP has been cleaned up a lot in the psat decade or so and is full of NYU students going back adn forth to classes or activities, as well as parents or babysitters with small children in strollers; there are homeless people and loiterers too though, and I never feel quite comfortable walking through it, despite having played in it myself as a small child ages ago. Washington Square Park is surrounded on the north by nice rowhouses, on the west by nice apartment buildings, and on the south and east by NYU, whose buildings range in style from tall old former factory buildings to newer, purpose-built structurs such as the Bobst Library and the main Law School building</p>
<p>NYU stretches east from WSP along several streets (starting at 8th Street) to Broadway, which is very bustling and (Tisch parents, forgive me...) a little scruffy. NYU also stretches south (downtown) along LaGuardia Place, which has a bit more of a set-aside feeling for a block or two and then leads directly to Houston Street, which is the northern border of SoHo. There are some courtyards and other outdoor spaces here and there that might be described as campusy in feel, but overall I would say there is not a central place at NYU other than the buildings themselves that call out "This is your campus" to undergraduates. That does not mean it is not vibrant and exciting, just that it is very much interwoven into the greater community, with specific relationship to several neighborhoods of Manhattan. (The eastern edges of NYU touch on the East Village, the northern and western edges border Greenwich Village.) there are several subway stops that make it easy to get to other parts of the city, but overall I would say you can't describe a campus in the conventional sense at NYU.</p>
<p>Have you visited USC? We live in So Cal and my D was also admitted to Marshall but has decided to not attend USC and I am glad, in part, because of the geographic location. Although the University campus is safe (because of the high security) the surrounding neighborhood is not a safe environment and with the recent freeway shootings near the USC campus this Mama Bear is glad she is looking at Northeastern and Northwestern. She attended NYU Cap-21 last summer and I felt that she was safer there than in the Exposition Park area of LA. The USC campus promotes a close knit environment because kids can't go to neighborhood coffee shops etc.</p>
<p>UCLA-my nephew completed his degree in 4 yrs as did most of his social group. It can be done but requires students to be motivated to take an increased course load and occassionally add summer classes. Westwood is a college town within the city.</p>
<p>I just called NYU to inquire about merit scholarships which my daughter got zero assistance. I was told that since she did not get one with her acceptance letter, she will be on her own for the four years. How do so many people get some kind of scholarships, 10K to 20K a year???</p>
