Drastic Financial Aid Difference?

Paying for College
41

@1984ad Have you run the EFC for Columbia? Would you be able to afford it? If so, why not keep it on the list? Good grades, top test scores, strong essays, and letters of recommendation are the foundation of a strong application. Most of those admitted have not cured cancer by age 17. As long as you do something productive with your free time, that’s all anybody can ask. As a sophomore, I suggest you find some activities that might interest you or maybe get a job and/or do some volunteer work.

The vast majority of qualified students won’t get in to Columbia. If your stats end up being competitive, for the price of the application fee, you can take your chances with everybody else. Keep your expectations low and maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

I think you are showing great presence of mind to distinguish between schools that are unrealistic because of cost and those that are unlikely because of selectivity. As long as you end up having some true financial and admission safeties on your list, it wouldn’t hurt to try for an admissions reach or two, assuming the financials check out.

Temple University in Philadelphia has automatic money for high stats applicants. It’s not Manhattan but it’s within striking distance.

If you want to stay in NY state, you might consider running the calculators for Syracuse and U of Rochester. And of course, apply to a SUNY or two for backup. I don’t know much about the quality of other NYC options and how good they are for aid. Maybe look at CUNY or Fordham?

42

Manhattan College in Riverdale, very commutable, is excellent and gives merit. St. John’s, or you could start working your butt off to get accepted to the CUNY Macaulay Honors College. Fordham was very good to my daughter. There are several CUNY schools that might work, SUNY Stonybrook places many kids in internships and jobs in Manhattan. There are many good schools either in or very close to Manhattan. Seton Hall is a train ride away.

43

Columbia is an Ivy, so they basically cover most of the tuition costs. However, getting in is the problem. My scores would probably be fine but my ECs are not “wow” worthy, to be honest.

The schools I’m considering now are:

  1. Columbia
  2. NYU
  3. CCNY
  4. U of R
  5. Baruch was suggested, but navigating around the sites for the CUNY schools is confusing because they all seem relatively similar to me.
44

Macaulay sounds really appealing to me. It sounds like an affordable, yet academically driven curriculum and experience.

45

Thank you to all the people who are doing their best to understand and accommodate my wishes, instead of just telling me that “it’s just how life is” and that I need to just settle for something else.

46

CUNY is still sorta confusing to me. If I wanted to major in Biology, which school would I apply to? Also, since it’s public not private, does that change the atmosphere in any way? I just want to make sure I’m surrounded by people who want to learn and students/faculty who are motivated to get things done. The public colleges near me/my HS in particular are notorious for having some real lazy and unmotivated people, so I’m simply anxious as to what would be a good placement for me.

47

Macaulay is as selective as the Ivies, so you needn’t wonder about that. I would suggest Hunter’s honors program for you. Fordham can be generous and has many excellent students. I would out Stony Brook high on the list if you were my child.

48

Does Hunter have an undergrad Bio program? What’s so special about Stony Brook?

It’s nice that you guys are sorta acting like parents; mine don’t speak English that well and are as new to this as I am lol

49

Hunter has a good bio program, and if you are fortunate to receive advice from Sybbie, take it to the bank. She has two degrees from Hunter and is a professional expert in this field. Stonybrook is a stellar research university. And don’t discount Columbia. It doesn’t hurt to shoot for the moon as log as you have a parachute. The honest truth is that NYU is affordable for very few people, and is the graveyard of broken dreams for the many others who either start and don’t finish because they can’t pay for subsequent years, or manage to finish but have lives blighted with debt. It isn’t a great enough school or experience to be worth that. As was pointed out, there are other great cities in America. My niece attended a very well known school in Baltimore and enjoyed that city, immensely, and took advantage of every opportunity to be in DC. God willing your life will be long and blessed. Be open to as many experiences as you can. My son goes to a top NYC prep school and has chosen a small, rural college because it’s something totally different. He is very excited. You could look south or west and see what a wonderful and diverse country you live in.

50

Thanks for this great reply. I’m certainly going to apply for Columbia, even though it’s quite a reach. Although I have no doubts that there are many great colleges across the country, I hope to stay close to my parents/grandparents in NY. Also, where I live right now is fairly rural/mostly suburban. NYC is super different for me and I’ve been a few times and have fallen in love. I can definitely see myself living that life, especially since I’m quite independent to begin with.

51

Since you live outside of NYC, you will be charged the out of city rate for CUNY.

What do you plan on doing long range with your bio degree? NYS has a STEM initiative if you graduate in the top 10% of your class, go into a STEM field, work in that job for 5 years after college, you can get free tuition to SUNY/CUNY.

If you are low income, you may be eligible for EOP/HEOP (one of the few ways that they meet 100% demonstrated need at NYU. In fact NYU HEOP increased their budget to include 12 K for room and board in their packaging). The Macauley Honors program at Hunter includes 2 years of free housing.

Don’t be so quick to knock Columbia off of your list. Again, if you are low income or HEOP eligible, you would end up attending close to free. Run the net price calculator and look up HEOP on their website.

52

U Rochester is a meets full need school so, other than the ivies, you probably won’t find a much better deal if you need FA.

Regarding internships, since you are interested in stem you will want to look into REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) type internships. (http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp) Those will be all over the country and most provide transportation, housing costs and a decent stipend. DS attended UR and applied for REUs for 2 summers. He had a few offers to choose from each time and ended up in California for both.

