I just wanted to clear one thing up: NYU is not an Ivy League school. It is a pretentious, very overpriced school in New York that is not as good as Columbia.
Everyone has their biases but to me NYU is the very definition of hacksaw unless maybe you are from NYC and want to be close to family. It’s so amazingly overpriced but clearly nowhere near as good as comparably priced schools that it’s hacksaw to go there vs. something like UT or some other reasonably priced good but not incredible branded school.
Edit: That being said, I am about to hire someone from NYU because he’s the best candidate. Still hacksaw though. I will probably give him shit about how his degree cost more per year than my entire 4-year college education.
Well said. As a non-epicanthic-fold type Asian, I agree with the characterization. But there is a happy middle -
support kids 100% till they turn 18. Wean them off while they are in college (18-21). No support after 21 barring emergencies. So college costs will be partly out of their 529/ESA and partly out of their own part-time jobs. If that doesn’t cut it, they can get a student loan and pay it off on their own.
Unlike a lot of you youngsters, I am acutally going through this right now. My daughter is a junior in HS and my son is a sophmore. I have about $80 k saved in their 529 account. I live in California where the UC system is excellent (at least Berkley, UCLA and UCSD). SATs are taken and grades are good. So what if she wants to go to Stanford or Harvey Mudd? Do I say, “Why am I throwing away money to send you to a private school when the publics are so good?” or do I say, “You have worked hard and you can pick.” I am a cost/benefit guy, so I am leaning real hard for the first. But we will see what shakes out. I am actually a bit torn.
Finally, some one has spoken the truth. Do i regrest my decision to going to NYU? YES. Do i think NYU is overpriced? YES. Do i think it provides almost no value (part-time programm atleast) YES, YES, YES and can i have some fries with it.
I’d say this is a bit harsh. Overpriced? Yes? On par with CBS? No. Hacksaw? Certainly not.
Believe it or not, on stats alone (not factoring in the quality of experience the candidates have b/c we don’t know), NYU is actually harder to get into than CBS. The acceptance rate is lower and GMAT/GPA average is actually higher; it’s a pretty insignificant difference, but again certainly not hacksaw from that standpoint.
Where CBS (along with H/S/W/B) crushes NYU is the networking; placement in buyside is much better. That said, NYU still does place people into these roles so it’s not something to write off. 7% of students in '13 went into buyside vs. about 12% for CBS (which includes 5% of “other investment management”). Granted though CBS’s exiting class size is larger by about 300 students. Side note, I was surprised MIT isn’t better at placing people into buyside vs. NYU (on a % basis, consitent over the years).
Not trying to toot NYU’s horn here; I’ve recently applied to CBS, NYU and LBS. I’d certainly take CBS over NYU and probably LBS over NYU as well (also have family reasons for that). Just trying to point out that despite what people’s somewhat negative perceptions are with NYU, which surprisingly is pretty consistent across AF, the data suggests otherwise.
But you can if you want too and as long as if it doesn’t jeopardize your financial security.
Before you write that check, just make sure they’re going to college because they want to learn a subject matter and develop life skills, not just to binge drink. I knew too many kids who went to college just because everybody else did it. Then they got a law degree or MBA just because they were aimless after college and wanted to avoid the real world. They had to grew up real quick when they had to pay 1.5k+/month for student loans.
I think the money would be better spent seeing the real world and sparking some passion. Let you kid take a year off and go see the hustle in silicon valley, the shale fields in the midwest/canada, the late nights of wall street, the great disparity of wealth in China, the feeling of being in Auschwitz and Normandy, feel the monotony of working at McDonalds, etc.
Spark some passion in them so they want to accomplish something in school, even if they just want to be a banker after. In the grand scheme of things, graduating at 23 instead of 22 doesn’t really set anybody back.
Good post CFABLACKBELT. I think there are select reasons to choose NYU, but I was referring more to the overall school (related to the topic of paying for your kids to go to undergrad) and not about the MBA program. It’s a fantastically overpriced undergrad school vs. some other respectable state school programs (yes, I know NYU is private, but to me it’s on par with good state schools like UT, Wisc - Mad, UCLA, UW, Cal, and others, except more expensive than all of those). B-school is different because of the proximity to Wall Street and because all b-school programs are overpriced.
CSK, you have family in NYC though right?
Re: girls, this is anecdoctal but one of the top 5 finance smoke shows I know just graduated from Columbia undergrad. She’s a solid 9, 9.5 and very smart. That’s wife material right there. Dat 10 year age gap and 3,000 mile distance tho…
NYU is so many orders of magnitude greater than my school that I find this whole thread hilarious. If my kid goes to NYU or UCSD or even A&M, I’d call that a success myself. I think some folks on AF really need some perspective outside their bubble. NYU hacksaw. Yeah. Ok.
It’s hacksaw for the price. Any decent state school is exactly identical to NYU undergrad and costs 1/5th or less per year. It has the worst price to quality ratio I can think of. Yeah something like Harvard is roughly equally expensive… but it’s Harvard. NYU is… NYU. You get nothing special for the expenditure except more debt than you otherwise would have at a comparable state school.
Edit: Apparently I’m not the only one who realized this. I just skimmed this, but it seems to summarize my thoughts accurately.
I would say it’s anti-bubble. I don’t care about the prestige at all, for me it is a purely economically-based hatred of NYU and everything it stands for.
Are we talking undergrad or MBA here? NYU is kinda hacksaw-ish for most things, particularly at the undergraduate level, but their Finance programs and MBA are well respected.
The reason that people give NYU a hard time is that there is a visible subset of NYU students themselves that hold themselves at a higher standard, based solely on their school, than should anyone at any school should. For every grounded and centered NYU student (or potential NYU student) like our friends on this forum, there is a Hermon Raju or one of those hipster kids that you see telling everyone how “their dad runs the city”. Compared to Columbia, there also seems to be an over representation of NYU students who chose the school for its location, rather than for its academics, and this creates a certain vibe on campus, which can be positive or negative depending on whether it aligns with your interests. While these impressions can probably be attributed to a visible minority of NYU students, they end up becoming a stereotype for the entire university.
(Incidentally, I find that Harvard graduates are so sensitive to the perception of pretention, that they end up as possibly the least pretentious college graduates. Almost every conversation about their school goes like: “So, you went to Harvard”, “Yes, but it sucked because…”)
NYU’s career placement certainly benefits from its location and alumni network. However, based on anecdotal evidence, I question the actual quality and diversity of career opportunities of NYU graduates beyond those in some high percentile of their class (that is, people who could have gone to Columbia or other schools if they chose to, or were just a bit luckier). While I know many NYU graduates in desirable finance jobs, I also know many NYU graduates who work in back office functions; I have never seen a Columbia or Harvard graduate in such a role.
That’s just my impression anyway, especially the last paragraph.
I don’t think you can compare NYU vs. UCSD or A&M. The latter two are very likely better values for >90% of things a person could do with their college degree. It depends on what state you are a resident of to begin with but neutralizing for that and excluding New York specific careers like Wall Street, there is no question you are going to get far better value from the others. Plus, UCSD is awesome. I had a chance to go there and deeply regret not doing it lol.
You are spot on. NYU MBA Part-time specifically produces a horde of people who would LOVE to have back office jobs. On the other hand, if we exclude MBA from equation NYU Courant is one of the top schools indeed, and NYU Law is definitely NOT hacksaw. It is just that NYU MBA is incredibly overvalued, part time specifically.