Transferring To NYU From Community College – NYU Transfer Requirements

by Chad Agrawal

nyu transfer

Transferring to NYU from community college was an incredibly exciting experience for me and now I want to help other students have the same game-changing transfer experience! As a former community college transfer to NYU Stern, I can tell you first hand that it's an experience you don't want to miss. In fact, transferring to NYU not only inspired me, but prepared me to create the internet's best selling community college guide!

To be a successful transfer to NYU, remember that the actions you take while at community college are what will convince NYU transfer admissions to either accept or reject your application. Sure enough, if you've met all the transfer requirements, deadlines and credits, your chances of getting into New York University will be much higher than the average NYU transfer acceptance rate. But, your ultimate transfer decision depends on your community college experience, which is great news for anyone who didn't do so hot in High School (like me).

After reading this detailed post on NYU transfer requirements, which schools are best to transfer into and how to transfer to NYU Stern, Tisch or Gallatin, you'll be able to gather all the qualities necessary to "woo" the transfer admissions committee. We'll cover everything including whether New York University transfer is easy or hard, what qualifies as a "good" GPA for transfer students, which are the best transferrable courses for credits, interesting concerns about scholarships and finally, how to transfer to NYU from community college (or any other college).  Obviously, nothing is guaranteed with admissions, but hey, if it worked for other NYU transfers, including myself, it can work for you too.

Is It Easy To Transfer To NYU, Or Hard?

Is It Easy To Transfer To NYUIf you find yourself focusing on this question, you might be worried that transferring to NYU is too difficult or intense for you. Let me be the first one to tell you to be confident in yourself! You have nothing to lose if you try your best and leave it all on the table. But, keep in mind that transfer NYU acceptance will be much easier for some people while others struggle. Let me explain...

Transferring to NYU is very hard for students who don't have an action plan for success (like my community college transfer guide). If you have a proven plan, you'll understand each little, very important step to take towards becoming an NYU transfer student. By planning thoroughly, you take away all the decisions you would otherwise have to make during the transfer process. Being faced with all these decisions at once and not knowing where to start overwhelms many hopeful transfers. By going into this process with a plan, you might go as far to say that transferring into NYU is easy...for some students.

Also, the difficulty of transferring can depend on which school you would like to transfer into. For example, transferring to NYU Stern will be more competitive than some other schools at the university. But, that should not drive your decision for choosing a school at New York University. You should be focused on your major and transfer into the school that's best for you.

Transferring To NYU Stern, Tisch, Gallatin, CAS, Steinhardt Schools

NYU Stern TransferLike any other major university, transfer students have the opportunity to apply to a specific school at New York University. The most popular schools are the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (where I graduated from) and the Tisch School of the Arts, but they are usually the most expensive too.

Here is a brief description for popular NYU transfer student options:

  • NYU Stern Transfer - For students majoring in business, especially finance, accounting, management and international business. 
  • NYU Tisch Transfer - For students in performing arts, most widely known for film production and broadway connections.
  • NYU Gallatin Transfer - For students who are ready to create their own major, holding a strong passion and independence to study disciplines without boundaries.
  • NYU CAS Transfer - For students desiring to continue a liberal arts and sciences education, highly demanded by pre-med students.
  • NYU Steinhardt Transfer - For students transferring into many culture related fields like education, communications and music.

Fun fact: If you walk around campus (from building to building) and talk to a few NYU students, you might hear them refer to Stern students as "Sternies" and Tisch students as "Tischies" because of the strong stereotypes associated with students in each school.

Top 5 NYU Transfer Requirements

NYU Transfer RequirementsThe New York University transfer requirements include a variety of factors that will make up your application. These factors include a solid GPA, minimum number of credits, required deadlines, submitted standardized test scores, and a killer application essay. In addition to community college tips, these are the most important factos and each can help you "make the cut" for the transfer admissions committee.

What Is A Good NYU Transfer GPA? 

Whether you're transferring to NYU from community college or a 4 year college, your GPA should be as competitive as possible. Working hard to earn a 4.0 GPA should be your primary concern before applying. If you're above a 3.5 GPA you're at a collegiate level. I would consider that to be the minimum, but students have been accepted with lower GPA's.

What's The Minimum Number of Transfer Credits?

To transfer to NYU, you'll have to had completed a minimum number of 30 or 32 course credits, which is equivalent to one year of college course work. Although, this is the minimum, I recommend transferring the maximum number of credits, which is 64 credits, because you'll enter NYU as a junior transfer student. Also, transferring as a junior will save you lots of tuition money that you could spend somewhere else and you'll still have a great experience.

What Are The Required Deadlines?

Unless you really want to be a NYU spring transfer, (which I do not recommend unless you really need to get out of the current situation you're in), the application deadline for Fall semester admission is April 1st. This is slightly later than most university transfer admission deadlines so don't take it as a standard for all schools. The extra time is kind of nice to tweak and improve your application further.

