New York University: admissions guide

Overview

NYU has no traditional enclosed campus. Its buildings are spread around Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan, so city life and university life overlap. NYU also runs two other degree-granting campuses, NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai, and many study-away sites. Applicants to New York choose a specific school, such as the College of Arts and Science, Stern School of Business, Tandon School of Engineering or Tisch School of the Arts, and some programs need portfolios or auditions.

How to apply

NYU requires the Common Application for all three degree-granting campuses. You select your campus and program on the NYU-specific questions.

From NYU's first-year applicant page. Deadlines close at 11:59 pm in your local time zone.
Plan	Application deadline	Decision date
Early Decision I	November 1	December 15
Early Decision II	January 1	February 15
Regular Decision	January 5	April 1

Both Early Decision rounds are binding. Early Decision II suits a student who decides on NYU after the November deadline has passed, or who was not admitted early elsewhere.

Testing policy

NYU's first-year application page states that standardized testing is optional for the upcoming application term. Its separate testing page, at the time we checked, described the policy only through the 2025-26 cycle. Before deciding whether to submit, confirm the wording on the standardized testing page for fall 2027 entry. Programs in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai may describe testing differently, so read the campus pages too.

Costs and aid

New York City is an expensive place to live as a student. NYU publishes cost of attendance figures by campus each year, and its aid pages explain what is available to international students. We have not summarised NYU's international aid policy here because we could not confirm current wording; read NYU's financial aid site before choosing a binding Early Decision round.

Choosing a school and campus

NYU asks you to choose a campus and a program, so think about this honestly: NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai offer very different student experiences from New York, with their own residential life and visa systems. Programs in Tisch require artistic review, and some Steinhardt programs ask for portfolios or auditions, with dates that can fall before the main deadline. Check the program page in September so a portfolio deadline does not catch you out.

September: decide on campus and program, and check for artistic review.
October: write the NYU supplement explaining your choice.
November 1 or January 1: submit for Early Decision I or II, or January 5 for Regular Decision.

Notes for Canadian applicants

Canadians apply as international students to the New York campus. If you are considering Abu Dhabi or Shanghai, entry and residency rules depend on those countries, not the US. For New York, see the US State Department student visa page.

If you are applying to Stern or a quantitative program, our statistics intro and financial accounting decks offer a head start. The StudyBrix United States guide explains binding and non-binding plans in more detail.

New York University