<p>I know it's incredibly hard for upper middle class students to get financial aid and parents must sign up and pay. (Apparently there is no option for the students to take the 'burden'?) </p>
<p>I really am not familiar with the types of Financial Aid that is given federally and from the universities. But I will be studying at NYU as a visiting student this coming semester (NYU does not give fin aid for visiting students, let alone for its students lol), and I don't want to burden my parents and would like to try and have the loan for me and not a parent loan? Does anyone know if this is possible?</p>
<p>The thing is that it is limited to $5500 for your first year, $6500 for your second year, and $7500 each for your third and fourth years. That’s not enough to pay for NYU but it’s the loan that you are most likely to qualify for on your own without any parental support. </p>
<p>EDIT: Oh I didn’t notice the “visiting student” thing. Well, if he is currently enrolled at one college he should have Stafford eligibility assuming he meets the hours requirement, right? He can draw on that loan if he wants to, though I very much doubt it would cover the cost of NYU.</p>
<p>Why do you want to be a visiting student at NYU? Is it through a specific program that your university has in conjunction with NYU or something? If that’s the case, they (your home institution) might have some kind of resources that you can draw on.</p>
<p>I am considering transferring to NYU and would like to spend a semester there to see if it is right for me! My current institution is also pretty expensive, but my parents are currently paying the tuition for me. As silly as it sounds, I really want to try and give myself all the burden and slowly pay off all of my student debt eventually without help from my parents. </p>
<p>Instead of going into debt yourself, why not “borrow” the money from your parents and then pay them back after you graduate? They can charge you interest and everything if you want, and it will be much safer and smarter than trying to borrow money from a bank.</p>
<p>(Besides, a bank isn’t going to loan you money with your parents as cosigners anyway, so going that route just means that you’re hurting your parents for no reason.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply guys! @DmitriR you have a good point. It’s just that I feel bad for having them pay for it right now because we’re also not in the best financial situation at this moment.</p>
<p>That is a really clear signal to transfer to a less expensive college–not a more expensive one. You yourself can take your federal student loans to help, and you can work summers and a small amount of time during the school year. But you are really saved from yourself by being prevented from entering into massive long term debt as a teenager to pay for expensive schools. Haven’t you heard anything about student debt making your life miserable and preventing you from buying a car, a house, a vacation, funding retirement? I know a lot of kids are not able to evaluate the effect of very large amounts of debt, Lenders like to be paid back so they won’t take the risk on you. </p>
<p>There are “Visiting student” situations where a student goes through a program that is sanctioned by his/her college and can get the same financial aid package,merit money, that the student is getting from the home college. This can also apply to students in some study abroad programs. But it does not appear to me that OP is getting any such money from the current college. Unless it is some special program, it is doubtful that a college will give out money for a student to come visit when enrolled elsewhere. That is tantamount to poaching and broaches upon being unethical.</p>
<p>In fact, you had better check with your current college and see if your “visiting” semester at NYU or other school will even count for credits there. Some schools have limits on what is accepted as outside credits when a student takes a leave of absence and takes courses elsewhere. If it is a program recognized and accepted by a college to visit, that’s a whole other story, but even they may have their rules.</p>
<p>As a rule, you have to be a matriculating student for federal aid–correct me those in the know if I am wrong here. So I’m not sure you can even borrow the Direct loan entitlements if you decide to do a visiting term on your own at any given school. Are you taking direct loans out at your current school? You can borrow $5500 in your own name as a freshman with the amounts increasing slightly as an upperclass man. That and working part time often can reduce the bill by $10-12K for many familes. My kids did keep that option in mind as they looked at their school choices. We would pay so much and if it cost more, they needed to come up with the rest. They figured they could come up with $10-20K a year out of their own pockets with loans, working summers and school year, savings and gifts. None of them went the max amt they would have to cover themselves, but the option was there. Depending on what you have and what you are willing to borrow and earn, you can take over some of the costs for your parents if you are not doing so already.</p>
