@ubcalumnus Yes, since the 80’s NYU’s reputation has improved. Apparently through aggressive fundraising, it’s a now top choice school.
Here’s the 1995 NYTimes story: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/20/us/buying-excellence-nyu-rebuilt-itself-special-report-decade-1-billion-put-nyu.html
In the 50’s and 60’s NYU was where you went if you weren’t smart enough to get into City College or Brooklyn College (known as the poor man’s Ivies in the city). Plus CUNY’s were free. Then, apparently when the CUNY’s changed their admission policies and instituted open enrollment in 1969 (lowering their admissions standards) it may have pulled even more students away, since they were still free for a while, but always the cheapest option in NYC when they stated charging tuition. As the article suggests in 80’s, NYU was a safety school for many of us in NYC as were all the CUNY’s.
I also imagine NYU’s growing prestige really signaled, and eventually fed off of NYC’s “rebirth” as a desirable city to live in in the mid to late 90’s.