At a Glance
NYU admits 9.1% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Debt at Graduation
Not reported by this school
receive need-based grant aid
$29,765
average debt at graduation
NYU graduates carry an average of $29,765 in debt.
Merit Aid
1,204
students received merit aid
$37,519
average merit award
Getting In
NYU admits 9.1% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 27% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 10% of the class submitted
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
New York University rates your personal essay as Very Important — equal weight to your GPA. Don't underestimate it. Demonstrated interest is Considered — showing genuine engagement with this school may help your application.
Student Life
56.3% of NYU classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At NYU, 56.3% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section I-3 (class sizes)
12:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
Live on campus
38%
Men in fraternities
2%
Women in sororities
6%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
NYU's student body is 21.9% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
NYU graduates 73.7% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
NYU graduates 73.7% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
NYU
73.7%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $84,374
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2025–26, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
87.9%
Overall 6-yr rate
85.6%
Pell recipient rate
Lower-income students graduate at nearly the same rate as their peers — a sign of strong institutional support.
Freshman Retention
96.1%
96.1% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in New York.
NYU's campus is Greenwich Village itself: academic buildings, dorms and Bobst Library ring Washington Square Park with no gates, walls or quad separating the university from the surrounding city. Students step out of class onto MacDougal Street or into Union Square rather than across a lawn, and the subway rather than a campus shuttle is how most people get to a second class across town.
Notable Alumni
Martin Scorsese
Academy Award-winning director of Goodfellas, The Departed and Taxi Driver; earned his BA and MA in film from what is now NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Class of 1964
Alan Greenspan
Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006; earned his BA, MA and PhD in economics from NYU, now home to the Stern School of Business.
Class of 1948
Rudy Giuliani
Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, credited with a sharp drop in crime during his tenure; earned his JD from NYU School of Law.
Class of 1968
Jonas Salk
Developed the first successful polio vaccine, ending the disease's epidemics in the US within a few years of its 1955 rollout; earned his MD from NYU's medical school.
Class of 1939
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Major city
New York, NY
Best For
Traditions
Commencement at Yankee Stadium
NYU's all-university commencement outgrew Washington Square Park and has been held at Yankee Stadium since 2008, making it one of the largest single graduation ceremonies in the country.
Strawberry Fest
An annual spring tradition built around what's billed as New York City's longest strawberry shortcake, served up to students on campus.
Midnight Breakfast
Twice a year, in the run-up to finals, Student Affairs administrators serve free breakfast to students at midnight — a study-break tradition rather than a ceremonial one.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from New York
Jersey Shore, New Jersey
1 hour 15 minutesThe closest beach escape from Manhattan, reachable by NJ Transit without a car.
The Hamptons, New York
2 hours 30 minutesLong Island's beach towns, reachable by the Long Island Rail Road from Penn Station.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1 hour 30 minutesA short Amtrak or bus ride south, and a common day trip or weekend swap with Philly-based friends.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
35 minutes from campus
For international flights: John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) — about 45 minutes by car, or an hour by subway and airtrain.
Pro sports nearby
- New York Knicks NBA
- New York Rangers NHL
- New York Yankees MLBAbout 30 minutes by subway away
- New York Giants NFLAbout 45 minutes by NJ Transit train and shuttle away
Career Proximity
NYU doesn't commute to a business district — it sits inside one. Wall Street, Midtown's media and advertising firms, and a fast-growing tech corridor are all a short subway ride from Washington Square, so an internship rarely means leaving the neighborhood behind for long.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- JPMorgan Chase
- Goldman Sachs
- Condé Nast
- NBCUniversal
- NYU Langone Health
Midtown and Wall Street Manhattan, both a short subway ride from Washington Square
Who Thrives Here
NYU has no traditional campus boundary — Washington Square Park is the closest thing to a quad, and the university's buildings are woven into Greenwich Village rather than fenced off from it. NYU enrolls 29,471 undergraduates, making it the largest private university in New York City, and it doubles down on scale globally: the school runs full degree-granting campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai alongside study-away sites on nearly every continent, describing itself as a "global network university." Admission is now genuinely selective at 9.1%, and the school backs that up financially — 99.8% of demonstrated need met and an average aid package of $72,963, with average debt at graduation ($29,765) landing well below what the sticker price alone would suggest. Culturally, Greek life is a minor presence (2% of men, 6% of women join) and only 38% of undergraduates live in university housing, so most social life plays out across the city rather than in dorms or fraternity houses. The trade-off: NYU's four-year graduation rate (73.7%) trails its six-year rate (87.9%) by more than 14 points, so a meaningful share of students take longer than four years to finish.