CUNY vs. NYU

[whiteunicorn]

Hi everyone,

 

I've recently been admitted to the MA in Liberal Studies at CUNY and the Draper interdisciplinary program at NYU. Though already leaning towards CUNY for many reasons, I still want to hear your opinions.

 

I just graduated from a well-recognized liberal arts college. My final goal is a PhD in social science, but I did not have much research experience before. That's why I think MA will help me. 

 

I've met the professors at CUNY graduate center. They were very friendly and wanted to introduce me to people at different research centers. I'm also very interested in what they do. NYU, on the other hand, has not been responding to my emails about specific classes or professors, so I'm still not very sure about what will happen if I go there. Given my goals and how short a masters is, I should be able to start working on things asap. But considering NYU has always been my dream school, it is hard to make this decision.

 

Please let me know what you think. Any suggestion will be appreciated! 

[NOWAYNOHOW]

Hi Whiteunicorn -- I'm currently at NYU getting my MA from another department, but I have taken Draper courses and have a lot of friends in Draper.  While I didn't attend, I was initially admitted to the CUNY MALS and the Draper MA.  I also have a lot of friends at CUNY, so I feel I can speak a bit to the experience there as well.  CUNY is a fabulous institution (I'm applying there for my PhD), but I have heard they have very little time for their MA students.  On one hand, the MALS has been aggressively expanded over the past couple of years, but remains relatively untested.  I am not sure how you plan to go through the program, but it also is supposed to take longer than the Draper MA, which just seems silly if you plan to move on to the PhD.  On the whole, the CUNY MALS seems to be less structured and provide less guidance for students, but still is supposed to take longer than many terminal MA degrees.

 

On the other hand, Draper is a much older and more established program. I'd go so far as to say it is NYU's hidden gem if you want to study the humanities or social sciences.  It offers a structured advising system that has students paired with faculty fellows in their area of interest.  The Draper students I've studied alongside are easily the brightest MA-level peers I've encountered, far outshining many of the people in my own cohort.  They are all very close, supportive, and deeply committed to their scholarship and future as academics.  They have a fantastic placement record and the professors work hard to help students craft successful PhD applications.  If you can afford it (or have gotten some assistance from the department) I would definitely recommend Draper.  Sometimes I even regret not taking their offer!

 

Just a few thoughts!  Either way, you can't really lose--CUNY and NYU have a lot to offer.  Feel free to DM if you have other questions.