The Academic Program

At NYU in Florence, you will attend NYU’s Freshman Year in Florence, taking classes and seminars with a small community of highly talented and diverse students. On completion of the first year of study, students will continue enrollment as sophomores in the General Studies Program at our New York City campus.

The GSP curriculum is designed to give you an outstanding liberal arts education as the first half of your bachelor's degree program at NYU. After completing the two-year liberal arts program, students will continue as juniors into one of NYU's distinct undergraduate colleges where they can complete their major and bachelor's degree program.

Approximately 300 upperclassmen will be at the center with you, studying the history of Europe and its extraordinary cultural legacy of art, literature and philosophy at the NYU center in Florence.

All students take intensive Italian at the beginner, intermediate, or advanced level.

The Sophomore Year in New York

Students who have completed the GSP in Florence Program will begin their sophomore year at NYU’s campus in Greenwich Village. They will join their classmates in the General Studies Program and will have successfully met all of the same academic requirements. Students will join a community of outstanding undergraduates and live on campus in residence halls in or around Washington Square. The sophomore year in the General Studies Program continues the academic work begun in Florence. While the freshman year courses encourage students to comprehend the possibilities for broad interdisciplinary understandings, the sophomore seminars emphasize writing-intensive research on specific topics as well as seminar activities such as student presentations, student-moderated discussions, and peer feedback. Sophomores take two “topics” seminars, one each semester, that focus on the modern world. Students choose from 40 seminars offered each semester. Electives are chosen from other undergraduate departments at the University. During the sophomore year, students should begin taking courses toward a major. At the end of the second year, a typical student will have completed 64 credits, or half of the 128 credits NYU requires for a bachelor’s degree.