NYU C/O 2016 Applicants Thread!!! (Woooooo!!!!!) Forum

[islandrose0913]

Is the NYU waitlist considered a soft ding like Columbia's?

[jbagelboy]

My school didn't have pluses or minus either. You just got an A (4.0, B (3.0), etc.

That would be so nice. The extra 4% required to guarantee my GPA won't drop is stressful. Had to maintain that 94%.

Yeah, that's rough - that's why my undergrad says they got rid of the pluses and minuses. That, and to decrease competition between students.

So you went to Brown? K-jd or years out?

[chemE_envlaw]

Is the NYU waitlist considered a soft ding like Columbia's?

No

[untar614]

But the medians would have moved up to compensate for the higher average GPAs.

I agree that grade calculations should be fixed to 4.0, but I don't think it makes as much of a difference as we think it would.

But that makes it worse. Right now, some people are getting bumps to their GPA as opposed to having it all equalize out. If everybody gets bumps, the medians all move up, and everybody has higher GPAs. If it's capped at a 4.0, then everybody's GPAs go down and the medians move down. Right now, some people just get screwed by not getting the same advantage as others.

I agree that it should be one way or the other, but I don't think it makes nearly as much of a difference as your school's overall grading curve, the difficulty of your major, etc.

While I had a 4.0 at my school in my major without any A+s, there's a very good chance I would have had a lower GPA in a school that did have A+s.

Yes, definitely. If we compared a student at a notoriously grade-inflated school like Brown to the same student at a notoriously grade-deflated school like Hopkins, even if Brown has no A+s and Hopkins did, I would imagine this student would have a higher GPA at Brown. GPA comparisons in general are really flawed due to very high variability and factors unrelated to the student's actual performance or ability, but it's what we have to deal with. And yeah, when my school started using minuses, it made everything a lot shittier, except for the nice profs who made 88-89 an A-.

[sinfiery]

Even notoriously grade deflating schools give, statistically, a much higher average gpa than your local state u.

[KingFish]

Even notoriously grade deflating schools give, statistically, a much higher average gpa than your local state u.

My UC had a mean GPA of 3.0
Fuck me

[untar614]

Even notoriously grade deflating schools give, statistically, a much higher average gpa than your local state u.

Is that really true? I couldn't find the actual avg GPA for hopkins. But there are some things to consider. Someone stated that state flagship schools tend to be more inflated than other schools. FIU is commonly listed as one of the most grade-deflated schools in the country. But as someone who has been in Florida for a while, FIU is kind of a joke of a school, while UF, the flagship schools, is the hardest to get into (even if many of us still wouldn't consider their admissions standards amazing). At the risk of sounding like a bit of an elitist, could it be the case that some of this grade disparity is due to the fact that some schools have better students than others? Unless every class at every school were graded on a traditional curve, I don't see why it would be hard to believe that a greater proportion of students at a good state flagship school might be producing A-level work than those at East Central Rando State U. So I don't know how to consider that, but the least we could do for the sake of fairness is use the same grading scale.

And clearly I should have gone to Macalester (avg GPA was 3.46 in 2008)

[06102016]

..

[sinfiery]

At the risk of sounding like a bit of an elitist, could it be the case that some of this grade disparity is due to the fact that some schools have better students than others? Unless every class at every school were graded on a traditional curve, I don't see why it would be hard to believe that a greater proportion of students at a good state flagship school might be producing A-level work than those at East Central Rando State U. So I don't know how to consider that, but the least we could do for the sake of fairness is use the same grading scale.

And clearly I should have gone to Macalester (avg GPA was 3.46 in 2008)

Agreed. But generally, you have the sentiment that what you just said is true and people believe a 3.8+ from an Ivy is somehow indicative of better work than a 3.8+ from State U.

Hard to find how they can justify both positions at once, especially when you consider both schools use the same textbooks to teach.

[jbagelboy]

At the risk of sounding like a bit of an elitist, could it be the case that some of this grade disparity is due to the fact that some schools have better students than others? Unless every class at every school were graded on a traditional curve, I don't see why it would be hard to believe that a greater proportion of students at a good state flagship school might be producing A-level work than those at East Central Rando State U. So I don't know how to consider that, but the least we could do for the sake of fairness is use the same grading scale.

And clearly I should have gone to Macalester (avg GPA was 3.46 in 2008)

Agreed. But generally, you have the sentiment that what you just said is true and people believe a 3.8+ from an Ivy is somehow indicative of better work than a 3.8+ from State U.

