NYU Abu Dhabi does not award credit for work completed prior to enrollment at NYU Abu Dhabi. Programs are in place to consider students for advanced standing in Arabic, Chinese, and Calculus. Precise guidelines for advanced standing in other areas are still under development. Our expectation is that there will be relatively few cases in which students are able to skip introductory courses. In truly exceptional cases, a student may approach the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs upon arrival in Abu Dhabi for consideration for academic credit and/or advanced placement.

Yes, you really can only take four, or four plus the one half-unit engineering course, Design and Innovation. NYUAD courses are designed to be demanding and we expect that even very strong students will need significant amounts of time to do well in four courses. Adding a fifth class — especially in the first year — is an unnecessary risk. In later semesters, after students have demonstrated their ability to truly thrive in four courses, we may consider permitting an extra course once or twice.

We don't really know yet, but here are the courses that we are offering this year. We expect that next year will be similar, but with even more offerings in the various majors.

We do our best to minimize conflicts in the course schedule, but with so many offerings there will always be conflicts. We arrange the schedule so that courses required for the same program are not being offered at the same time. For core classes and electives it may, unfortunately, be necessary for students to make a choice to forego one of the courses or defer it to a later semester.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees. The vast majority of courses will be offered again the following year, but some probably won't. As a general rule, courses that are required for a major or concentration will be offered at least once a year — although there may be exceptions for some upper-level courses. There will always be multiple options for each of the core areas and most of the particular courses will be repeated on an annual basis. However, some may not be offered again. Similarly, elective courses for the majors and concentrations will generally be offered again, but we will also strive to offer new and different courses every year. You can truly be certain that there will always be more exciting courses offered each semester than you can ever hope to take. And we will make certain that if you follow the suggested plan of study for your major, you will be able to complete all of your requirements.

For the purpose of planning your schedule, each Foundations of Science course counts as one seven-week course. They will take up two of your four allowed courses. Should you decide after completing Foundations of Science 1 that you no longer wish to major in a science, you will have the option to drop Foundations of Science 2. Foundations of Science 1 will count as a core course in the Ideas and Methods of Science track.

Yes! The catch is determining if you are proficient at calculus, as you need to be able to continue with Multivariable Calculus, and to thrive in the courses that require it. Many high school programs focus on rote memorization of techniques that inadequately prepare students for the intricate college-level applications you will see at NYU Abu Dhabi. Other programs do a great job of teaching students the concepts and applications of calculus, but don't provide enough raw computational power. A very few programs do both. Or you may just be naturally talented in calculus. For the small number of students who fall into one of these last two categories, there is an exam during Marhaba that may allow you to place out of Calculus.

The Calculus Readiness Self-Assessment is a good indicator of whether or not you are adequately prepared for one of NYUAD's challenging calculus courses. If you aren't ready, it would probably be a mistake for you to enroll. Even if you are able to manage a reasonable grade, you will not have gotten everything that you can from the course and you will probably have spent a disproportionate amount of time on the course at the expense of the many other obligations on your time. Even if you are a science or engineering student, we advise you to delay taking Calculus (and Foundations of Science) until you are adequately prepared. With careful planning, it will still be possible to complete those majors, even if you delay Foundations of Science and Calculus until your second year.