My background 

Hello! My name is Diana. I am 18 years old and I come from Romania. I have lived in Romania my whole life and currently attend a national-curriculum high school. 

I knew I wanted to study abroad since I was little. From childhood I have been put in a multicultural community, having childhood friends from France and Italy growing up. Throughout my life, I have always searched for opportunities to go abroad either with my friends and family or through Erasmus projects. I always enjoyed talking in different languages and interacting with people from diverse places because it broadened my perspective. I loved that it made me see the world through different lenses I would have never thought of.

Choosing universities

At first, I was planning to apply to universities in Europe (e.g. Bocconi in Italy, UCL in London, universities in Ireland, and the Netherlands), until I discovered New York University. I researched more about it and I found out it has a campus in Abu Dhabi! I was so surprised when I found that because it didn’t come to my mind until that point that I could go study there. I felt that NYUAD could become my home away from home so I took a leap of faith and applied only to this university.

I chose NYUAD because I love that it has a close-knit and multicultural community and almost every student lives on campus. This aspect brings everyone closer together. I like the fact that the classes are small-sized (around 20 students per class) and this allows each student to engage better with the professor and the peers.

Stats

• I took the SAT two times but I chose to apply test-optional in the end.

• As for my language proficiency test, I took IELTS Academic where I scored 8.0 overall.

• My GPA: 9.7/10 

My extracurricular activities

I filled in all 10 activities in the Common App, and I feel like the most impactful ones were: my digital marketing internship, my online International STEM community which I single-handedly founded, mountain biking, my research paper on Psoriasis, volunteering, and my participation in 3 Erasmus+ projects (one in Turkey, Germany and Poland).

Common App Essay

My Common App essay was about a Romanian tradition where a child chooses, on their first anniversary, three objects (e.g. car keys, book, calculator, paintbrush), and the chosen things are believed to be hints of the child’s future steps. So I talked about the three things I chose and the deeper meanings they held in my life.

How I approached my application process

I would say I started my “application” way before I knew I was going to apply to NYUAD, as I was always involved in my community and diverse activities. After I set my goal to try out for NYUAD I started to prepare my essays around 6 months before the ED1 deadline and have the CommonApp all completed around September. From then until the deadline I just made sure to review everything and make small changes where I thought would be needed.

Helpful resources

I mainly used Borderless to help me navigate through the process, I also watched lots of YouTube videos and talked a lot with already admitted students both at NYUAD and at other universities abroad.

I found the Roadmap in Borderless's Guidance app to be extremely helpful for starting to get used to and understand the CommonApp application process. I also enjoyed the extracurricular activities review and the CommonApp essay review as they helped me see parts of my application from an outside point of view which I think holds power in strengthening your application.

Scholarship

For the financial aid, I had to fill out the CSS Profile which was a little bit challenging but I managed to get through it and it was all worth it. I received a full scholarship from NYUAD, but I still have to pay around $3,000/year. I am still so grateful for this because it is a convenient amount. The scholarship covers almost everything from housing to food and even more.

Candidate Weekend

I have also been invited to Candidate Weekend as the second part of the admission process. Candidate Weekend is a two-day event where the university flies you out to Abu Dhabi to visit the campus and get a grasp of what it is like to be a student at NYUAD. This year we had two 15-minute interviews and a 40-minute reading comprehension assessment and we had to choose from a range of trailblazers, basically ”sample classes” to participate in. Besides this, we had a trip to the desert and also a campus tour plus many other incredible discussion sessions with professors, students, and many more.

Final words of advice

Do not subestimate yourself and always try to reach your biggest dreams even if at the moment they seem far away - they are only one step closer than you think. As for applying to NYU, I encourage you all to do it if you feel it is the right place for you. Do not stress much and try to take yourself easy because I am sure you are a unique and wonderful person who has the potential to achieve your goals.

If you want to ask me any further questions you can comment below or reach out to me on my Instagram @qt.dianna or even check out my YouTube channel where I will be documenting and vlogging my NYUAD experience throughout the four years studying there and also give tips and meaningful insights @diamoonic. 

Love you all and wish you the best of luck!