What Standardized Tests Are Required?

If you'll have already completed a full course work of college courses, in the United States, then you're exempt from submitting standardized test scores to NYU. However, I had retaken my SATs in community college and submitted them anyway. Strong SAT scores should not be underestimated. I encourage you to retake them if you need to and submit high scores.

What Is Required For The Transfer Essay?

For almost all NYU schools, you will be submitting your application via the Common App, which also has a specific supplement for NYU. These are time consuming and require a lot of research, but it's well worth filling it all out. And you have to, so why not do your best?

The requirements will all help you transfer to NYU Stern, Tisch, Gallatin or the other popular schools like CAS and Steinhardt. However, these schools are expensive. So next, I want to give you some insightful information about NYU transfer scholarships before revealing my proven plan for transferring!

Can You Win NYU Transfer Scholarships?

NYU Transfer ScholarshipsUnfortunately, getting free money in the form of scholarships is much harder than just transferring into NYU. While financial aid is helpful, it's considered student loans that you will have to pay back. You're going to have to get a little more creative to secure scholarships as a transfer student. First, we'll take a look at why its so tough to get transfer scholarships at NYU and then offer some ways to lower your tuition payments with out taking on student loan debt.

Especially if you're transferring to NYU from community college, the cost of tuition is almost cut in half! So, NYU doesn't have too much sympathy for transfer student tuition because you're going to receive the same degree at a very discounted price. Also, since most NYU transfers are such great academic students who have strong passions, it's hard to just award merit based scholarships to any single candidate...they would have to give everyone a scholarship!

However, there are certain ways for transfer students to win some scholarships at NYU. I recommend going after organization based scholarships instead of merit based scholarships from admissions. For example, NYU offers transfer students that are members of Phi Theta Kappa, an honors society for community college transfers, a decent scholarship. Also, many community colleges offer scholarships for outgoing students either directly from the college's foundation or donations from the community. Winning a few organization based scholarships like these can really add up!

How To Transfer To NYU From Community College (or other colleges)

how to transfer to nyu from community collegeThe earlier you start preparing to transfer, the better off you'll be. So if you're in high school or already attending community college or another college, get started right now. Also, for those of you not in college yet, definitely consider taking the community college transfer route because it'll save you a ton of cash and no one will ask you if you went to community college after graduating from NYU. (Although, I always like to make it known because they tend to ask me how I paid for my student loans).

Learning how to transfer to NYU is simple when broken down into actionable steps. It isn't as hard as learning how to speak a new language while transferring. For example, if you had to learn Italian at the Italian School "Italiano in Riviera" and become a successful transfer student, now that's a tough experience. So be thankful you don't have a language barrier to deal with on top of everything else.

Here are 3 essential steps to lead you on how to transfer to NYU Stern or any of the other schools at NYU:

1. Start Out Strong. Since NYU transfer admissions will only have a small window of academic time to review you with, a maximum of three semesters at community college or anywhere else, you're going to have to hit the ground running. You may want to prepare yourself by reading my community college transfer guide.

2. Make A Mark On Campus. Both inside and outside the classroom, you should should be one of the very top students at community college or university in order to appeal to NYU transfer admissions.

3. Stay Ahead of Applications. If you're transferring from community college to NYU, you'll be filling out your applications after your third semester (as I highly do not recommend applying after only one year of community college because it gives you less time to build a strong application and it's way more expensive). Make sure you've got all your deadlines laid out so everything gets submitted on time.

No doubt, CC transfer to NYU is the way to go, but if you're already attending another college, these steps will help you get started on the way to success. For a complete, in-depth action plan on transferring to NYU or any top university, including Ivy League schools, check out this community college transfer guide.

Conclusion: Forget The "Transfer Rates" and Remember The Goal

NYU Transfer RatesSome students get so caught up with "what are my chances?" or "what is the percentage of students that get accepted as an NYU transfer" but in reality all those numbers are not really going to help you. If anything, they can be very misleading because transfer rates have so many variables and each year's class is different form the last. What is most important is that you focus on the steps you need to take, not what everyone else is doing.

If you're focused on these NYU transfer requirements, you have a very good shot at getting into NYU. Regardless of what point your at, or what's happened in the past, just do you best to achieve everything we've discussed in this post in regards to your GPA, credits, deadlines, standardized tests and application. Even if you don't do everything perfectly, you'll know that you've done the best you can.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Hopefully, there won't be any "what are my chances?" questions but more focused towards what you need to be doing to get into NYU as a transfer student 🙂

Photo credits in order of placement: photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4photo 5, photo 6, photo 7

This post was written by Chad Agrawal

Chad Agrawal is the founder of CCTS, helping students transfer from community college to Ivy League, tier 1 or anywhere else by following this community college guide.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Shannon July 20, 2013 at 11:35 pm

Good post. I definitely love this site. Thanks!

Reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: