🍦 Today's Scoops: Campus in the City, How to Choose a Major & More

Good morning folks! Here’s what we have today:

1. School of the Day: NYU, the campus among the skyscrapers

2. Admission Blueprint: How to choose a major

3. College Dining Halls, A Breakdown: Foodies unite!

SCHOOL OF THE DAY
New York University (NYU)

Today is our first issue, so what better time to introduce a new tradition? Every day starting today, we’ll cover a different school, helping you learn something new about your favorite schools or find a new school that could end up being your dream school.

Location: New York City, NY
Undergraduates Enrolled: 29,760
Acceptance Rate: 8.0% (118,000 applicants)

NYU offers a unique college experience right in the heart of New York City. Known for its strong programs in the arts, business, and social sciences, NYU provides students with fundamental tools for success, including a strong alumni network. Without a traditional campus, the university seamlessly blends into the city, offering endless opportunities for hands-on learning and exploration. Now with over 61,000 students at three degree-granting campuses in New York City, Shanghai, and Abu Dhabi, and study away programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America, NYU offers students a truly diverse wealth of experience.

• NYU has a world-champion Quidditch team that recently made it to the top 16 of World Cup Quidditch. You can find them on Instagram at @nyuquidditch.

• By going to NYU you’ll join a long list of notable alumni, including actors like Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, filmmaker Martin Scorsese, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

ADMISSION BLUEPRINT
How do I choose a major?

Choosing a major is essential to not only your college application, but also your college experience, and possibly your career after college. In this section, I want to give you some quick advice on what to be thinking about in terms of choosing a major for your college application.

Are you a freshman or younger? Don’t worry about majors too much. Spend this next year trying out activities and courses from all across the academic spectrum. Your goal for this year should be to try out a little bit of everything so that you can find out what you’re most interested in.

Going to be a sophomore? Hopefully, by now you have a general sense of at least what fields interest you. Now, it is time for you to start diving into these fields. Colleges love students who demonstrate a clear passion through their courses and extracurriculars. Try to take challenging courses in the fields you are interested in. For example, if you’re interested in computing, try to take the highest computing courses that you’re school offers, such as AP Computer Science A; if your school doesn’t offer those courses, look into possibly taking those courses outside of school such as through Dual Enrollment programs. Sophomore year is also the year to start going all-in in some of your clubs and extracurriculars. If you’re interested in a field and your school doesn’t have that many clubs in that field, try to start your own. Clubs actually take a long time to build a following so starting your sophomore year helps a lot. In clubs, you’re already enrolled in, start putting yourself out there and going after those leadership positions. If you want to learn more about how to get leadership positions, we’ll be sending a section about just that later this week.

Junior year? Much like your sophomore year, junior year is about building more and more experiences in the fields you are interested in. Continue taking courses in those fields both at and outside of school and also commit yourself to your clubs and extracurriculars. One other notable way to build experiences in the fields you are interested in is through research. Now, no one expects you to start finding a cure for cancer through your research as a high school junior, but it’s really important for you to at least test the waters of research. Colleges love to see students who have at least tried a research project because much of college academics involve undergraduate research. We’ll be sending a more comprehensive guide on research in high school soon, but here’s a brief overview. To get a research position as a high schooler, reach out to lots of college professors and PhD students and be up-front about what you know and don’t know. In your emails to them, don’t act like you can contribute a lot to their projects, but instead, tell them that you are a high schooler interested in this field and research and want to get some hands-on experience before college. To wrap it up, junior year should be your time to continue diving into the fields you’re interested in.

Senior year? By now, much of your high school resume is set, and joining new clubs or starting new extracurriculars will do little for you. Instead, now is the time to start getting specific. This starts with first understanding, what a major is. Well, at each school, it’s different based on their curriculum, but essentially your major is what defines 30-60% of the courses you will have to take in college. So, let’s start looking into that 30-60% of courses. For each college you’re interested in, look up the major you’re interested in and their “Degree Requirements.” For example, if you’re interested in CS at Purdue, search for “Purdue CS Degree Requirements.” The top result will be a webpage on which you can find all the specific courses you will be forced to take as part of being a CS major at Purdue, and it will also share what and how many elective spots you’ll have. Repeat this process for other majors you’re interested in and compare what courses you’ll have to take. Then, choose what interests you. You’ve probably heard the story many times of people choosing not-as-selective majors just to get into their dream school, but I’m here to tell you – please don’t do that. You’ll end up being forced to take courses you might not be interested in, and most likely will not have a great college experience stuck in those courses.

And here’s some more general advice. No matter where you are in your high school journey, don’t ever restrict yourself to a major. If you decided in your sophomore year that you’re interested in majoring in Physics, that doesn’t mean you stop doing the things you love. I know people who have given up things like playing piano, activities they’ve done for 10+ years, just because it distracted their application from their major. In actuality, colleges love to see that you have more than one passion, so while yes, focus on your major-related courses and activities, don’t give up what makes you, you.

COLLEGE DINING HALLS
I need good food in college. What are my top choices?

For my fellow foodies, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about staying in a new place is the food situation. And considering you’ll likely be spending 4 years at college you’ll need to come in equipped with all the necessary information on how to not starve. In this section, I’ll be going over 5 schools known for their dining halls.

Now food is subjective, but here are some schools known for their exceptional dining options:

• Bowdoin College: Often ranked at the top for its dining services, Bowdoin offers fresh, locally sourced ingredients and a menu that changes daily.

• University of Massachusetts Amherst: UMass Amherst boasts a variety of dining options, including international cuisines and healthy choices. They’re known for their commitment to quality and the overall dining experience.

• Washington University in St. Louis: With a focus on providing a wide range of healthy, delicious, and diverse meal options, WashU consistently ranks high in student satisfaction for dining.

• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s dining program is often praised for its variety, quality, and flexibility. Their food truck options and themed dining events are extremely popular among students.

• University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA): UCLA is known for its innovative dining halls that serve up everything from comfort food to gourmet cuisine, with an emphasis on health and sustainability.

Understanding how your college’s dining system works can make a big difference, not only once you get there, but also when you’re choosing where to go. Not having home-cooked food is often one of the hardest parts of transitioning to college, but slowing down and taking a minute to think about food goes a long way.

DAILY DEADLINES UPDATE
Important testing dates coming up!

In the Daily Deadlines section, we will keep you updated on upcoming deadlines in the college admissions world. Remember to not procrastinate and stay ahead of these deadlines!

August SAT: Saturday, August 24
September ACT Registration Deadline: Sunday, August 25
September ACT: Saturday, September 15
University of Texas Early Action Deadline: October 15

IDEAS COME FROM EVERYWHERE
Have an idea for the newsletter?

Is there a question you’ve been dying to have answered related to college admissions? Or, is there something just nagging you about Scholar Scoops that you want to see fixed soon? We want to hear from you. You can submit feedback at https://forms.gle/7Rj2eBCiauEc5oNV8. Thank you so much!