Challenge Yourself

Students at New York University are a diverse group who are preparing to shape, enhance, and lead an ever-changing global community. Attending eight undergraduate and 11 graduate schools and colleges, NYU’s 40,000 students engage in both liberal arts and professional programs of study. They are community leaders, scholars, researchers, artists, filmmakers, executives, athletes, and award-winners. They are immersed in intellectual challenges and often can be found working directly with our acclaimed faculty on research in the humanities and sciences, the performing and visual arts, and every other field of study offered in our schools and colleges.

As an undergraduate at NYU, we expect you to bring with you energy, focus, creativity, and a desire to excel and to face challenges in all aspects of your life—intellectually, professionally, and personally. We expect you to become an independent and creative thinker with the versatility, resourcefulness, and social awareness necessary to thrive in a dynamic environment. In short, we expect you to challenge yourself by taking advantage of all NYU has to offer.

Over 1,000 faculty members live at our Washington Square campus, including a number of professors who live in the residence halls and act as mentors and advisers.

With a 11:1 student/faculty ratio and an average class size of under 30 students, you will have the opportunity to get to know your professors well. As early as your freshman year, some of your classes will be quite small, such as Writing Workshop I and II, which are limited to 20 students per section. You’ll also have large lecture courses, but these larger courses typically include a weekly recitation (discussion group of approximately 25 students) or small lab sections. You will be advised by individuals who work in your particular school or college, and, once you’ve declared a major, you’ll be advised by someone within that academic department.

When you start school here, you will become part of a close-knit community within a specific small- to medium-sized school or college. At the same time, you will have the many offerings and research opportunities of a global, urban university within your reach. With thousands of undergraduate course offerings and over 160 areas of study, you can explore your intellectual and professional passions from your very first semester.

As an undergraduate, you are also empowered to pursue your own inquiries, since we believe that education is not only about transmitting knowledge but also about teaching you how to learn for the rest of your life. By conducting research under faculty supervision, you can develop a set of skills that enhance the odds for professional success—the ability to ask the right questions, to develop strategies for answering them, to think critically, to organize data into a coherent interpretation, and to effectively communicate results orally and in writing.