Hard to find how they can justify both positions at once, especially when you consider both schools use the same textbooks to teach.

Outside of intro coursework in subjects such as psych, micro/macro econ principles, accounting, calc I-III, gen chem, music theory, and some advanced stem or ss classes in EE/p-chem or micro/macro theory / econometrics where they are used only as supplements, "textbooks" are not relevant to college coursework at competitive universities and colleges. In classes where a textbook is assigned, a curve is in place. The vast majority of courses rely on post-graduate scholarship in the field, articles from journals, the professors own research, or in the humanities, they are based on the major works of literature or historical scholarship, which are far from universal and vary greatly in rigor. Students should be relying on outside materials and archival research as well, again intro classes exempted. TJ clark, fest, or schorske are not equivalent to penguin series popular textbook histories of fin de siecle, and reading/writing loads often indicate marked variances in the challenge of the class.

in short, comparisons should not be based on intro course material with textbooks, which is naturally easier because students are struggling with transitioning to college i.e. making it to class at all hungover as balls, but on the rigor of upper division coursework in that students' respective field and the strength of their senior thesis research. and there are HUGE differences here between different types of undergraduate institutions that impact grades, and law schools should and do take this into account

[sinfiery]

Outside of intro coursework in subjects such as psych, micro/macro econ principles, accounting, calc I-III, gen chem, music theory, and some advanced stem or ss classes in EE/p-chem or micro/macro theory / econometrics where they are used only as supplements, "textbooks" are not relevant to college coursework at competitive universities and colleges. In classes where a textbook is assigned, a curve is in place. The vast majority of courses rely on post-graduate scholarship in the field, articles from journals, the professors own research, or in the humanities, they are based on the major works of literature or historical scholarship, which are far from universal and vary greatly in rigor. Students should be relying on outside materials and archival research as well, again intro classes exempted. TJ clark, fest, or schorske are not equivalent to penguin series popular textbook histories of fin de siecle, and reading/writing loads often indicate marked variances in the challenge of the class.

in short, comparisons should not be based on intro course material with textbooks, which is naturally easier because students are struggling with transitioning to college i.e. making it to class at all hungover as balls, but on the rigor of upper division coursework in that students' respective field and the strength of their senior thesis research. and there are HUGE differences here between different types of undergraduate institutions that impact grades, and law schools should and do take this into account

...

Are you really telling me accounting majors don't rely heavily upon a textbook and infact aren't even assigned a textbook for the majority of their classes at an Ivy?

I am speaking as someone who took a heavy Econ/Finance/Accounting schedule in UG.

My humanities classes all definitely were far from reliant on a textbook and followed the same path as you postulate elite universities follow. That path being teaching from modern research, articles, litt, published thesis, and all that jazz.

And my Econ/Finance/Accounting classes brought in modern research articles and scholarship to help supplement the core information learned, current events, historical context and all that jazz, but are you really saying the vast majority of upper level courses for an accounting major at an Ivy aren't even assigned a textbook? I would be shocked if that were true.


I will give you that at an Ivy, you have a chance that your teacher is the one who penned the research being supplemented to help understand the material whilst at a State U, you only have one who studied the said penned research to teach you.

[Big Dog]

^^you make an assumption that one can major in Accounting at an Ivy.....

[sinfiery]

^^you make an assumption that one can major in Accounting at an Ivy.....

*That moment when you realize you don't know what you're talking about*

this was it for me

[jbagelboy]

Outside of intro coursework in subjects such as psych, micro/macro econ principles, accounting, calc I-III, gen chem, music theory, and some advanced stem or ss classes in EE/p-chem or micro/macro theory / econometrics where they are used only as supplements, "textbooks" are not relevant to college coursework at competitive universities and colleges. In classes where a textbook is assigned, a curve is in place. The vast majority of courses rely on post-graduate scholarship in the field, articles from journals, the professors own research, or in the humanities, they are based on the major works of literature or historical scholarship, which are far from universal and vary greatly in rigor. Students should be relying on outside materials and archival research as well, again intro classes exempted. TJ clark, fest, or schorske are not equivalent to penguin series popular textbook histories of fin de siecle, and reading/writing loads often indicate marked variances in the challenge of the class.

in short, comparisons should not be based on intro course material with textbooks, which is naturally easier because students are struggling with transitioning to college i.e. making it to class at all hungover as balls, but on the rigor of upper division coursework in that students' respective field and the strength of their senior thesis research. and there are HUGE differences here between different types of undergraduate institutions that impact grades, and law schools should and do take this into account

...