<p>But transferring to NYU is not likely to reduce costs for you, but will probably make them sky rocket. Transfers, as a rule do not get as much aid, not that NYU meets need anyways, and they don’t have much in merit money. It would be an unusual transfer to hit the jackpot fo more money than the prior school. You’d have to have something NYU truly wants to get anything like that. Housing and other costs are higher at NYU than most schools. And NYU has no special category to give students transferring, visiting funds.</p>
<p>So your quesitonj “Apparently there is no option for the students to take the ‘burden’?”, is a negative. There ARE options. But do you have them? Are you taking the Direct Student loans? Are you working summers, schools year? Are you scrimping as much as possible? Do you have savings that you are using to pay for school? Are you putting any monetary gifts towards college costs? Also, there are sometimes departmental, or other such merit awards for upperclassmen that some students pursue (my one son got a very nice one). Students can do all of those things, and some come up with hefty savings for their parents. the question is whether you are doing, can do any of these things. But unlikely that NYU or an school, for that matter is going to fund your aspirations in that regard as a transfer student.</p>
<p>Cpte…you are correct. Visiting students are NOT matriculated students at that college. You must be a matriculated student at the school to receive aid from the school. Some colleges do have relationships with other colleges for terms away…that is different. The student would not be “visiting”. They would be under the umbrella of their main college. </p>
<p>But this is not the case for this student.</p>
<p>I’ll stick my neck out. Federally funded need based aid is for those pursuing a degree. It is NOT for those who are testing the waters. I personally do not want to see my tax dollars being used for students who are trying out a college to see if they might want to transfer. That should be on their dime…perhaps should have been done in the summer, or as part of some kind of exchange.</p>
<p>And as an aside, if this family is having hard financial times, how WILL they pay the costs for this student to attend NYU if he transfers there. The school isn’t particularly generous anyway, and they are less generous to transfer students. Plus it sounds like the family is full pay wherever this student is now. That likely won’t change if he goes to NYU.</p>
<p>I agree, if finances are an issue, it might be nice if this student were considering a less expensive option, than a more expensive one. </p>
<p>In any event, I’m not sure I see the issue…the parents are currently paying for,this kid to attend College A. If he goes to NYU as a visiting student, they will simply be paying NYU instead of College A. So…what is the difference?</p>
<p>And…could you please clarify the post below…it implies that you are not currently attending college in the U.S. and that you are an international student. If you are an international student, you don’t qualify for U.S. Federally funded aid…at all.</p>
<p>Hmm, that does make a slight difference then.</p>
<p>Actually, now that I think about it – it doesn’t really. Federal direct (student) loans would not have come even close to covering the costs of NYU or any school that compares to them in costs. If his goal is to personally shoulder the costs of paying for college he has to go to a cheaper school (that is, one that will give him merit-based financial aid). The only other way would be to take out a private student loan which he cannot do without parental cosigning anyway (which means that effectively the parents are on the hook anyway, which isn’t what he wants.)</p>
<p>Honestly, I would just go with what he’s doing now and if he wants to set up an agreement to pay the parents back whatever they have to spend. I don’t know how easy it is to get merit aid as a transfer – I doubt NYU would be a good choice but maybe some other equally good school might. Being an international student might not matter though – the federal aid portion that he was eligible for was honestly negligible compared to the costs that he wanted to take on, so the $5500 or so here or there wouldn’t have meant much.</p>
<p>International students have a variety of financial issues. First, they can’t get U.S. federally funded aid of any kind. Second…the number of hours they work is limited by their student visa. Third, transfers don’t get much aid anyway. An international transfer student would get even less, if any. </p>
<p>But the biggest obstacle…if the student is going to take loans, he will need to do so in his own country with a cosigner. U.S. lenders are not going to lend money to folks who reside and are citizens of other countries. There would be no way for the lending institution here to be able to guarantee repayment from a foreign person getting s loan. </p>
<p>But this student’s story really needs to be clarified. As of September 6, this poster says he was not enrolled in university courses, and was awaiting some kind of scores. If he isn’t currently enrolled, he would not be a transfer student. And he would not be a visiting student either…because visiting students are usually matriculates at another college. </p>
<p>So…OP…what is the deal? Are you currently in college in the UK? Or NOT? </p>