So a lot of people on this website ask how to improve their essays and never mention what happens after. I applied to NYU Gallatin as a transfer and was admitted using these essays. I hope that this helps shed some light on what they are looking for in a transfer application essay!
Tell us why you have chosen the above campus (using a maximum of 700 characters-spaces and punctuation included).
The city streets bustle with an undeniable fervor. Tangles of sounds fill the air: foreign languages, rumbling subway cars, and hurried footsteps on the pavement. Street artists and Wall Street elitists recognize the universality and unique subculture of New York City caused by the intermingling of foreign cultures and perspectives. With Broadway, the Museum of Natural History, and the Sony Wonder Technology Lab, the city teems with frontiers for curious minds to explore. Intrigue, excitement, and adventure are only a step outside of your dorm or a subway ride away. New York City enables students to pursue nearly unlimited opportunities to follow their interests wherever they lead.
NYU's global network provides students with hundreds of academic areas of interest for students to cultivate their intellectual curiosity and to help achieve their career goals. Whether you are entirely undecided about your academic plans or you have a definitive program of study in mind, what are your own academic interests? Feel free to share any thoughts on any particular programs or how you might explore those interests at NYU on any of our campuses.
One hundred billion neurons make up the brain. Each cell connects to approximately ten thousand neighboring neurons, meaning a cubic centimeter of brain tissue has more neural connections than there are stars in the Milky Way. The brain processes and responds to billions of signals every second, with each signal creating new neural pathways. No two brains are the same, so why should any two educations be the same?
A prescribed education has never quite sat well with me. I have always desired an environment that fosters intellectual curiosity and a curriculum that makes personal growth possible. At the Gallatin School of Individualized Study I plan to pursue my academic interests in an amalgamation of studies - neuroscience, animal science, social work, ethics, chemistry, music, and more - and combine them into my perfect major in preparation for a career in veterinary medicine. Although these subjects may at first glance seem entirely unrelated, I imagine them as an indivisible web, each reliant on the other for survival and necessary for a truly interdisciplinary education.
At Gallatin, I would allow my varied passions to guide my education, rather than trying to fit myself into a standard pre-packaged major. Although I have no idea where these interests will take me nor am I certain how they will combine into a major, I believe that Gallatin will help me determine that along the way and provide me with unparalleled academic and personal opportunities.
What intrigues you? Tell us about one work of art, scientific achievement, piece of literature, method of communication, or place in the world (a film, book, performance, website, event, location, etc.), and explain its significance to you.
Social media is an odd, twisting array of changing social norms. From the innovation of MySpace to the birth of Twitter, the options for interconnection and communication are infinite. However, neither Twitter hashtags nor Pinterest re-pinnings are nearly as intriguing as the Facebook poke. It may only be a small feature created by Mark Zuckerberg to have no significant purpose, but poking someone means more than just clicking a mouse.
Pokes have no set meaning, and are therefore shrouded in mystery and ambiguity. There are no words, no tone of voice, no facial expressions, and no body language, leaving its interpretation entirely dependent on the users and their relationship. Is it friendly or flirtatious? Are you keeping in touch without writing a message, saying hello in a goofy way, or are you making a move? Then there are more subtle questions associated with the poke that can easily change the connotation attached to it. Does the person respond right away, or wait a few days? Waiting implies disinterest, while immediate re-poking suggests either an impending poke war or mutual attraction. What time of day did you send the poke? A daytime poke is friendly, while a late night poke has suggestive undertones.
We communicate in fascinating ways, but the poke is by far the most intriguing. It is an unstudied anthropological and sociological mystery, that as a college student and social media researcher I find particularly interesting and incredibly relevant.
