<p>My son's first choice of schools for the fall is NYU. He received a 10,000 scholarship, 3,000 work study and the rest in loans.</p>
<p>We don't want him to go overboard with debt. We can probably pay about 30,000 per year. It still leaves us with a gap that we need to fill. It will likely mean more loans for him, not sure yet.</p>
<p>What I'd like to know is, how much are others taking out in loans per year to attend NYU? It somehow makes me feel better to know others are in the same boat.</p>
<p>My daughter got offered around $21,000 in scholarships and then they offered a Federal PLUS loan for me of $26,000 at 7.9%. Even though its my D first choice I told her that she must really consider another school (that is nationally ranked just not as much name recognition as NYU) that gave her around $41,000 in scholarships. I suggested that if she attends school B and gets good grades and searches for outside scholarships she can then transfer to NYU. I just think its terrible that some students/parents go so much in debt for an undergrad degree. I would recommend that students go to whatever undergrad school they can afford and then go to the best grad school in their field. Seems like a better investment, but its a hard choice for students to make when they have such an emotional attachment to a certain school.</p>
<p>With $43,000 a year covered between his aid and what you’re willing to commit, you’d be looking at less than half of what I take out in loans each year.</p>
<p>My D is NYU junior and our concerns were the same as you when she was making her college decisions. NYU was her first choice and though other great schools gave her better scholarships/grants(BU, Johns Hopkins), we are paying exactly the same as you, 30,000 per year. She takes out the full gamut of stafford loans, Perkins, has a work study job, and we cover any gap with savings and current income. It’s a sacrifice, but she is thriving there and it is a good fit. Generally, 27,000-30,000 dollars student debt is not unreasonable, especially for an NYU degree. I read somewhere that the general rule is student debt should total what one year of college cost. Our consolation is that she will have her undergrad degree from NYU which we hope will take her far, because of prestige and name recognition. Plus this school has made my daughter so independent and self reliant. She doesn’t even want to come home that much, wanting to stay in city and work. She has met some wonderful people from all over the place. Her best friends come from all over the US. It has worked for our family.
Many people here on CC will tell you not to put out that kind of money for any degree, but you have to do what is best for your own family.</p>
<p>Thank you,Milkandsugar.
You are right, it is a very difficult decision, much more so than with my older kids.
In the fall, we will still have one son in his senior year of college, in addition to the NYU prospect.
I am a teacher and I have spoken to many of the younger teachers at school and I haven’t met one yet who does not owe quite a bit in loans. Most of those that Ive spoken with went to public schools, in state, and their loan totals range from 30-50,000. There are a few who went to a small private school in our state and they came out with 60-70,000…and they’re teachers who don’t make a ton of money.<br>
I guess the fact that we pretty much paid full cost of college for our older kids is what makes NYU a difficult decision.
One question…you mention your daughter was in a low cost triple…it is my understanding those are not guaranteed…is that correct?</p>
<p>BTW, we’ve tried on several occassions to get more money from NYU and they don’t budge, at all. Even when we were there and met with someone from financial aid in person, they told us “our funds have been exhausted”.</p>
<p>My D, went with Rubin LCT, but to have a better chance, she applied for an explorations theme in that dorm… We were told here on CC that you are more apt to get your dorm choice with an explorations. And it so happened for her it was true. That was the only year she did LCT. Not because we didn’t want to, but by time soph year comes, they want to dorm with their friends and it makes it a little harder to do LCT if no one else in the group is doing it.
That is too bad about the FA. Could your son perhaps try over the phone one more time? The only leverage might be for him to tell them that he really wants to attend his first choice school, but if they could just raise the FA a little to make it more of a reality and that the other schools offered a little more aid. That was our strategy.
Good luck.</p>
<p>Nedel - what is your son planning on studying? Depending on the major/field, that impacts the value of the NYU degree. My S got half tuition scholarships to both NYU and BU and something similar for UPitt. Because he’s in the sciences and plans on grad school before working FT (at least for now!), he’s decided to save the $$ and go to Pitt. Because their tuition (even for OOS) and room & board are lower, we’ll be able to pay for his undergrad w/o loans. If we went to NYU, it would probably work out to between $50K and $75K in loans after 4 years. Of course, if your son is going into something like business/finance where he can rake in a nice salary straight out of undergrad, then NYU could very well be worth it. Good luck with this difficult decision!</p>