Are you really telling me accounting majors don't rely heavily upon a textbook and infact aren't even assigned a textbook for the majority of their classes at an Ivy?

I am speaking as someone who took a heavy Econ/Finance/Accounting schedule in UG.

My humanities classes all definitely were far from reliant on a textbook and followed the same path as you postulate elite universities follow. That path being teaching from modern research, articles, litt, published thesis, and all that jazz.

And my Econ/Finance/Accounting classes brought in modern research articles and scholarship to help supplement the core information learned, current events, historical context and all that jazz, but are you really saying the vast majority of upper level courses for an accounting major at an Ivy aren't even assigned a textbook? I would be shocked if that were true.


I will give you that at an Ivy, you have a chance that your teacher is the one who penned the research being supplemented to help understand the material whilst at a State U, you only have one who studied the said penned research to teach you.

What you said just goes to support my point. I agree with you sinf and Im not suggesting an "Ivy" or equivalent has exclusive domain on rigorous coursework. Im just saying similarity in intro course textbooks is not indicative of difficulty and grade trends over an entire undergraduate experience.

As for Accounting classes, I granted that they are a textbook reliant subject, but this was not a major at my college or other colleges I considered. You could do an economics major with an accounting concentration, but you still had a wide variety of coursework not reliant upon* central textbooks. I took advanced managerial accounting and we had a textbook that was like a skeleton for concepts that were built on with case studies idk. Honestly I didnt pay much attention because I didnt find it very stimulating and I had PDEs and metrics the same semester taking up more of my time

[sinfiery]

I concede.

[LeeAdama]

Is anyone else still waiting for a decision from NYU?

[toothbrush]

Is anyone else still waiting for a decision from NYU?

Some, not many. Most people were WL / ding last week. Grats on surviving the bloodbath

[chickpea]

i'm pretty sure there were some acceptances last week as well. a colleague of mine got in last wednesday and there have been a handful of people added to the FB group during the past week.

crossing my fingers for those of you still waiting on decisions!

[LeeAdama]

i'm pretty sure there were some acceptances last week as well. a colleague of mine got in last wednesday and there have been a handful of people added to the FB group during the past week.

crossing my fingers for those of you still waiting on decisions!

Thanks!

[cheerios16]

i'm pretty sure there were some acceptances last week as well. a colleague of mine got in last wednesday and there have been a handful of people added to the FB group during the past week.

crossing my fingers for those of you still waiting on decisions!

Thanks!

I'm still waiting too! Fingers crossed for both of us that we get some good news soon.

[jbagelboy]

So if I emailed them to request appeal of scholarship over the weekend but don't hear anything back today, should I call to confirm they received the message? time is of the essence..

[ph5354a]

So if I emailed them to request appeal of scholarship over the weekend but don't hear anything back today, should I call to confirm they received the message? time is of the essence..

Yeah, they'll need to activate the My Appeal tab on your financial aid portal, so a quick phone call should do the trick.

[jbagelboy]

So if I emailed them to request appeal of scholarship over the weekend but don't hear anything back today, should I call to confirm they received the message? time is of the essence..

Yeah, they'll need to activate the My Appeal tab on your financial aid portal, so a quick phone call should do the trick.

Thanks!

[framboozer]

yeah, my school didnt give A+'s. Its BS that other people get those by I dont, cuz there were plenty of classes I would have had an A+ in if they existed at my school.

I'm digging this up, but just had to reply, because I agree so hard. It hurts to think about what I'd be looking at if my school gave out A+'s (regardless of how they were weighted). Half if not most of my classes in college were 95 and above to get an A. I'd still be above a 4.0 if my school put A+'s on transcripts and instead I'm stuck with 3.8X. I laid waste to my classes at my actual university, but took extremely challenging courses taught in foreign languages abroad (studied abroad more than once). LSAC's policy most certainly deals me the short stick.

[uconjak]

The only schools i know for a fact that dont have grade inflation are the military acadamies. My sis went to usafa and the general in charge said this class's average gpa would be 2.78. The class hadn't even started classes yet? My sis's class only one kid got all A's. she told me she got a 96% on a thermodynamics test and that was a C+. 97,98 were B's and 99 and up was an A's.