<p>Here’s a key piece of information from that page: </p>
<p>“NYU’s Early Decision programs are, in fact, binding agreements, whereas if an applicant is offered admission and provided with a financial aid package that enables the student to enroll, the student must withdraw any previously submitted applications and accept NYU’s admission offer – roughly within 2-3 weeks of receiving an admission offer. Students are then restricted from filing any new applications as well.”</p>
<p>So if NYU is not affordable, she needs to inform them NOW that the financial aid package is insufficient to permit her to enroll. She cannot wait to see the financial aid packages from other schools. If it has already been more than 3 weeks since she received the admission offer, she may have a significant problem.</p>
<p>You’re right, KGriswold-- she is now obligated either to A) accept NYU’s offer and attend, or B) refuse the offer (on financial grounds only) and wait to hear from BU/W&M, etc. It’s great that she has this scholarship offer from W&M, and you can wait to hear from BU and compare the two. But BU is not necessarily going to accept anyone who gets into NYU–and their FA isn’t magnificent either. </p>
<p>But I do think she’s lucky to be instate for W&M and will get a great education there–if she’s been offered a scholarship already I’m sure she will be accepted.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that a student with the credentials to be accepted at NYU and W&M does not belong at either Pace or St. Johns (the latter is not even in Manhattan, so offers none of the urban experience OP’s daughter desires). It would be terribly foolish to attend one of these schools just to be in NYC. As a parent, I would not allow my child to even entertain the idea.</p>
<p>“It is possible to get out of the obligation to attend an ED school on financial grounds, but I don’t know how it’s done.”</p>
<p>You tell them “Thanks, but I am declining your offer.” With a phone call you know if you reach someone who says they will process the info, but an email to the official address should also suffice (a reply confirms it).</p>
<p>You have already supplied the school with all your pertinent financial info. They use standard formulas that don’t always capture a family’s situation; only the family can know if the offer is enough. NYU may be the most understanding school of all about their FA offers not being sufficient! They certainly expect many declines. :(</p>
<p>Original Poster here again. I’m a little confused as to how the conversation wound up where it did, but thank you to all those who posted solid info realated to my initial questions. After reading many of the other threads you all suggested – and having Daughter read some of them too! – there’s no way we are going to put ourselves in hock to that degree, even for a Dream School (I wish there was a way to put those words in shiny gold caps, because that is how she talks about it!) </p>
<p>Thanks also to all of those who gave me info re: binding early decisions. DD will call NYU on Monday to decline the offer of admission, and from what I can tell that leaves her free to continue on with the other schools she has heard from or is waiting for.</p>
<p>Now we are left with the debate over lesser schools in NYC, her Dream Location (also in shiny gold caps, please) or better schools in what she thinks of as lesser locations. I’ve read so much heated debate today that my head hurts, and so will save this for another day. </p>
<p>I’m really sorry that your D has to give up her dream school, but I think that you are making a wise decision. Many kids go through choices like this each year. Your D already has some good options, and if she gets some merit money at BU, I strongly suggest a visit. BU offers a great urban college experience, and as others stated, has a similar reputation to NYU. She can always find a job and move to NYC after graduation.</p>
<p>If she goes to William and Mary, she’s in the right part of the country for internships in Washington, DC, perhaps with a government agency or nonprofit in her field of interest. DC also provides an interesting urban experience (and some very nice places to live during summer internships, such as the George Washington University dorms). </p>
<p>But in the meantime, it does seem that there is some confusion about scholarship offers from schools other than NYU. Some of the posters on this thread have pointed out apparent inconsistencies in the information you have provided – which suggests to me that perhaps you and your daughter should spend some time this weekend reviewing all of the documents that she has received from the colleges that she applied to. It’s important to have a full understanding of her current status with regard to both admission and financial aid/merit scholarships at each of the schools she has applied to, and it’s very easy to get mixed up about these things. </p>
<p>The college admissions/financial aid process is absurdly complicated, but it sounds as though you and your daughter are smart enough and level-headed enough to deal with the situation you are facing and straighten out any misunderstandings that you might have.</p>
<p>Good for you KGriswold-- your D is a very understanding young woman, too. She’ll find a great place I’m sure. (Too late this year for Fordham Lincoln Center but that’s the other NYC suggestion I’d make.)</p>
<p>When I grew up, NYU was for rejects from City College, and for kids from Missouri who wanted to see New York. It has a brand name for theater, and for business, and for its graduate schools in art history and philosophy, and not much else. </p>
<p>Tree hugger at NYU? Environmental science and conservation? At NYU? Weird. Why not Evergreen? (and she’d get a MUCH better environmental studies education.)</p>
<p>Anyway, is it really true that she can’t go for financial reasons, or simply that she has better offers elsewhere? The whole point of ED is that you wouldn’t accept better offers elsewhere if you could afford the Early Decision school.</p>
<p>“Somehow I thought you would have to provide proof of not being able to afford to attend.”</p>
<p>Imagine for a moment that proof were required, but the school did not accept the proof; what then? Is attendance somehow compelled, and the student expelled when the bill can’t be paid? Imagine the horrible publicity if a school tried this.</p>
<p>I didn’t think a student could be compelled to attend. Instead, I thought the student could be compelled to NOT attend any other college for that academic year if the proof was considered insufficient.</p>
<p>Isn’t this what happens to ED students who change their minds for non-financial reasons? They can’t be forced to enroll, but aren’t they obligated to not go to college anywhere else for that academic year?</p>
<p>The Business school for especially, International Business and Finance is top notch. Also great for International law & Applied Math among other things.</p>
<p>Is it New York that makes NYU’s brand name so attractive to so many students who see it as their dream school and are willing to take on risky amounts of debt to attend?</p>