Advice on NYU Finical Situation!

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
1

I worked extremely hard in school- you’ve heard it before- and I got great grades and a 32 ACT. I was thrilled to be accepted into NYU’s Engineering Program (which I’ve visited twice and loved) for the class of 2021. NYU only gave me $3,000 for work study and $2,500 for a subsidized loan. I had heard about NYU’s crappy financial aid, but I was expecting that I would get some need-based aid. Other schools that required the noncustodial profile have given me need-based aid. I am left with a $61,000 price tag.

My mom is my primary guardian and has a teacher’s salary ( a bit less than 80,000). According to NYU’s aid calculator, I should receive some money (20,000). However, we had to report my dad’s salary (190000!) on the noncustodial profile despite never having lived with him. Dad has agreed (it was a struggle to get him even to this point) to only pay for the price of an in-state college (15,000) and he will not give any more. I wrote an email to the financial aid office explaining my situation and I have not heard back. I am currently applying for scholarships, but I will not hear back from them until after May 6th.

Honestly? After four years of hard work on my part, I am going to be extremely disappointed if I can’t go to my dream school based on my dad’s salary. He has not been a huge part of my life, yet he seems to be a major obstacle in affording college. Anyone else in a similar situation? What else can I do?

2

@queenbee7 if you explained the whole situation via email, definitely wait for their response. they’re prob getting a ton of emails right now, so they won’t reply back in a day, but they will eventually! their answer should give you a good idea of whether or not NYU is willing to give you more aid looking at your situation.

3

Together your parents earn $270,000. Financial aid is not meant to subsidize this level of income.

It is a shame your dad won’t fund the college of your dreams, but your beef is with your dad, not with a college that refuses to assume what is HIS obligation.

That said, there are many parents unwilling to pay full private college tuition. Your dad is one of these parents. This outcome should not be a big surprise to you. If you can’t convince your dad to pay, you need to move on to Plan B college. I do not believe NYU will increase your aid under these circumstances.

4 
             Your dad is quite right not to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars. He is not the obstacle at all,  he is offering you 60 thousand dollars (plenty of custodial parents won't do that). The obstacle is applying to a school known to be awful with aid. What is your plan B? Did your mum not help you with the applications and see that even with that other 20K, NYU was unaffordable?
5

I hate to say it, but you are unlikely to receive any more financial aid. The reality is that you do have the FAMILY resources available. This isn’t a case of NYU having crappy financial aid. You come from a FAMILY with very substantial financial resources. You simply don’t qualify for need-based aid.

There are many other outstanding universities. My advice is to go to one of them. No university is worth $60K in debt a year!

6

NYU doesn’t meet need. They don’t care if you can afford them or not. With that low amount of aid what they’re doing is called ‘admit/deny’. It’s a soft rejection.
Cross them out.
You’ve worked hard and deserve a university that likes you back. Where else have you been admitted?
Note that $15,000 may not seem much compared to the 70k cost of NYU, but it really is a nice chunk of money. Your mother can probably afford $6,000, you can work and save ($4,000 if you start now part time and become full-time over the summer), plus a direct loan and work study and any scholarship given by a college - that should give you options.

7

I doubt the state school costs $15,000 unless you live at home. Modest states are around $13-15,000 for tuition and another $12-14,000 for room, board, and books. You still won’t be able to afford it but it’s easy to argue the cost of a state school is $30,000 unless you have some merit aid.

Sorry for your situation. The issue is your dad, not NYU.

8

@Sybylla @MYOS1634

“The obstacle is applying to a school known to be awful with aid.”

“…what they’re doing is called ‘admit/deny.’ It’s a soft rejection.”

Even the handful of schools that meet full need and are crazy-wonderful with aid would not give FA to a family with $270k of income. NYU’s financial aid decision is not the problem here.

“Admit/deny” as I understand it is when the college knows you can’t afford it, but offers minuscule or no aid anyway. That’s not what happened here. This student’s family CAN afford NYU (by virtually any college’s FA criteria), but one parent does not want to pay.

If this student knew the high-income dad was limiting his contribution to $15k per year, then the student had two avenues: 1) apply to colleges where merit aid was a strong possibility, or 2) convince dad to pony up more.

Applying to NYU actually wasn’t as crazy for this student as applying to, say, Dartmouth, since at least NYU does have some (few) merit awards, whereas there is zero possibility Dartmouth would offer anything at $270k. Rolling the dice for a merit award from NYU (for a high stats student/meeting the merit parameters) might be worth the time to send an app if it’s your dream school.

But counting on NYU as a “dream school” would be foolish for a student in this situation. Hopefully this student applied smartly to other colleges and has some choices.

9

I have been accepted to CWRU, RPI, and a few other schools that are financially within reach even without my dad. I will be attending a college where I will be happy! I was just curious if there was any hope for me to attend NYU. I am lucky that my dad was willing to give me some aid, but it was a struggle to get him here and there’s a good chance he might not go through with it. Thanks for all the advice!

10

Case and RPI are awesome :slight_smile: :slight_smile:
Case would have more of the urban atmosphere you’d find in NYC (university circle is terrific).
RPI is more tech -y with all the positives and negatives it entails.