But something important is not to limit your choices this early in the game. 12 or 18 months from now you may have totally different thoughts about where you want to go and what you want to do with your life. You might have a class or a teacher next year that sparks new interests for you. You might read a book or see a NOVA and decide you like something better. A year from now, you may feel that you want to investigate colleges out of state. Keep an open mind and heart and don’t think that any college is THE ONLY ONE FOR ME.

53

I wish I had more specific advice to give regarding your region. Please don’t discount those who are simply trying to give you generic advice, though. It isn’t out of malice. Or a desire to keep you from your wishes. Please understand that everyone here - whether they are saying what you want to hear or not is only trying to help. I have seen too many students who had a dream school and didn’t learn until late in their senior year that they could not afford it. That is all anyone is hoping to save you from given NYU and its reputation. I’m from Florida but even here we see so many high achieving students assume UF will give them scholarships when UF really doesn’t give a lot of aid. I can’t count how many locals assumed that their child GPA and stats meant they could go to UF free and that really just doesn’t happen (they almost all end up at USF which is generous with merit aid.) Without knowing the NY system well, the disappointment that some schools are simply not realistic is all I personally hope to emphasize. Some schools are generous. Some are notoriously less so. If it is true in Florida, it must be so in NY as well. I dearly hope posters more knowledgeable than I can point you in the right direction.

Best of luck to you. Sincerely.

54

Sybbie, I plan to go into research but, as a sophomore, I’m still unsure. I’m interested in biopsychology and genetics as well. I’ve stopped myself from saying/thinking things like “I want to be a ____ when I get out of college” because I know there won’t always be that specific job open at the time and I might have to accommodate interests/etc so I can get a job.

I just looked up EOP/HEOP for NYU and they state that it’s “designed to assist students who are residents of New York State who are academically and educationally disadvantaged. In addition to financial assistance, students in the program receive supportive services including counseling and tutoring to help ensure their success.” I am not academically disadvantaged, only financially, and I’ve seen some CC posts talk about how income and grades both are usually low if you’re accepted into this, which is not my case.

Columbia calculators I’ve tried estimate 3k-5k tuition total. I’ve already said that I haven’t completely dismissed Columbia, but I do recognize that it’s going to be very hard for me to get in I think.

55

Does anyone know of a better NPC for NYU other than the “official” one they have on their website? All the other schools I’ve tried have pretty thorough calculators, while NYU has this really miserable short looking one that doesn’t account for nearly as much as the others.

56

Their calculator basically shows me as getting a full ride tuition wise, but I would still have to pay for the room and board and etc which would still ultimately bring my total to 20k a year

57

Do you have New York worship? Rochester NY is nowhere near NYC.

58

There’s no need to be harsh. It’s a small list of schools I’m considering, it’s not set in stone.

59

By the way, I know that U of R is “nowhere near NYC.” I live in Rochester. If you don’t have any advice to offer, like the many good people here have already given, then there’s no need to comment at all if you aim to expose me as “geographically-challenged” like you posted in a different thread. It’s petty and unnecessary, I’m only looking for suggestions and advice, not condemnations.

60

Actually, my undergrad is from Baruch, 2 grad degrees from NYU (Stern and Steinhardt, both employer paid) and a 3rd masters)

Not true, at most schools, you will only get a wink on the SAT/ACT score part, not the academic part. Most of the kids I know that were accepted into HEOP programs at the privates have 90+ gpa, and agre graduating with advanced regents/advanced regents with honors diplomas.

The avg GPA for HEOP at NYU is 93-95%. Student who graduated last year accepted to Stony Brook EOP had a 97gpa/advanced regents diploma-mastery in science. (got a wink on the SAT score, but Stony Brook does not give a big wink). Kid who got into RIT HEOP last year a 95 gpa. Schools that are looking to invest big money want to make sure that you can do the day to day work.

Look at your school stats; especially % of students on free/reduced lunch, graduation rates, percentage of students attending 2/4 year colleges. If you are in a school where most of the students are Title I (free/reduced lunch), you are academically disadvantaged.

Columbia and Cornell both have HEOP programs (where they are not going to give you a wink on your gpa)

start here, so that you can see if you are economically eligible.

https://www.suny.edu/media/suny/content-assets/documents/summary-sheets/EOP_profile.pdf

Opportunity program income criteria

http://www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/colldev/documents/NYSEDLowincomeGuidelinesEligibilityRequirements2013-14through2016-17.pdf

One of the first things that you need to do is sit with your parents and run the net price calculators for SUNY and some of the private schools that you are interested in attending. This will jumpstart the conversation about how much they are willing to pay/borrow for you to go to college.

Your parents can also do the FAFSA forecaster to get an idea of their federal EFC. They can use the calculator from TAP to get an estimation of how much NYS aid you are eligible to receive.

https://www.hesc.ny.gov/pay-for-college/financial-aid/types-of-financial-aid/grants/estimate-your-tap-award/tap-award-estimator.html

As a sophomore who recently got their scores back from the PSAT, look at those scores.
See what you need to do to put yourself in a position to become a NMF or NMSF (this may be stepping up your prep game). This may put you in a position to get tuition/ scholarship aid at some colleges.

Stay on an upward trend so that you may be in a position to get some automatic/competitive scholarships.