NYU is a highly-respected university in the heart of an iconic city. Located in downtown Manhattan, NYU is truly in the middle of the action. This has led to the university gaining a reputation as a place where people go to make things happen now. Students at NYU, whether studying music production, economics, art, or entrepreneurship, are doing what they are passionate about. NYU students are not waiting for graduation day to start a career, they begin alongside their academic studies. NYU students regularly build careers, start companies, and break through as artists while at the university.
They receive well over 100,000 applications, annually. For first years starting in the fall of 2023, they accepted only 9.4%. For the class of 2028, the number of applications went up by thousands and the overall acceptance rate dropped further to only 8%. For three of the undergraduate colleges, the acceptance rate was less than 5%.
In this post, we’ll break down the landscape surrounding legacy admissions at NYU and what students considering an application to NYU must do if they are a legacy. This includes a fair amount of planning ahead, so don’t wait to get things going until the summer before application deadlines. Instead, start now.
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First, let’s look at the state of legacy admissions and what is going on at NYU in particular.
What’s going on with Legacy Admissions?
Let’s begin with a definition. Legacy is when you have a parent who went to the college, and nearly half of private universities in the US give some level of additional consideration to legacy applicants. Some schools define legacy more broadly, but typically it’s either a parent (or two) who graduated from the school — ideally even from the same undergraduate college within the university, if applicable, you are applying to.
Except, of course, if you are applying to NYU.
The practice of legacy admissions has been under fire for years. Higher education at the elite level is, quite fairly, seen as a world full of hurdles. Jumping over these hurdles requires exceptional focus, determination, and execution. The grades in an application must be great. The scores must be great. The activities must be interesting. The essays must be moving. In short, the applicant must be awesome. But, for some, bloodline also plays a part.
Some of the most competitive colleges and universities in the country heavily prioritize applicants who are legacies. As awareness of these legacy admissions practices has grown, so has the frustration with them. It’s nice to believe that college admissions is a meritocracy, and then there’s legacy admissions. The whole concept casts a shadow over the meritocracy dream.
When we work with students who have a legacy at a school that practices legacy admissions, we help them make the most of that advantage. But what about NYU?
Again, NYU does not practice legacy admissions. This is not a hypothesis or theory — it’s policy. They write: “…being the relative of an NYU alum is not and has not been a factor we take into consideration in our admissions decision-making.” They continue that, while they are “delighted when the children of alums apply,” the hope that they will enroll if accepted do not play a role in whether they are admitted. “Being the child of an alum is not a factor in our admissions decision-making,” NYU spokesperson Joseph Tirella said in a 2023 interview with NYU’s independent student newspaper the Washington Square News, “we don’t pay heed to legacy status in shaping a class…”
This policy was concretized that same year, in 2023, when NYU removed questions about legacy status and alumni relations from the Common Application, and stopped marking alumni relations as a factor that is “Considered” when reviewing an application.
However, NYU clarified that they had not been giving legacies priority consideration before these changes and the changes were simply to make their policies more transparent to applicants.
What Should You Do?
As NYU does not take alumni relations, or legacy, into consideration when reviewing an application, legacy students looking to apply need to follow a particular playbook. Below, we break it down.
For the Family Member: Parents who graduated from NYU are often itching to do something to give their kid whatever boost they can. Focus on supporting your kid in their college admissions process by being encouraging and providing the nurturing environment you have surely been cultivating for years. And give us a call.
For the Applicant: The applicant, unsurprisingly, has more to do.
Grades
Looking at the statistics for recently accepted and enrolled first-year students, NYU doesn’t require a 4.0 to get in — but you do have to be close to that. We advise students to achieve a 3.75 or above if they want a chance at an NYU acceptance, and 3.8 or higher for a strong chance that they’ll be offered a seat in the first-year class. However, remember that GPA isn’t everything. Students should strive to get the best grades they can in the hardest courses they have access to, especially those related to a potential area of focus in college.
GPA Distribution of the Class of 2028
Scores NYU is currently test optional when it comes to the SAT or ACT, but this has not become a long-term policy. We highly recommend that all NYU applicants do the work ahead of taking the SAT or ACT to achieve impressive scores that underline an equally impressive transcript.
Can you get into NYU without submitting scores as long as the testing policy is “test optional”? Yes, you can. But it’s a gamble. Pairing an impressive application with an SAT over 1500 or an ACT of 34 or above can be a critical tool in any applicant’s toolbelt.
Extracurriculars
NYU loves to see passion. The school is full of artists and innovators, and the admissions team wants to see the seeds of that in the applications that they read. We encourage NYU applicants to pick two areas of deep interest and pursue them through school clubs and student groups, volunteering and service work, and independent work such as research, projects, or creative endeavors.
Apply Early
NYU received the largest number of early decision applicants ever for the class of 2028. This capped off a 56% surge in ED applicants across NYU’s degree-granting campuses over a period of 5 years. Applying to NYU ED matters. They want to bet on students who are committed to them, and applying ED does this. We advise all of our students who are passionate about NYU, and who are strong applicants between grades, scores, and personal profile, to apply Early Decision.
NYU doesn’t consider legacy admissions, and they are part of a trend that we predict will continue to gain steam. New York State is even considering legislation that would ban colleges and universities within the state from considering legacy when making admissions decisions. While NYU has practiced this policy for years, it’s worth noting that other states are pursuing similar legislation, and Virginia, Colorado, and California have already passed bans that impact public schools (VA, CO) or all colleges and universities (CA).
Knowing the ins-and-outs of college admissions can make the difference between an acceptance and a rejection. We bring more than a decade of expertise to our strategies for each student, and it shows in our results.