NYU Stern School of Business: History, Programs, and Admissions Guide

The Stern School of Business at NYU is the business school of New York University. The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (also known as the Stern School or Stern) was founded in 1900 as the School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance. The school changed its name in 1988 to honor alumni and benefactor Leonard Stern.

History and Growth of the Stern School of Business

Charles Waldo Haskins founded what was then known as the School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance in 1900. The Stern School of Business at NYU now has more than 5,000 students, over half of whom are in its Master of Business Administration program (MBA). The Stern School is located in New York City, on the Washington Square campus of the university.

A $30 million gift from alumni Leonard Stern in 1988 helped to consolidate the graduate and undergraduate facilities at NYU's Washington Square campus. Shortly after, Stern was renamed the Leonard N. Stern School of Business. In 1992, the school opened the Kaufman Management Center, a $68 million facility named for alumni Henry Kaufman.

A $10 million gift from Kaufman in 1998 supported a major expansion and upgrading of the school’s facilities. The new and renovated space is used almost exclusively to improve the quality of student life. Alumni Kenneth Langone donated $10 million to Stern in 1999, after which the Langone MBA for Working Professionals was renamed in his honor. To celebrate its 100th birthday, Stern launched a $100 million Centennial Campaign in 2000. The campaign doubled Stern's endowment, the number of named professorships and the level of financial aid.

Academic Programs Offered by Stern School of Business

Stern offers both graduate and undergraduate programs, including majors in marketing, finance, information systems, actuarial science, economic policy, economic theory, media and technology, and accounting. Stern also offers an MBA, as well as an executive MBA program for experienced professionals. It also offers PhD programs and part-time executive education. In the spring of their junior year, undergraduates are encouraged to travel abroad as part of a core class, called the International Study Program, which engages students to visit a non-U.S. company.

Both the undergraduate and graduate programs are consistently ranked among the top schools in the United States by business and education publications. According to the school, 12,500 people applied for the undergraduate program for the 2019-2020 academic year, with only 12% admitted that year. The median combined verbal and math SAT score of admitted freshmen for that year was 1495. The MBA program admits 15.7% of applicants, one of the lowest in the country among MBA programs.