20k+ NYU vs. Free Stony Brook

Hello! I’ve gotten into NYU CAS as a CS/Math major and Stony Brook as an Applied Math and Statistics major. NYU gave me ~40k in FA for the first year, but tuition will increase over the 4 years and I don’t know if my FA will follow. Stony on the other hand offered me the presidential scholarship which covers full tuition for my 4 years. I’m also planning on attending math grad school so I don’t want to rack up too much debt from just my undergrad.

As someone from a family of 4 that has an income of around 50k a year, the logical and affordable choice would be going to Stony, especially since my younger sibling will go to college in 4 years. However, NYU is my top choice and I really want to spend a semester or two at the Shanghai campus. In addition, I live in Brooklyn so I wouldn’t have to dorm. I’m much more of a city kid (born and raised in NYC) so I would be much more comfortable at NYU than in Long Island.

I’ve been thinking about it for a week and have gotten a lot of mixed opinions from friends and alums. So I came here for some more insight, especially from other SB or NYU students.

tl;dr Should I go to my dream uni for 20k+ a year or a decent uni for free?

Thanks in advance guys!

Where is that $20K+ coming from? I am assuming that coming from a family of four with a household income of $50K your parents aren’t forking over nearly half their annual income every year to NYU.

Are you planning to borrow? First of all, you can only borrow $3,500 in your first year of college and $7,500 in your last year without a co-signer. Second of all, with your parents’ income level they may not even be able to co-sign any loans for you at that amount; and third of all, borrowing that much ($80K+ over 4 years) would be a really bad idea especially when you have a great second option for free to attend.

Stony Brook has several study abroad programs in China, including an internship and language study in Shanghai and partner university programs in a variety of Chinese cities. If you want to spend a semester in China, you certainly can - you don’t have to go to NYU for that. (Better yet, it’s likely that you could take your full scholarship with you at SBU, so your semester abroad might also be free or close to it!)

If you wanna hang out in the city, you can always take the LIRR there on weekends or even a weeknight or two.

Go to Stony Brook!

No brainer - Stony Brook.