What is NYU like?

Waiting for NYU admission decision...opinions?

• Hi, so this Sunday I find out if I got into NYU or not (regular decision). I'm getting kind of anxious. Part of me really really wants to go there because I feel like that is the school that I belong at, but another part is telling me to not get my hopes up. Since NYU is so prestigious, I have a question. I'm kind of an average student, like, my GPA and my ACT score were average. Above average actually, but I'm not some sort of stellar 5.0-honors-AP-36-ACT type. On NYU's scale I'm below average. But I wrote my college essay about how I've written a couple books, how that's my absolute passion and what I want to do with my life. So my question here is, does NYU accept based mostly on stats, or--because they're more of an arts school--do you think I'll be considered because of my writing? If I don't get in I'm going to work my a$$ off at the college I do choose and try to transfer there sophomore or junior year because I really love the school, so I'm not giving up if they don't let me in for this coming fall, but in all honesty, do you have any ideas/experience what the committee takes into consideration when reviewing and accepting/rejecting students? This is making my spring break veeeery long. Long days of anxiety, lol! Thanks for any opinions or advice! Hopefully I get in :P If not, I guess keep trying :)

• Answer:

  Well NYU is one of the top universities in New York state, let alone in the nation, so there's no doubt that they're trying to make a community that is academically prepared and intelligent so that they can pad their own statistics to move up on the college rankings. But on the other hand, they aren't Harvard or Stanford and do care about building a diverse community of people who aren't just all nerdy geeks who study 24/7 and have no social lives or interesting facets about them, so personality and unique characteristics of applicants definitely play a role. It's hard to say if there's a set algorithm for how much weight both are attributed; my guess is that it's probably based on an individual basis, but I think that your writing makes you a stronger applicant and I wouldn't consider yourself out of the running unless you're pulling like a 3.4 or lower GPA and got lower than 25 on the ACT.