I’m used to living in a city with population of almost a million and used to having college education as a right, not as something you have to struggle to afford. It is hard for me to get used to new environment here. Maybe attending a college here is not a good idea for me and when I get college decisions in spring I’ll try applying to other countries. There are many options, I’ll be fine.
Thank You everyone for your advice and time spent to answer my questions.
What is “affordable”?
“Affordable” in and of itself means nothing. For my family, which was making < 20k when I started college, “affordable” was going to be a lot different from whatever your $100k family thinks is “affordable.”
Well if it was up to me college would be free. But it’s not up to me. For the system we have here now and income that my family has, I think a reasonable price would be $1k/month or $12k/ year. That price will not put any burden on my family, anything more than that will require borrowing more money from a bank. While we do make $100k, NY also has ridiculously high taxes and I don’t have anything that I can truly call “mine”. We still pay for house, car, furniture, tv, cell phones, etc. I can’t hold most things in my hands and say “my family owns this, this is ours and no one can take it away” because technically if we stop paying banks will take this property away. This is another thing that has shocked me. I was used to living in a tiny apartment, but I could walk in and call it mine. Here it’s the exact opposite.
After over 100 post you have finally said that what your parents can comfortably afford is 12k. This means you will need pretty close to a full tuition scholarship. You may have take the $5500 loan to go along with your parents 12k to cover room board, transportation and other misc expenses.
Unfortunately, it is going to be a challenge to find s big city OOS college where you will likely be able to get a full tuition scholarship with your stats. Your FAFSA etc is most likely going to be more than the 12k parameters.
Unless you apply to s SUNY where you can commute and live at home, you are going to need a job and some savings to hit the 20k COA for FIT.
Or the money for the balance of the costs at Pace.
Where do you think the money to fund “free” college would come from??!! If you think taxes are high now, just wait until the government is paying for everyone to go to college.
Ahh, Russia. The country where what’s yours is yours. Where ownership of private property is a long held tradition. Where democracy has flourished and the government answers to the people. Where government leaders can be freely criticized without fear of retribution, the judiciary is independent and the press is truly free of government influence.
If only everyone paid their taxes… And I’m speaking from my personal experience, I feel that my life was more financially comfortable when I lived in Russia. I never said my country was perfect or that I hate the US. It wasn’t my choice to move here either. It was hard enough to leave everything and to come here where I have nothing and everything is completely different, but it’s not making it any better when people tell me to leave and everyone around me now screams how bad my country is, including teachers in school and only one person, my mom, understands and doesn’t look at me strangely or say bad things to me.
I know that we cannot afford college without borrowing money from the bank and we accepted that.
Anna- i get it. It’s hard to live through so many changes and dislocations at once, and to look at the next four years and worry that you’ll feel equally out of place must be stressful as well.
What exactly is your issue with the CUNY schools? I realize that Albany and Buffalo are not your idea of a good time, but Queens? Brooklyn? Baruch? Hunter? There are so many ways to get a great education right in the five boroughs.
Most students commute and it won’t be like a real college experience.
@annaheyworld – it sounds like what you are looking for is a residential college/ universities experience at an urban campus in a large US city. You are correct that in NY that is problematic at a SUNY or CUNY school. However, it may not be an impossibility… SUNY Albany and Buffalo are close to what you want… no, Albany and Buffalo are not NYC, Boston, DC, Philly, Pittsburgh, etc… but, they are cities. On the flip side some of the CUNY schools offer housing options. You are correct they are not traditionally residential college/ university experiences, however they may offer you an opportunity to study in a major city and dorm. There are also SUNY schools that are very close to NYC via public transportation Being open minded and casting a wide net will offer you the most opportunities when you make a decision in April.
If i decide to save money I will probably end up going to FIT. Even though it’s far from a real college experience and doesn’t have the best business programs. If I decide to have a better college experience but pay much more money I will probably end up going to Pace, where I will have something closer to a real college experience snd slightly better business classes.
It is just super sad that people have to settle for less and that a good college is available for wealthier people or very poor people who qualify for good financial aid and whoever doesn’t fit either category doesn’t have much options.
@annaheyworld – FIT is a “real college” There are many affordable “good” college opportunities for students in the US… they just may not all meet your criteria for what you are hoping for in a college experience.
Now that I’m looking at it, most California state colleges meet my criteria if only I lived there. So yes there are options that I will be very happy with, they’re just not in my state. There are so so so many options for people who don’t care about location too. But for those of us who are from middle class families in NY and who can’t afford NYU or Fordham but want affordable twins of those colleges, we can’t find any.
You don’t have the money to pay the price and you cannot borrow as much as you’d need.
Where do you think the college payments will come from? Fall and spring.
Do the math. You chose colleges you can’t pay for.
What do you know about loans? As a potential business major, you should understand this business.
Be smart.
College shouldn’t be a business but unfortunately it is and prices are extremely unfair, as well as how they manage that money. I might not be smart but it’s not entirely my fault I cannot afford college. I shouldn’t choose expensive colleges, but they shouldn’t be that expensive in the first place, or at least manage their money differently. I don’t get why everyone thinks the prices are fair and that college should be a business. Blame the people who made it that way, not me.
Loans are a business. They make money on borrowers nnot having money to pay for something.
Dreams are dreams, not rational thinking.
Anything that has a price, one should be able to pay for. Or choose something else.
Get a college guide and look for other affordable choices in cities or close enough.
How will you pay the tuition an room & board, without the money?
Maybe you need to take a gap year. There are many people that would be happy to explore the NY public schools that are options for you. You have an idea of what it should be like, and the paradigm is different than what you expected. It is like you expected France and you landed in Belgium - but if you look at Belgium, you might find you like it. You also are looking at what is not available to you financially, instead of what is available financially.