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Applying To Gallatin
Gallatin students come from a wide range of undergraduate disciplines. A strong academic background is expected, and specific undergraduate and/or professional experience in the student’s field of interest is preferred. Students who enter Gallatin with clear and focused academic interests benefit the most from our individualized structure.
As a Gallatin student, you will take the required Gallatin graduate core courses as well as course work in the various graduate schools throughout NYU. We recommend that you research the other NYU departments and schools in which you plan to take courses. A good way to learn more about course offerings throughout NYU is to use the registrar’s website in tandem with each school’s website. You can go to the registrar’s Web Site and select “Course Search” to find specific course offerings in each NYU graduate school. You can visit the websites of individual schools for more information and course descriptions.
NYU Graduate Schools
- Graduate School of Arts and Science
- Leonard N. Stern School of Business
- Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
- School of Continuing and Professional Studies
- School of Law
- Silver School of Social Work
- Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development
- Tisch School of the Arts
Please note that Gallatin students may not take classes in the School of Medicine and the College of Dentistry. Courses at the School of Law may be taken with permission of the professor.
Be sure to read pages 67-71 of the Gallatin bulletin to become aware of specific departmental restrictions.
Notes about the Statement of Purpose
As part of the Gallatin application for admission, you will be asked to produce a Statement of Purpose describing the educational goals that you would like to accomplish through the M.A. Program. The Admissions Committee gives great weight to this essay in evaluating the soundness, feasibility, and focus of your program at Gallatin and to gauge your preparation for the proposed course of study.
There are three parts to the Statement of Purpose:
(Approximately 800 words)
At Gallatin, each student develops an individualized concentration, a program of study organized around a coherent theme or set of questions and drawing on a variety of academic disciplines and professional fields. In this essay, please describe the concentration you hope to pursue. Tell us about such things as the kinds of knowledge and skills you would like to master, the themes and questions that would drive your work, and the disciplines and fields you would integrate into a focused curriculum. You may include how your academic interests relate to your professional and personal goals. If your concentration involves developing professional or artistic skills, tell us about the intellectual questions that would provide context and meaning to those skills. Finally, explain why you have chosen to pursue your graduate work through Gallatin’s individualized study program rather than through other types of programs in your areas of inquiry.
(Approximately 300 words)
In this section, discuss any academic, professional, or personal experiences that have prepared you for graduate work in this concentration. Expand on your transcript and your resume: flesh them out and add other items in a way that explains your qualifications for undertaking the proposed program of study.
Please include a tentative list of specific courses that might constitute your program (keeping in mind that departments often alter their course offerings and that some of your choices might not be available). If you might want to do independent studies and/or internships, list them as well. Your list should include the departments, course titles and course numbers. If there are particular faculty members with whom you would like to study at Gallatin or elsewhere at NYU, you may mention them here. This section of the application enables us to understand your concentration more clearly.
Did You Know?
Gallatin students pursue study in many fields, creating interdisciplinary programs in the social sciences, humanities, arts, social entrepreneurship, media and more!
Alumna Profile
Martha Diaz
Martha Diaz (MA '10) studied Hip-Hop culture, education, media social science and social entrepreneurship at Gallatin. She developed an independent …
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