New York University

Date: Sep 08 2006
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
I attended NYU for undergrad and for my MBA. Professors tend to be approachable and friendly though it is a mixed bag b/c of so many adjuncts and lecturers who aren't getting the $ to take a keen interest in you unless they are really into their subject. On the grad level however I think you probably won't find a better group of professors in the country.

The cultural programs at NYU tend to be a little bland and administration-controlled. Hazing at frats and sororities does happen, and that's probably not a good thing. I had the fortune of being able to enter an old "underground" student organization that avoids dealing with the university, outside of specific professors and administrators, as much as possible less the PC/EO police determine that we were breaking rules. There aren't many serious outlets for out of class intellectual pursuits, i.e. debate, lit societies, etc. outside maybe the couple of underground societies.

In general, there is a lot of interaction from people from varying backgrounds with a little effort. Some of the Asian students tended to separate themselves (I assume those that did were from abroad) but besides that there is a lot of cooperation and student interaction in and out of the classroom. There is also a bit of competition among MBA students.

From what I've noticed working with corporate employers and in academia, most tend to see NYU grads as intelligent and the school has a really good rep. The popular image of the school is strong in academics, if lacking in the "clubby" or "collegiate" atmosphere.

I've found that, having attended Cornell (MPA) and NYU that it is NYU that provides me with the strongest alumni network and the best NY metro area alumni networking. (Whether that is b/c NYU's size and location I don't know.)

Word to the wise: Lack of an engineering school hurts NYU b/c the option isn't there for students and engineering helps research and rankings. That's not going to change anytime soon. Whatever you do avoid the program with Stevens Institute- they try to poach students from NYU who apply for the joint program and Stevens has to be the most Gawd awful social environment ever. I was considering NYU engineering only to turned off b/c of the Stevens people and the ADVISOR who told me about NYU's plans to reconstitute their engineering program. Still pissed about that to this day!