Hopefully my list of college acceptances/rejections gives you hope… I’ve realized a lot of these decisions are chance, and I’m extremely grateful to have gotten into my dream school 
I applied to Colleges of Arts and Sciences or as a humanities major. Feel free to ask me any questions
List of schools I applied to and their decisions: (X = no)
San Francisco State yes
UCB X
UCLA X
UCSD X
UCI X
UCD X
UCSB X
Barnard X
Boston University X
Mills yes
New York University(my #1 school)yes
Occidental X
Santa Clara Universirty waitlisted
Scripps X
Union College yes
University of San Francisco yes
University of Virginia X
Can your parents afford NYU?
@Madison85 Definitely not if they want to live comfortably like we are right now. Finances are something we’re trying to figure out right now and it’s the only thing in the way of me going to the school. I will have to work part time or major in something with better job security to have any chance of going there
Congratulations on NYU! Were you in-state for any of the public universities (California, Virginia)?
@merc81 thank you! I live in California
Are you aware of all the horror stories concerning NYU debt?
Do you have younger siblings?
How much do your parents earn? What’s their budget per year for college?
NYU can turn from a dream school to a nightmare for families who can’t afford it.
Debt ruins lives.
@Madison85 yep I’ve been reading them all ever since I got my acceptance letter… do you have any creative ideas for affording NYU because I really need some right now. Parents make around $120k-140k a year. Our house is worth 1.5 M (in Silicon Valley with amazing school district) maybe we could get creative with that haha. but in all seriousness I have a lot to think about
Do you have younger siblings?
Is the house fully paid off?
@Madison85 younger sibling who will be going to college in 5 years. House is mostly paid off if I believe
Any 529 or other college savings or rich grandparents?
What’s your intended major?
@Madison85 draining dads 401K :\ no rich family…
I would love to double major with one of my majors as English literature, and then another major with more job security (Econ?). I am also seriously thinking about Law School, and that would definitely boost my salary to pay off debt faster
Good job! You only need to get into your #1!
For the first year, not much advice. They may have co-op housing (cheaper) but hard to get.
After you can get out of dorming, perhaps Au pair or nannying? Some can live in even if they are just the “night nanny”…yes, that’s a thing!
@HRSMom thank you! That is definitely a creative way to help pay some of it… I wish there were more expenses you could cut to minimize cost of attendance at NYU
NY is just super expensive. Ppl not from NYC have no clue how much it going to cost and are shocked bc the just presume it will be “a little more”.
You could rent books when you can. The co-op thing I think you make your own food. Avoid taxis and uber. Only do free things and walk a lot. Most of us do walk more than most other places bc there is little choice.
You might take a pt job.
If you have to drain dad’s 401k and there’s a younger sibling and no savings, NYU sounds unaffordable. There are no penalty exceptions for 401k distributions used to pay for college so taxes and penalties take 50% of the distribution. Then what will your patents do for retirement? Your ‘dream’ could mean your younger sibling runs into affordable issues too.
And you want to add law school debt on top of that? Have you looked at the job prospects for law school grads?
@Madison85 well in the end I think it can be worth it and I can take on all these problems without ruining anyone’s life. Of course I’ll think through different options before giving up just like everyone else does
Keep fishing on this thread until some equally unrealistic teenager gives you the answer you want to hear.
If law school is even a possibility, much less a real goal, I would not fork over the huge amount of $$$ for NYU.
My undergrad was paid by my parents (bless them), but I paid for law school. Took me 10 years to pay off $50K. That sounds like a relatively small amount of money today, doesn’t it? Still, 10 YEARS. Looking back I could have paid it off faster but life gets in the way.
Please do not hamstring yourself with NYU related debt (which is high even for generally steep college costs everywhere). You are 18 (?) and it’s hard to fathom how much you could change in the next 10-15 years.
Debt is a trap.
You are in California (!) with great community college pathways to the UCs, private colleges, CSU’s, etc. So many times I have wished that we were in California for our son to do computer science somewhere (though I have to admit I would not like CA taxes and housing costs).
Anyway, JMO - best wishes to you.
You know your priorities are totally screwed up when your crush on the school matters more than your choice of major.
@SouthFloridaMom9 Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it, I’ve spoken to a lot of family who have gone through that problem as well. it’s a tough choice