New York University

Hello,

I'm still researching schools and I was wondering does anyone have any experience with NYU distance learning progam? How was it? Was it hard to get accepted? I keep bouncing around on my decision. NYU is a school I've always wanted to attend. So far the field of choices are up to four:

1. NYU
2. DePaul University
3. Southern New Hampshire University
4. Drexel Univesity

Thoughts?

 

Don't know about any on your list, have you considered Harvard Extension? Partial Online Degree Programs & Premed Programs | Harvard Extension

 

I looked at that program but the only thing is as an undergrad I'd have to do four classes on campus. I want something completely online.

 

Personal opinion here. All four of those schools are a lot of money to pay for an online undergrad degree.

I know more about DePaul, but that is just because I am from Chicago (although I did sleep in the NYU dorms for two days ). DePaul is a good school with a great Computer Science program. In fact, I am strongly considering their PhD program in a few years.

The only thing I know about NYU from friends who are alumni is from their complaints about the student loan burdens they are under.

If money is no object to you, you can ignore everything below. I HATE it when someone comes on a forum asking a legitimate question (usually, "which is better, A,B or C?") and then some know it all says responds with "They all suck, what you really should do is X, Y, or Z." That said, I am going to be that know it all and suggest that you do something completely different.

My personal suggestion would be to consider getting your bachelor's at a cheaper school, then getting a master's at NYU or some other dream school of yours. You might be surprised, but a cheap bachelor's + an NYU master's may be cheaper than an NYU bachelor's alone.

I respect your decision to chose amongst these 3 schools. I am only offering this alternative for two reasons. First, I see SO MANY people coming out with huge student loan debt for undergrad. Second, I have met several people in your situation who have a "dream school". When I suggest this alternative, everyone of them liked the idea and told me that they had never considered it before.

Hope this helps.

 

SNHU does a fair amount of advertising in the general New England area and so you find that many people have heard of it even if they've never attended. Again, in general, I've never heard anything bad being said about it. If money was no object there's not much of a question in my mind that I'd put NYU at the top of your list. I don't know about the specific program that's caught your eye but overall the school has an excellent reputation for its scholarship. Drexel and DePaul are both very good brands with good name recognition. I would put them in a tie for second place with SNHU at the end. I can not resist doing what mcjon has said others have done, that being to suggest an alternative. I am biased in favor of UMass and generally check their offerings anytime anyone asks about a specific field of study. It's a very good state university that offers a lot of different online programs. I would only add that it probably has better name recognition nationally than SNHU. Best of luck with your endeavors. Let us know what you decide.

 

If I went to NYU I'd major in Social Sciences. Ive applied to all the schools but NYU. At NYU it's possible to get your Masters while getting your Bachelors. I think. I wanted to attend a traditional school with an online program which is part of the reasons I picked them. Other reasons I picked was:

1. They were elite schools I heard of (except SNHU) with strong programs

2. They hard the classes I wanted( I want to do corporate training/human resources and be a grant writer)

3. I could take more than one class at a time.

Money is a HUGE issue. I just figured if I'm going to go into debt it was as well be at a good school. Though if you have other suggestions I'm open.

 

Again, just so you know, they are currently allowing the residence requirement to be met with Hybrid classes that only entail 2-3 days per class in Cambridge. They also offer the three week January classes...it's not like you have to actually be there for a full semester (unless you choose to).

I bet the program is a lot cheaper than NYU, especially if your aid eligible. My daughter has a little more than half the price knocked off via a combination of need and merit based aid. And at only $250/credit to start with the costs really begin from a very modest and manageable place.

Not trying to push it....but a lot of folks don't know the nuances of the program because the info just isn't out there.

 

Hi Sharice,

How many college credits do you already have?

 

Can someone explain to me why Harvard (and some other high ranked schools) reverse their degree abbreviations? Why is it ALM for Master of Liberal Arts, for example? I don't get it.

 

Could you give/send a link as to which classes only needs 2-3 days in Cambridge?
I just went through the website, couldn't find anything of this sort.
Would be interesting/less time consuming to take these type of classes instead of committing a whole term at Harvard.

 

As quoted from the Harvard website.

"Some Harvard degree abbreviations appear to be backwards because they follow the tradition of Latin degree names. The traditional undergraduate degrees awarded by Harvard University are the A.B. and S.B."

"Some degrees are too new to have Latin names, though the abbreviations appear to be backwards. In many of these cases, Harvard kept the “reverse” abbreviations because of tradition. Examples include degrees of the Harvard Extension School such as the A.L.B. (Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies) and the A.A. (Associate in Arts)."

Degree Abbreviations | Harvard University

 

And styling the Master of Liberal Arts "ALM" avoids confusion with the "MLA" Harvard offers in a professional field where the Latin naming convention would be even more of an outlier: the Master in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

 

The oldest schools in the US (which also tend to be the most prestigious) started issuing college diplomas in the 1600s, 1700s, or early 1800s -- when it was traditional for college diplomas to be written in Latin. Some of these schools, like Harvard, have stopped issuing diplomas in Latin, but they continue to use the Latin degree titles. Some older schools, like Penn, still issue diplomas that are completely in Latin, so they post translations online.

