Yes I was initially confused on that as well. They have several links on their student application portal with general NYC student housing. One of the websites has a dorm located in Cooper Square that fits the $16K per year that they included in the tabulation on their website for off-campus housing. There are also other options that are less expensive ($14K) in other areas of the city. I might consider those options since the subway system makes it really easy to get around the city and I’ll likely end up investing in an unlimited monthly metro card anyways (which would add up to somewhere around the $1040 you mentioned).
Oh and the rooms are generally 2 to a room and shared kitchen appliances. So 8 kids in 4 rooms. There are also options to have your own room but that’s another extra chunk that I don’t think I want to spend.
I am a known hoarder and hate to spend unnecessarily haha! It’ll be a challenge if I do end up going to NYC though. If I do have time (which I now doubt) to have a side-hustle going I might end up investing that money and putting in most of the money I earn from that into a ‘monthly contribution’ so I have a higher return rate. Otherwise I might just ask my parents advice on bonds that mature within 3-4 years, which will force me not to touch the money, during the time, and also give me a higher return of investment based on the liquidity of the funds.
I think that being open to schools that aren’t as well known as Ivy’s has made me more aware of the fact that where I end up going is where I was meant to be and likely the best path to my success. The Ivy’s and T20s aren’t for everyone and that is something that I wish I could have realized a long time ago to set me up with a different mindset in approaching high school and college.
I think the advice to add IUPUI and UNC Charlotte are great. You seem to have done a great bit of research on the career you’re interested in and how to get there, which is awesome. I like that you are aware that motorsports engineering is a niche industry and have thought about what to do if it does not work out for you… please keep that in mind as you choose your school and your studies. Shoot for your dream, but make sure that you develop skills that are applicable to other areas. The fact that you’ve been able to save a substantial amount of money on your own through high school is a very strong point in your favor for life after school.
The one point I want to stress is to make sure you really know why you are spending money… ie, if you decide to spend $15K more per year on one program, make sure you’re evaluating the value proposition rationally and not emotionally. Will it increase your chances to get into the grad program you want to do (see if you can find stats on their grad school admissions success)? Does it have some sort of specialized program that is only available there? And so on…
Everyone values money differently, so the marginal utility of an extra $80k over 4 years might be different for you than it would be for others, just make sure it’s based on some rationalized value system and not getting caught up in the moment. That $80k might be super useful for grad school or starting your own business or a host of other uses besides undergrad.
