Active (self-)reflection is a crucial aspect of a Gallatin education, and we encourage you to actively reflect as a new Gallatin student! Before and ss you consider your Fall 2025 options, take a moment to think about what you have most enjoyed academically in the past and why that may have been the case. What would you like to do? What do you to hope to achieve? Are there skills it’s important for you to acquire and build on?
Here are some additional considerations to keep in mind as you prepare to register for your first semester as a Gallatin student, handily summarized in one place:
Balance: Have you given thought to how your classes will interact with each other? Your required First-Year Experience Gallatin courses will be small–the First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar typically has a cap of 18 students; the First-Year Writing Seminar, 15 students–and both rely on in-class discussion and extensive reading and writing. How will your other courses intersect with these expectations? Diversifying the types of work you can expect to do in your classes (and outside of them) can be very helpful, especially early on, when you are still discovering your focus and key concerns and while you are refining and identifying your strengths.
Categories: We encourage you to think of your classes in categories, as different routes for getting to your goals. Rather than plan simply in terms of specific courses of interest, consider what you are hoping to learn and understand in your first semester, which will allow you to discuss, with your pre-registration adviser, several possible ways of doing so. Keep in mind too that you want, in addition to acquiring academic knowledge, to acquire academic tools. That means you will want to take courses that not only will add to your store of knowledge but will also actively challenge your ways of thinking and enhance your academic skills, something different courses will do in different ways.
Level: Beware of taking courses for which you are not academically prepared. Many departments will explicitly articulate prerequisites–introductory courses you must successfully complete before you are able to enroll in more advanced classes–but even when no explicit pre-req is stated, you will want to honestly assess your readiness for a particular course before registering. (One potentially useful measure: many course descriptions will include possible readings, citing a series of author names; if you find that you are unfamiliar with most of these, you may want to consider taking a class to better prepare yourself to get the most out of the class of interest.)
An important note: do become familiar with the expectations and prerequisites for any departments of interest to you. It’s a good idea to position yourself to take the classes you expect to be central to your concentration by taking any required foundational courses early on.
Timeline to Graduation: The traditional, eight-semester progression to degree completion presumes that you are taking 16 credits per semester. (In most cases, this will be four classes.) First-year students should take 16 credits in their first semester so that they can effectively gauge what is involved in the average course load and so be best positioned to effectively plan forward. Be advised, however, that students who are considering accelerating their timeline, particularly if they are not entering with potential advanced standing credits, may want to take 18 credits from the start. (It may be useful to keep in mind that flat-rate tuition covers 12-18 credits. While an adviser can clear students for up to 20 units, additional per-unit payment would be required for any units in excess of 18. This, however, is largely a moot issue for your first semester, as a minimum GPA of 3.0 is required to exceed the 18-unit credit limit, and first-year students in their first semester may not take more than 18 credits.)
Advanced Standing: Although you will need to wait until the end of sophomore year to request (with, as is generally the case at Gallatin, adviser approval) that any advanced standing credits be posted to your record, you can use qualifying results for placement at any time. (Please note that departments generally expect your scores to have been received by NYU in order to assist you with enrollment on their basis.) If you have advanced standing credits you intend to post, you will want to review the Equivalencies Chart carefully. It’s important to understand that completing an equivalent course will mean forfeiting the advanced standing credits.
Full-Time Status: Students must be enrolled in a minimum of 12 credits in order to maintain full-time student status. Please keep in mind that you must maintain full-time status if you live in NYU Housing, receive federal financial aid, and/or are an international student.
International Students: The Office of Global Services (OGS) is NYU’s central resource for all immigration and visa questions, whether you are a newly admitted or continuing student. Information about this office and its services can be found at www.nyu.edu/students/student-information-and-resources/student-visa-and-immigration/currentstudents. You can also reach the office at 212.998.4720.
Prehealth Students: If you are considering post-graduate study in the health professions, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the prehealth curriculum, the required course sequence for students planning to apply to medical, dental, or veterinary schools. You can learn more here, and do make sure to mention the interest in your conversation with your pre-registration adviser. Generally, prehealth students will take Calculus I and General Chemistry I in addition to their required Gallatin First-Year Experience courses in their first semester.