The change from Latin diplomas to English diplomas at Harvard was a controversial move that incited student protests:

 

Quick Correction Some of the diplomas are still in Latin. The Law School is still in Latin. I think that the PhD, AM, and SM offered by GSAS is still in Latin, too. When I graduated this May, mine was completely in Latin. At least they were kind enough to include a translation :smile:.

IIRC, there are a few schools within the university that give diplomas in English (including the undergraduate college), I just do not remember which ones they are.

 

Williams College (est. 1793) still issues traditional Latin diplomas under the name of "Collegi Guilielmensis". There is no way to recognize the name of the school that issued the diploma, unless you happen to know that "Guilielmus" is the Latin equivalent of the English name "William".

 

Yep, you're right -- in my posts above, I was thinking of Harvard College specifically.

 

Go to the course search link (Course Search) and seleck "Hybrid" under "Format", which is listed under "Advanced Options". There are a ton of these courses now.

 

Hi Sherice (sorry for misspelling your name in a previous post),

If money is a huge issue, I hate to tell you this, an online social sciences bachelor's degree from NYU is (IMHO) a HUGE mistake. I have seen many people absolutely DROWN in debt from NYU.

Upon hearing your interest, I decided to check NYU's website to see what they were charging. I was shocked (but not too surprised). The school is charging $1,000-$1,250 PER CREDIT HOUR, and the degree requires up to 130 credit hours. This is why I asked about how many credit hours you have. If you have 60 credit hours (which is a lot) and they take all of them, you will still be out $70,000 to almost $90,000 for a bachelor's degree.

It isn't worth that much. Depending on your mix of government and private loans, you could wind up being forced to pay $700-$1,500 per month for DECADES. To top that off, you say that you want to work in non-profit grant writing. I have SEVERAL friends that do that job or have done that job and it pays NOTORIOUSLY low, and that is if you can find a job in the field. It is quite a popular profession for humanities/social science majors.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do these 3 simple things to get a better picture of your options.
1) Make a realistic calculation of how much this NYU degree is going to cost you
2) Make a realistic calculation of how much (and for how long) your monthly payment is going to be. Remember low(er) interest government loans max out a $20,500 per year. After that, you can expect your private loans to have DOUBLE DIGIT interest rates.
3) Talk to people who actually work in the area you want to work in. Find out how much they make and how good (or bad) the job market is.

Now that I have attempted to discourage you from your current path, let me offer you another road. One option is to pick a cheaper school that has the non-profit/grant writing classes that you want. I know rebel100 has already mentioned Harvard Extension School, but I will reiterated that as an obtion (with one big caveat). HES has SEVERAL online classes that deal with grant writing and managing non-profits, most of which are online. It is quite a popular subject on campus. Furthermore, HES is only $400 per credit, and they take up to 16 hours of CLEP tests or ACE approved courses, so you can load up on those to save some money.

To top it off, the financial aid provided by HES is generous, to say the least. 50% tuition discounts seem to be the norm for folks in financial need. The only caveat I have regarding HES is that, unlike other schools, you don't just get in by filling out an application. You have to get a B in at least 3 HES courses to get admitted. I know that seems simple, but I know of SEVERAL folks who had a problem doing that (the classes are challenging). Furthermore, there is no financial aid or government loans available for those first 3 courses, so you will have to come up with the money on your own.

Another option (maybe a better one) is to find an inexpensive distance program (perhaps a program in your state, or one of the "big 3" schools). Get a low cost Bachelors. Then get a graduate certificate in non-profit management from HES. Yes, the certificate will probably cost you $11,000. However, that plus a low cost BA will still probably be less than a third of what you would pay at NYU. If not a HES certificate, look for other certificate programs or master's degrees in the non-profit management/grant writing field. There have to be more out there.

I know it sucks to hear someone say that going to your dream school is a bad idea, but sometimes it is best to see this objectively. I went through something similar after finishing my masters at HES. I was looking at doing another masters program at another school (Northwestern). It is the closest thing to being called "the family school" as you could get. Over half of my family graduated from there (including my mom). My mother once worked there as a college professor. Even I took classes there in this special program for gifted students in the first grade AND to fulfill my final requirements (foreign language) for my undergrad degree at Georgetown.

Well, they have a nice predictive analytics masters program. However, the more I looked, the more I questioned whether it was worth the cost. The degree was going to cost just under $50,000, not including books. To top it off, there were some issues that I had with the delivery methods they were using for their online courses including lack of video taped lectures and ZERO on campus course options (I live nearby the university).

Finally, I realized that there were other schools offering similar degrees for $30,000 to $35,000 less AND that the cost for this degree was MORE that the cost for one of the doctoral programs I was looking at. In the end, I had to cross it off of my list. I would love to be a Northwestern alum, but not enough to shell out an extra $35K for nothing.

No matter what you decide, please keep us updated on your progress.

 

Great post McJon77, i will just clarify two things....the cost per credit slides at the undergrad level. It can be as low as $250/credt or (in a few cases) as high as $500/credit...but the bulk can be completed at around $250/credit. Also...they grant 4 credits per CLEP not 3 as is the tradition. So you can get the 12 CLEP credits with only 3 CLEP exams.

HES financial aid is indeed generous. I think the school and its nuances are among the best kept secrets in higher education.

 

Not sure about how har it is to get accepted, but one of my friends did an online program at NYU and found it to be quite challenging (in a good way). I am personnaly a firm believer of the idea that when it comes to distance learning, it is only as good as you want it to be.

Good luck!