Appealing financial aid at NYU!!!

NYU only gave me a $1,000 scholarship (and a lot of loans), so I am clearly on the bottom tier of admitted students. My parents are only contributing $5,000 a year to the total cost of attendance, so I would have to pay around $68,000 a year. So if I appeal my financial aid and explain my situation, would NYU give me more money? Also, how do I start the appeal process?

No school will give you more money simply because your parents refuse to pay the amount requested. In addition, NYU is known for lousy financial aid.

The most success financial aid appeals are in a couple of categories:

  1. Showing a generous school that you have involuntary financial hardships such as medical expenses or recent loss of income.
  2. Showing a lower-ranked school worried about filling the class that you will enroll there versus a similar competitor if they can just improve their aid a little.

You need to try a different option than NYU.

No, they will not give you enough more money to make a difference.

If they only gave you $1000 then that is pretty much an insult. Maybe with an appeal they would be very generous and double the amount on appeal – ah! $2000 scholarship. Where does that get you?

They don’t pay much attention to actual need with financial aid appeals – financial aid for undergrads at NYU is a heavily tiered system – and about all you can say is that they ranked you as being ever-slightly more worthy than students who were admitted with -0- aid.

NYU really, truly, doesn’t care if it is a hardship for you to come. All they want to know at this stage is whether you are willing to come if they sweeten the pot a litlte. But the skimpy amount you have been offered so far says that they don’t have any burning desire to have you attend.

So yes, go ahead and appeal – but don’t expect anything. The main reason to appeal is so that you get the answer directly from them, not some stranger on the internet.

You likely cannot afford NYU. You also applied to several UC’s as an OOS student. The UC’s give no aid at all to OOS students. How did you expect to finance that?

Time to move on to other schools that are affordable.

@AroundHere @calmom If my grades are high enough freshman year, can I appeal for more scholarship money going into sophomore year? Or would that be just as ineffective?

Colleges don’t give scholarships for freshman grades as a general rule. They expect students to do well. NYU isn’t likely to bridge a $68k/year gap. Do you have any affordable options?

At NYU? No. They’re just not a school which offers big scholarships. In general, scholarships are bigger for freshmen than those for upperclassmen or transfers.

Do not go to a school you can’t afford and hope things will magically work out in the future. It doesn’t tend to work out.

Did you apply to any low-cost schools (such as an In-state public university)? Did you run net price calculators on any of your colleges and get back an affordable price?

I got the same crappy scholarship. They’re notorious for poor aid. My friend has an EFC of 22k and his cost to attend is going to be 66k. Needless to say, he will not be attending. I was hoping for a lot more but there are ways to chip away at the total price. Being a RA starting sophomore year gets you free housing. I’m also a recruited athlete and was told there were lots of opportunities to cut into the cost. At the end of the day though, NYU is pricey for everyone.

Chipping away at the total price is fine if your parents actually have the means to pay it, and you are just looking for cost-savings here and there —then obviously there is a benefit to anything you can do. Because then maybe rather than $76K, overall cost of attendance can be brought down to around $65K, if you are lucky.

And this whole “RA” thing is something that only works for the students who have the time to be an RA & also are accepted after a competitive selection process. Being an RA is a job that requires a substantial time commitment. And like any other job, one that you might not be able to get. Also, at NYU you must have at least junior standing to qualify as an RA-- so not something that can be done “starting sophomore year” - here is a link that shows requirements: https://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/resLifeHousServ/documents/PositionDescriptions/RA%20PD%202017-2018.2.pdf

From the time commitment, it would be exceptionally difficult if not impossible for an athlete to be an RA, or for an RA to hold down any sort of alternative income producing employment (such as work study).