Gallatin School of Individualized Study

Gallatin students develop a concentration, as opposed to a major, that is individualized to suit their interests and goals. A concentration can encompass multiple areas of study and often involves taking courses in various schools within NYU.

Rather than prescribing a specific set of courses (e.g., English 101, Western Civ), Gallatin employs a form of student-centered learning in which students are free to choose courses they are interested in but are expected to take responsibility for their own academic growth. There are, however, general requirements for graduation. Among these are:

• Gallatin students are required to take 25% of their courses within Gallatin. Options include writing and arts workshops, interdisciplinary seminars reaching across the liberal arts, community learning, tutorials, internships, and independent studies.
• Foundation courses, either the Liberal Arts Foundation (8 Humanities credits, 8 Social Science credits, 4 Mathematics or Science credits) or Historical and Cultural Foundation (4 Premodern credits, 4 Early Modern credits, and 4 Global Cultures credits). The two sets of foundation requirements may overlap and fulfill more than one requirement at once.[7]
• First year requirements: Students take a First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar, a First-Year Writing Seminar, and a First-Year Research Seminar (numerous topics are available).
• Second year requirements: The student writes their Intellectual Autobiography and Plan for Concentration (IAPC), an essay which charts their studies thus far and describes the plan for their continuation and refinement.
• Third year requirements: The student writes their Rationale, an essay describing their planned course of study for their final year accompanied by a list of 20-25 books that will be discussed during the Colloquium (see below). The Rationale is reviewed and approved by two faculty members.
• Fourth year/graduation requirement: The student must successfully pass their Colloquium, an intensive oral examination during which the student engages with a panel of three faculty for approximately two hours about their concentration and concomitant literature.[7]

Because Gallatin focuses on students at the individual level, advising is a major component of the program. Each student is assigned two advisors: a class advisor who serves the needs of a full grade level (freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors) and an academic advisor, who is more involved at the individual level with helping students shape their concentrations. The academic advisors help identify the interests of their advisees, approve class schedules, attend advisee Colloquiums, and serve as the primary source of advising. Academic advisors are usually faculty members at Gallatin who share similar interests with advisee students, but advisors can come from any of the schools within NYU across several disciplines. Students can request to change academic advisors.

In order to qualify for graduation, all students in the Gallatin undergraduate program must successfully complete a final oral examination called the Colloquium. The Colloquium is an intellectual conversation among four people (the student, the student's adviser, and two other members of the faculty) about a selection of books representing several academic disciplines and historical periods. The Colloquium provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their Gallatin concentration and to synthesize various experiences studying books, taking courses, doing independent studies and internships into an integrated discussion about several books and themes. In preparing for the Colloquium, each student creates a book list of twenty to twenty-five works and writes a brief paper known as the Rationale which describes the themes the student plans to discuss in the Colloquium.

• Sinan Antoon, Iraqi novelist and poet
• Taylor Antrim, novelist and journalist
• Steve Hutkins, place studies and travel literature
• Myles Jackson, historian of science and technology
• Mitchell Joachim, sustainable design, TED senior fellow
• Meleko Mokgosi, artist
• John Sexton, 15th president of NYU (now President Emeritus), teaches the seminar "Baseball as a Road to God"
• E. Frances White, former dean, historian of Africa and African American studies

• Georgina Bloomberg, daughter of Michael Bloomberg
• Timothée Chalamet, actor
• Daniel Clark, actor
• Adela Cojab, activist
• Ed Droste, singer/songwriter for the Brooklyn-based indie band, Grizzly Bear (band)
• Natalia Dyer, actress
• Peter Facinelli, actor
• Dakota Fanning, actress
• Griffin Frazen, actor
• Christopher Gallant, singer (B.A., 2012)
• Midori Goto, violinist (B.A., 2000; M.A., 2005 from NYU)
• Anne Hathaway, actress
• Mark Indelicato, actor
• Jamie Johnson, filmmaker (B.A., 2003)
• Robert Kalin, co-Founder of Etsy
• Daniel Kessler, lead guitarist of the New York City-based post-punk revival band Interpol.
• Swati Khurana, artist and writer
• Kaki King, songwriter and guitar virtuoso (B.A., 2001)
• Julie Klausner, comedy writer
• Greta Kline of Frankie Cosmos
• Karlie Kloss, model
• Barry Kramer, athlete
• Sal Lavallo, Youngest Person to Travel To Every Country [8]
• Victoria Loke, actress
• Rooney Mara, actress and activist
• Emma McLaughlin, co-author of The Nanny Diaries
• Alex Pall, member of the DJ duo The Chainsmokers (B.A., 2008)
• AnnaSophia Robb, actress
• Nick Robinson, actor
• Jeff Rosenstock, musician
• Isabella Rossellini, actress
• Aisha Sabatini Sloan, writer
• Cole Sprouse, actor, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Jughead Jones on Riverdale
• Dylan Sprouse, actor, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
• Richard Suckle, producer
• Christy Turlington, model (B.A., 1999)
• Zach Woods, actor and improvisor
• Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark