Louisiana, Mo., is known for its antebellum homes and its Midwestern charm.
But Brett Bolton, a senior at Louisiana High School, will experience much different scenery next fall as a member of NYU Abu Dhabi's class of 2014.
"After I went there and saw how rich the culture was, I think it really was a deciding factor," he said.
He is one of 114 regular decision applicants NYUAD accepted this year. He joins the 74 students who were admitted through NYUAD's non-binding early action program last December. Bolton also applied to Pepperdine University, Brown University and the University of Chicago.
There were 708 high school seniors who applied directly to Abu Dhabi through the regular decision pool. Students who applied to NYU New York were given the option to have their application also reviewed by the Abu Dhabi admissions team. More than 8,050 of NYU New York's 37,085 applicants expressed interest in the Middle Eastern campus.
The university is estimating a first year class of about 100 to 150 students in the Emirate. If that number holds true, NYUAD's expected yield rate — the percentage of students who say yes to NYU's offer of admission — will range from 53.1 percent to 79.8 percent. NYUAD waitlisted seven students.
For NYU's Washington Square campus, the yield rate for the class of 2013 was 34.6 percent. That same year Harvard University enrolled 76 percent of its accepted students.
As NYUAD waits to hear the final decisions from all of its accepted students, NYUAD spokesman Josh Taylor thinks the numbers speak for themselves.
"Either way, we are gratified by the response," Taylor said.
Pennsylvania's Central Bucks High School East senior Alex Wang was one of the students who applied to both NYUAD and the College of Arts and Sciences at NYU and was accepted to both. Ultimately he decided to take NYU's offer in the Middle East.
"I didn't actually know much about this project; a friend of mine mentioned it in passing last summer, and I did some brief research before sending in my application," he said.
Wang said he was excited for the international education.
"I can't get the same knowledge of social mores and nuance in foreign cultures through any major, American university," he said. "I wrote most of my common app essays about global citizenry — so I can't imagine a better fit."
