Students may apply directly to GSP

NYU is considering changing the General Studies Program so students can directly apply to it, according to GSP dean Fred Schwarzbach.

No changes have been made yet, but most of the faculty and administration believe it would benefit students who want a strong liberal arts education, he said.

"Students, alumni and parents have been asking us about a direct application for a long time," Schwarzbach said.

Currently, GSP students are offered slots in the two-year program after applying to and being rejected by other NYU schools. Administrators say the program offers students smaller classes and more individual attention. In GSP, students earn an associate of arts degree and if they maintain a grade point average of 3.0, they are guaranteed a slot in the school they originally applied to.

However, if the change is made, GSP - like NYU's other schools - would also have its own admissions criteria, although Schwarzbach said the program will mostly stay the same.

"We will continue to have a faculty dedicated to teaching, small classes, and a Great Works core curriculum with a strong international and global emphasis," he said.

Some GSP faculty members and students say the program's smaller class sizes give it an advantage over other schools.

In GSP, "you know your teachers," GSP freshman Kunal Rege said. "It'd be fair if people could apply" directly.

However, other students worry that if class sizes increase, the change will take away from the program's intimacy.

"I don't think it is a good idea because people will be up for it," GSP freshman Aisling Redican said. "GSP is small compared to other colleges in NYU. You get to be more intimate with your professor."

But GSP's low profile means that even some students accepted to NYU don't know it exists, other students said.

"When I told my roommate that I was in GSP, she didn't even know what that meant," GSP freshman Gabriella Bonialla said.

Rege said he thinks most students will probably still apply to CAS anyway.

"It has the name," Rege said. "If you tell your family and friends that you got into GSP, they're not really going to know what that means."

Schwarzbach pointed out that GSP and CAS are already similar in many ways.

"They are both within the administrative structure of the Faculty of Arts and Science," he said. "The great majority of GSP students complete their studies at NYU in CAS."

Nausheen Husain is a contributing writer. E-mail her at news@nyunews.com.