New York University, aka NYU, is a large, private research university located smack-dab in the middle of Greenwich Village in New York City. As they love to say, the city is your campus! They’re known mostly for the Tisch School of the Arts, or as the alma mater listed on almost every actor’s Wikipedia page, but also are known for their excellent engineering, business, social science, language, and ‘build-your-own-major’ programs. It’s the largest private university in the country, with over 26,000 undergraduates, but that’s just at the NYC campus. They also have two other degree-granting campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. It also has one of the most rapidly shrinking acceptance rates we’ve ever seen, plummeting to 8% last cycle. Compare that to 2018’s 19% and 2013’s 35% acceptance rates. They’re test-optional, and this year they’re also supplement optional, although if you want a competitive app, you’re gonna write it!!
As their number of applicants skyrocket and acceptance rates get lower year after year, we can’t help but put on our tinfoil hats and wonder if their decision to make the supplement optional is a ploy to get even more applicants and therefore have an even lower acceptance rate. Is that something that the largest landholder in New York City would do? We may never know. Anyways, let’s dive into their new, weird, “”optional”” (not for you) supplement.
We are looking for peacemakers, changemakers, global citizens, boundary breakers, creatives and innovators - Choose one quote from the following and let us know why it inspires you; or share a short quote and person not on our list who inspires you, and include why.
Time to innovate and be inspired, teens. Each one has a 250 word limit. As you read through them, you may notice that they’re all veeeeeery similar to each other. It’s almost as if they want you to say something specific…
1. “We’re used to people telling us there are no solutions, and then creating our own. So we did what we do best. We reached out to each other, and to our allies, and we mobilized across communities to make change, to benefit and include everyone in society.” Judith Heuman, 2022 NYU Commencement Address
This quote is basically begging for a community essay, but in disguise, and so the best way to answer this prompt is with a story that exemplifies the quote. When was a time that you had to come together with others to solve a problem? Did you and a rag-tag group of misfits successfully petition your school to ban single-use plastics? Did you convince your school to start a women’s cycling team? Tell the story with as much detail as you can in 250 words.
2. “I encourage your discomfort, that you must contribute, that you must make your voice heard. That is the essence of good citizenship." Sherilynn Ifill, 2015 NYU Commencement Address
This one, as stated, is also very similar to the first one. The keywords here are “discomfort” and “voice heard.” The “citizenship” here lets us know that this too will be a community essay, but this time we recommend going at this from a “what did you do for your community” angle. How have you stood up for others? Was there a time you went against the grain? Tell us that story.
3. “If you know how to fly but you never knew how to walk, wouldn’t that be sad?” Lang Lang, 2015 NYU Honorary Degree Recipient
Okay, we’re gonna be real, this one is not our favorite. It’s a little hard to parse. If we, college counselors who help decode and write college essays all day, think this is a tad confusing, we guarantee the 17 and 18-year-olds who are reading this will too. It could be asking about times you’ve put the cart before the horse, or it could be asking about times you’ve confronted your own hubris on a situation. You could write about a time you started something ambitious but realized you had to go back to the drawing board. Perhaps you dabbled in bottle rockets and thought you could go straight to jet engines. Frankly, the other four prompts that are all basically the same question would be better uses of your time. If you choose this one, just make sure it’s a story and it’s got good details.
4. "You have the right to want things and to want things to change." Sanna Marin, Former Prime Minister of Finland, 2023 NYU Commencement Address
And number four is very similar to number one and also number two! Shocked! When did you want something to change in your community/life/world and you took action to change it? Don’t wax poetic about some large problem we’re nowhere near solving, but instead use this prompt to highlight a time you took action to solve something you found particularly rousing.
5. "It's hard to fight when the fight ain't fair.” Taylor Swift, Change, Released 2008, 2022 NYU Commencement Speaker
PANDERING!! OBJECTIVE PANDERING! And so similar!! When is a time you took up a cause/challenge/fight that felt too big for you to handle, but then you did? Your own David and Goliath story, if you will.
6. Share a short quote and person not on this list, and why the quote inspires you.
Okay, we’re gonna be real for a second, we usually love “pick your own!” prompts, but NYU is going heavy on quoting their own former commencement speakers and on the theme of community. If you must pick your own, precocious teen, it needs to be the same brand as the ones above. You could even do a deep dive into other past NYU commencement speakers. However, we recommend sticking with the ones they’ve given you, not very “innovative,” of us, we know.
7. Not answering this optional question.
You are not picking this one. Nice try, though.
And that’s the brand new, “optional” NYU supplement. For a creative school, we feel like they could have chosen prompts with more variety, but that’s just us. It’s pretty clear to us they want you to write about either your community’s impact on you, or your impact on your community. These quotes also have a social justice bend, so keep that in mind as you brainstorm your stories. Remember that community can be almost anything, like family, friends, your neighbors, etc. You don’t have to write about some formal meeting of the minds here.
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