<p>NYU is always available after the kiddo gets his/her bachelor’s & a job to save enough money to get an advanced degree to NYU on his/her own dime. Definitely NOT fair to turn everyone’s life into a nightmare for some elusive “dream,” which can easily be a hallucination.</p>
<p>I know a grad. student at NYU. Her attendance is funded by loans. She was positive that she wanted to attend and could not be deterred. After nine months there, she says she def. will not stay in NY after grad. She lives in a closet sized rented room in a shared apt. Roommates are not friends or college students…just roommates. Without a lot of money to spend, it’s not such a grand cultural adventure. She comes home to visit whenever possible. She is at NYU because she was not accepted to the grad. program at our flagship state u.</p>
<p>One other reality check for the OP’s daughter… she is not likely to have an easy time paying off heavy loans with the types of jobs available to environmental science majors. Sure, there are exceptions, but a dose of reality NOW will save many years of heartache later. </p>
<p>Agree with the posters who say collect the facts on acceptances and financial aid, then determine whether attendance at one of her choices (WM or BU, it sounds like) is appropriate vs. a gap year and another round of applications in the fall.</p>
<p>Assuming that for your next three kids you will be looking at affordability/merit aid as part of the selection process. It was your first time, so I can see how you made this mistake, but affordability and financial aid components have GOT to be part of a college search decision process these days. And it is much harder to find a safety/match that is affordable and that your kid loves, so start early with the next three even if the boys are not “mules”. 
But it can be done! Good luck with this first one!</p>
<p>And even if your boys seem easy now, they could end up not being happy down the line when it’s their turn and all the family’s college funds have gone to the oldest sister being able to live her “dream.” Have seen this kind of scenario play out and it’s not pretty.</p>
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<p>must’ve missed it in flyover country when a W&M alum renamed the Sears Tower. It’s not W&M’s fault if you decide which schools are name brand by who plays football on national tv on saturday in the fall.</p>
<p>Regarding Pace, I would challenge your daughter’s prioritization of NYC locale over quality of school. Remind her that the primary objective of college is getting a good education, rather than cafes, shopping and night clubs.</p>
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<p>Is she in a master’s/pre-professional program? This rarely comes up in discussions about students who want to go to NYU for undergrad and take out a mountain of loans with it, but many (most?) doctoral students at NYU receive full financial aid, without a teaching requirement. (A doctoral student told me it was due to NYU’s ongoing dispute with the graduate student union, so a minimum teaching load might be re-instated if/when that issue gets resolved.)</p>
<p>[Graduate</a> School Fellowships and Assistantships, Graduate School of Arts and Science | NYU](<a href=“http://gsas.nyu.edu/page/grad.financialaid.gradfellowships]Graduate”>http://gsas.nyu.edu/page/grad.financialaid.gradfellowships)</p>
<p>For students who plan to/have to go to grad school in the liberal arts, this is something to think about. Higher-level academics than at the undergrad level, without the loans that are so associated with NYU.</p>
<p>OP: I am in the strange position of having been there, understanding how your daughter feels, enjoying my experience at NYU, and telling her not to do it. I was fortunate enough to have my expenses covered in full by an external scholarship. I love it, but I’ve often wondered how much I’d enjoy myself if I knew I had huge debt hanging over my head, and it’s not worth it.</p>
<p>What is her goal? Is it college in NYC, or living in NYC? In my case, my field of study dovetails perfectly with what NYU and NYC had to offer, so I had a case to make for going to that specific school at that specific point in my life. But if she could only choose one, she might find that going to college in NYC is just a means to living in NYC, and not a very practical one at that.</p>
<p>People, the OP has already told her her daughter that NYU is unaffordable. It’s a long thread, you missed that part.</p>
<p>May be I am missing something here.</p>
<p>The OP must have done the EFC calculation - suggesting they could handle NUY’s average FA - before they apply ED. Am I wrong? </p>
<p>So, if the FA does not match their expectation, they should talk to FA office to see if the gap could be filled. </p>
<p>Also, I did not remember seeing a number per loan amount. Not all loans are bad and some loans are o.k. </p>
<p>DS takes out max Perkins and subsidized Stafford to go to his “dream school”. He also has a work study and work extra hours to cover daily expenses. </p>
<p>Many family do not figure in the student’s earning in school and in summer. Many family also do not know part of COA is persoanl expenses that the student could actively manage. For example, the student could stay on parent’s insurance. That could cut a couple thousands. Student could buy used books, another couple thousands. The student could get great grades and get merit aids after 1st year. </p>
<p>When the next kid starts college, the EFC to this student is automatically cut to 50%. Has OP considered that? </p>
<p>All I am trying to do is to ask OP to do a detailed budget. It may work.</p>
<p>If, as OP said, the NYU aid is all loans, it likely includes PLUS to a large extent. Large like 40K per year. Not just Perkins and Stafford. NYU will at best give a token extra. </p>
<p>Lets not forget, we expect all college costs to rise over 4 years. NYU in particular is problematic – not only becuase they are increasing off a high base, but from looking at their financial statements, they have a large amount of rented space. This is not good in NYC. As opposed to colleges like Fordham, which own their land and buildings, NYU is renting a lot. They do disclose the rental increases are scheduled to be substantial, but more problematic is what happens when leases expire. The financial statements have to show scheduled increases, but not what will happne when they have to renogatite new leases. Commerical leases are typically long term, but they dont go forever.</p>
