Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts (International Students) - Overview
Intimate Academic Community in the Big City
Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts offers the benefits of a small and supportive college with the resources of The New School, a leading university. Its rigorous academic programs are closely connected with all that New York City has to offer: its wealth of music, theater, and arts; its vibrant international community; its history; and its energy. Students from across the country and around the world come to Lang to study with an accomplished international faculty in small, intensive, seminar-style classes; to intern at some the world's leading organizations; and to immerse themselves in New York's cultural and civic life. In 2011, "US News and World Report" ranked The New School number one on its list of universities with small class sizes.
Majors Include Interdisciplinary and Self-Designed Programs
Eugene Lang College offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in The Arts (Dance, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts), Culture and Media, Economics, Education Studies, Environmental Studies, Global Studies, History, Interdisciplinary Science, Literary Studies, Philosophy, Psychology, Liberal Arts, and Urban Studies.
As liberal arts majors, students may also opt for interdisciplinary programs in religious studies and social inquiry. Students are also able to create self-designed degree programs. Students completing interdisciplinary or self-designed programs receive their BA in Liberal Arts.
Dual-Degree Programs
Lang College offers dual BA/BFA degree programs that combine a BA from Lang with a BFA from either Parsons The New School for Design or The New School for Jazz Contemporary Music. Lang also offers combined bachelor's and master's degree programs with other New School divisions, enabling students to complete a master's program in less time.
Innovative First Year Seminars
First year students at Eugene Lang College are encouraged to explore new intellectual territories. Instead of introductory disciplinary surveys, freshmen dive deep in interdisciplinary research seminars with such titles as Networks of Desire (about social networking), Tragic Lovers (a literature class), and Civil Disobedience (history and political action). Students develop skills in research and analysis while exploring different methods of inquiry. The faculty members who facilitate the first year seminars are students' academic advisers until they choose majors.
Second Year Focus
Second year students at Lang explore their interests and options through various disciplinary and interdisciplinary programs. Although they continue to have access to diverse courses, students declare their majors at the end of the year. Working with faculty advisers, they design a program of study and may also look into the opportunities Lang offers beyond the classroom. Civic engagement, internships, study-abroad programs, and community activism projects are all part of the unique Lang experience.
Internships and Other Academic Opportunities in Years Three and Four
In their final 2 years, students begin to focus on their chosen academic major and take advantage of internship opportunities in the New York City area. Students gain practical experience and utilize their internship site as a "learning lab" in which to communicate and interact with experts in their chosen field. Lang students have interned in a wide array of fields, including publishing, politics, the arts, nonprofit administration, and environmental activism.
Starting in their junior year, students may also take select classes in graduate divisions of The New School, and participate in study abroad programs. In their final year, students complete a Senior Capstone, a culminating experience that builds on previous work in their field and can take a variety of forms.
Students from Around the World
The Institute of International Education ranks The New School among the top 6 New York City schools in the hosting of international students.
Students from outside the US make up some 20 percent of the university's student population. Roughly 5 percent of the students at Lang are international, hailing from over 36 nations and 49 states, and 25 percent identify themselves as minority group members.
The top countries for student origin are Korea, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, India, Turkey, Germany, Israel, the United Kingdom, Mexico, China, and Brazil.
International students submit most of the same application materials as American students. However, if a student's first language is not English, he or she is encouraged to submit the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in place of SAT or ACT scores.
International Student Services
The New School has an International Student Services (ISS) department that helps all international students at Lang and the other colleges with everything from the initial application process through making the transition to life in America. Department staff can also advise students on visa matters, financial aid, and housing.
International students also receive the level of help they need to master English. In addition to ESL classes offered in Lang's regular curriculum, international students can take the Intensive Study Program developed by the English Language Studies Center. With the help of an adviser, students build a full-time, 18-hour-per-week personal curriculum based on courses at the appropriate level.
International students that are studying under a student visa from The New School are required to take the Intensive Study Program.
Office of Student Life
The Office of Student Life works with the ISS to help acclimate international students to the social and academic life at Lang College and in greater New York City. The student life staff provides career counseling, referrals for recreational and volunteer opportunities, and a social and cultural activities program called "Lang in the City."
A Range of Student Activities
Lang College students, like those at other divisions of The New School, organize in support of common interests and causes through various ethnic organizations, literary publications, theatrical productions, and multimedia events. Students also organize lectures, musical events, poetry readings, women's support groups, and international-themed events celebrating both specific cultures and the shared sense of Lang College multiculturalism.
New York, City of Diversity
As part of The New School, Lang College shares the university's proud heritage as a fixture on the New York scene, both as a teaching and learning institution and as an important contributor to the arts, crafts, politics, culture, and conscience of the city.
The diversity of The New School, its colleges, its faculty, and its students is reflected in the multiculturalism of New York, America's largest and most renowned city. Students from all over the world come to The New School, and can always find a way to feel at home, as the sights, sounds, and tastes of every nation are available in New York City.