11

CWRU and RPI are affordable without your dad? How is that possible though? You have those packages?

12

Forgive my bluntness. You can’t fault NYU for your dad not stepping up. I assume you did a little research before applying, so you should have known this would happen. It may be a blessing in disguise. Paying over $280,000 for an engineering degree is criminal. Especially from NYU. They never had engineering at all until they bought Polytechnic Institute a few years ago and rebranded it so they could say they have engineering. It’s an ordinary accredited engineering school, nothing bad, nothing special, yet part of perhaps the most expensive school in the country. You can get the same quality at a hundred schools a fraction of the cost. It’s not even part of the main NYU campus, it’s a couple of buildings in Brooklyn. Case Western and RPI are vastly superior engineering schools, also very expensive but at least you’re almost getting what you pay for.

13

^I agree Case and RPI are vastly superior to NYU!

14

I am interested in how they are affordable? They must both need NCP information. a 32 ACT is not going to garner huge merit at these schools, and merit will bite into need anyway? OP, do you have your FA packages for these schools?

15

I got some university scholarships and merit awards. I also have some smaller scholarships lined up for these schools that wouldn’t make a dent in NYU’s tuition. I really liked NYU’s technology management program, and I’m worried about how I am going to create this major at these other schools. Is double majoring hard? I’m thinking international business and engineering.

16

Event the top merit at Case takes you to half COA of 65K, right? What is your actual package for case and RPI? How are you paying for these schools?

17

Queen bee, now is the time to do your homework on these more affordable alternatives. Reach out to the departments of interest at those colleges. Double majoring is sometimes hard and sometimes not; this is quite variable. Find out, and then make your decision. Perhaps also post on those boards. Somebody here might have the experience to guide you to those answers.

18

Schools have different criteria for NCP waivers.
Also: If OP is a girl, a tech school like RPI may have special “enticement” scholarships.

19

RPI is better than NYU for engineering. If RPI is affordable and NYU is not, then this should be an easy decision - go to RPI and congrats on getting into a top engineering school! (Or go to Case. I"m just familiar with RPI as my D is there - turned down CMU because RPI offered more money and is happy there. Top-notch engineering.)

RPI also has a good business school that is very tech oriented. You could dual major in business & engineering, but bear in mind that a dual major while doing engineering is really hard - unless you don’t sleep for 4 years - and it will take you at least An extra year to graduate. A minor in business would be more realistic.

In short, unless living in the Big Apple is really important to you, there’s no reason to pick NYU over RPI and Case for engineering - even if the cost were the same, much less if NYU is more expensive

20

I got into all the same schools you did and got similar scores last year. I’m currently a freshman engineering student at RPI. I’d say that it’s best if you just enroll at RPI or Case. RPI is definitely the best out of all those options specifically for engineering though. It has the largest program, but still maintains small class sizes and has a lot more recognition in industry.

NYU’s engineering program is honestly not good. Tandon’s acceptance rate last time I checked was like 70%… or something absurdly high. RPI’s is high 30 percent for engineering, and roughly the same for Case. Case is slightly less known for engineering, while RPI is more renowned.

In terms of business, both Case and RPI offer great business programs and it shouldn’t be too hard to pursue a dual degree. Don’t get too beat up over NYU, I wouldn’t recommend you spending the money. The education itself and the job opportunities aren’t worth it. You’ll get better at RPI or Case, with general job opportunities being better at RPI.

It really goes by program though, but I know that for CS, ECE, ChemE, and a few other departments at Rensselaer that everyone has gotten a job out of those programs consistently out of RPI with extremely highly starting salaries over the past five years. Some have slightly less than perfect placement, but that’s still nothing to complain about.

Case is slightly less boast-worthy, and has lower job placement rates/salaries for engineering and CS. Many do go on to be very successful from Case though, but it’s not exactly yet at the level of RPI in my opinion. Placement rates are still very high for Case though, nothing to complain about in many cases.

Do what’s best for you, but please don’t be one of those people that enrolls at NYU receiving no money and thinking you’ll get a great education - the engineering program at NYU is not worth the money! NYU Tandon (the engineering school), is in one of the not nice areas of downtown Brooklyn near Jay Street, and it’s really not what you’ll see on the flyers they send out. The main NYU campus (the pretty one) is not a campus, but a bunch of scattered buildings in NYU in Greenwich Village. I am from NYC, so I have a lot of firsthand experience with this. In terms of academics, though, they don’t have the research infrastructure to compete with Case or RPI, and they accept/enroll students with much much lower stats - NYU Tandon tends to be a safety school for Case/RPI admits. It’s really not worth the debt, don’t do it. Enroll where it’s most affordable and you’ll get the best education, and that may even be at a public university in some cases.

I tend to recommend RPI the most, not just since I’m a student, but because when I made the decision it was the best deal on the table. If I had made Carnegie or Cornell, I wouldn’t have thought twice to ditch RPI and enroll at those schools, but in the situation I was in (and you also are) I’d say RPI is your best bet overall.

PM me if you have any questions generally about RPI, Case, or NYU! I have a lot of friends at all these schools, and I’m at RPI so I can be of most help in that regard.