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<p>If that is the case, why do they apply the ED at first place?</p>
<p>If the kid has the stats to apply to Columbia ED, why not apply to some of the same level of colleges? If you have only limited funds, why not apply to schools meet 100% of the needs. </p>
<p>We got two kids into the most expensive private schools with limited funds. It was hard on us but we managed. Our DD is graduating this summer without any debt. But I spent 100’s hour on forums like CC years BEFORE application started.</p>
<p>There is a whole lot to think about, with what you have going on. First child going to college and a couple more at home still, you have to look at the big picture. That larger picture is going to involve the money more than anything else. It seems like a slippery decision to opt for a school that requires so much in loans when you know that you will need to pay for more education later on.</p>
<p>Money is a huge factor in life and your new college student needs to learn that right now. Pick one of those schools that will be covered by scholarships instead of depending on loans. There are so many things that could happen.</p>
<p>You don’t want to think about it, but the big wage earner at home could get laid off or become unable to work due to injury or something. There are so many possibilities. You will have plenty of expenses to think of besides paying for all that the loans would cover. That is important to the whole family. God forbid that there was no way to send the younger ones to college because the first just had to go to her choice if school regardless of the funds.</p>
<p>DAD, lets not criticize OP. Fact is, the kid did apply to a number of schools, including some affordable ones. There have been many constructive suggestions. My guess if OP had it to do over again, she would have had DD apply to Fordham and George Mason, to get some better schools close or in big cities.</p>
<p>I will also be the first to admit that we have been very naive about choice and financing. My husband had a full merit scholarship at American U. 25 years ago, and my own experience was as a smart kid from a low income family who financed my education at a tiny private college with grants, scholarships and work. We have bright, hard-working kids and assumed that the same kind of aid would be there for them too. And we were lulled into a false sense of security by all of the books and websites we’ve read that assured us that a $50K pricetag doens’t really mean that you pay $50k. Except when it does!!</p>
<p>I think we’ve been smart about saving, and as I said above we are in the position of being able to finance an IN-STATE education for each of our kids with no problem. What we did NOT count on was that D would be quite so small a fish in quite so big a pond and not qualify for decent merit aid at all of her choices. We also were not prepared for a child with “champagne dreams.” Trust me when I say that I have been voicing the $$ concerns since she started talking about OOS private schools, and am a firm believer that bigger is not better. I would have been happy to have her apply to W&M, UVA, JMU and Longwood and be done with it! </p>
<p>Poor planning on our part, maybe. Refusal to be realistic on hers, absolutely. So you are right, we have made our own bed and will now be lying in it. However, I still appreciate the helpful advice and direction from those of you who have offered it. DAD II, if it makes you feel good to be superior and insulting, you go right ahead. I got what I wanted from others. :)</p>
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<p>My daughter would chew off her own foot before she went to GMU: it’s only 15 minutes down the road! She wouldn’t even consider the many good schools in Philadelphia because they are “too close.” </p>
<p>I pushed Fordham no avail. To be honest, I even considered filing an appliction for her but then got a grip. :)</p>
<p>If you’ve been around CC a long time, you’ll know that DadII is among the “most improved players.” It’s a learning curve for everyone. Let’s all back off of any back-and-forth personal insults now.</p>
<p>kpgriswold, anything can happen, even when you feel like you’ve really really done your homework. Son’s #1 choice was Bowdoin College in Maine, the school said over and over that it meets 100% of financial need, so we did all the calculating based on our CSS profile and thought everything would be fine. When the acceptances came out he was in (yay!) except the need-based aid was 1/2 what the other need-based schools had offered (boo-hoo). I went to see the financial aid director to appeal but was told that they were comfortable with their calculations. Some schools base demonstrated need on their own secret formulas, so even those who thought they knew the system are sometimes surprised by the outcome.</p>
<p>“DAD, lets not criticize OP.”</p>
<p>I think the only fair criticism at this point is that the OP committed to NYU. She committed even if NYU is not a good deal financially, or if there are better deals out there. The only true out is if it is really unaffordable, which, is so, she is (I believe) under some obligation to NYU to see if there is a way to make it so before moving on. </p>
<p>(But it sounds like it really is unaffordable, which is no great surprise. Hey, it’s NYU! so what else is new?) At any rate, there seems to be four choices, all quite distinct, all reasonable options even if not optimal. And I think something good will come out of it.</p>
<p>OP, then why did your D apply ED to Columbia if you were hoping for substantial merit aid? As you surely know, Columbia aid is need-based only, so you would have paid $53K plus/year if she was accepted. It was her first choice school, right?</p>
<p>Though I have no horse in this race, I read around a little yesterday and got the distinct impression that NYU’s financial aid award system is peculiar. The data also show that the indebtedness of their grads is rather on the high side. A thread such as this one could be a prod to someone else considering NYU (or any other high-priced school) to learn as much as possible about a school’s financial aid record. I wish the OP luck as she and her family try to sort this out.</p>