Friday, July 2, 2010

NYU Abu Dhabi reveals admission figures

http://nyunews.com/news/2010/06/28/28admissions/


Adam Pivirotto has known he would be attending NYU Abu Dhabi since December and has had a lot of time to wonder who would be sitting next to him in class.

But he finally got a clearer picture last week when NYU released undergraduate admission figures for NYUAD. Pivirotto's seminars will have students from 39 different countries and 87 percent of his classmates will speak a language in addition to English.

"The candidates are from all over the world, from six continents. It made me want it even more," Pivirotto, who is from Norfolk, VA, said. NYUAD admitted 189 applicants, or 2.1 percent of the 9,048 applications filed.

That is significantly less than peer institutions like the University of Southern California and The George Washington University at 24.2 and 31.5 percent respectively and also considerably lower than NYU's Washington Square campus, which had an acceptance rate of 29.8 percent.

"From the beginning, we hoped that NYU Abu Dhabi would be the 'World's Honors College,' " NYU President John Sexton said in a statement. "Our inaugural class exceeds even these aggressive goals: Indeed, by the available measures, they are arguably the most selective and internationally diverse entering class in the world."

150 of the 189 accepted students opted to attend NYUAD this fall, giving the college one of the highest yields, the percentage of students who say yes to an offer of admission, in the country at 79.4 percent.
Most of the accepted students applied directly to NYUAD. Only 15 percent of the incoming class indicated interest in the Washington Square campus on their applications.

The incoming class also scored higher on their SATs than their counterparts in New York, with a median mark of 1470 out of 1600. But what may surprise many students in New York is the ratio of male-to-female students, for every three women there are four men at the new school.

One of the main attractions for the college has been the generous financial aid awards. But what ultimately swayed Pivirotto most was the merger of a global education with the liberal arts.

"I really wanted an international perspective within my education and I think NYU Abu Dhabi offers that perfectly, more than a Harvard or Princeton university," he said.

The NYUAD undergraduate admissions team will begin preparing for summer and fall high school visits to drum up interest in the university.

"It's safe to say that they're gratified by the results of the first class. But we all know there's a lot more work to be done," said Josh Taylor, a spokesman for NYUAD.

The admissions officers won't be the only ones preparing for a new adventure. Pivirotto is taking in the last few weeks before he flies more than 7,100 miles to his new home in the United Arab Emirates.
"I'll miss my family, I think that will be the biggest thing," he said.

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