How to read my financial aid?

<p>I got into Stern, and I was horrified by my financial aid summary. I just want to make sure i am reading this right:</p>

<p>Award Description Category Offered Accepted
Stern Scholarship Scholarship 13,000.00 13,000.00
Stern Eckhouse Scholarship Scholarship 5,000.00 5,000.00
Stern Provost's Grant Scholarship 4,000.00 4,000.00
Pell Grant Grant 5,550.00 5,550.00
Federal Work Study Work/Study 3,000.00 0.00
Federal Perkins Loan Loan 2,400.00 0.00
Stafford Loan 1 Loan 3,500.00 0.00
Unsubsidized Loan 1 Loan 2,000.00 0.00
Federal PLUS Loan 1 Loan 21,406.00 0.00
Aid Year Totals 59,856.00 27,550.00</p>

<p>Does this mean I have to pay, or take out a loan of $32,306 ($59,856-$27,550) every year???? Tell me i am reading this wrong!</p>

<p>I am in a low income family making less than $20,000 per year, and NYU expects me to pay $32,000 each year?</p>

<p>Is there anyway I can appeal for more financial aid, or get any scholarship in any way? Thanks, I need your help.</p>

<p>What it means is that you got 27,500 in free money. The rest is 5500 stafford loans and 2400 Perkins loan for you,this is per year.
NYU always puts the gap as a suggested Parent Plus loan. In your case, that would be approx 22,000 dollars per year. That doesnt mean your parents have to do that. Unless your parents have savings or you have outside scholarships. This is actually a very good package by NYU standards. They never claim to meet 100% of need. You can call and ask nicely to increase the amount but the most they would likely give is 1-2000 dollars more.</p>

<p>COA 59,000-275000=31500-7900(Perkins,Stafford)=23,400 is what has to be dealth with with outside scholarships, savings and/or parent plus loans.</p>

<p>Looks like you’re right excpet $3K for work study is not a loan.</p>

<p>unfortunately, yes. In order for you to attend NYU and pay the $60,000 dollars required that is the amount (in loans) you would have to take out. believe it or not the amount of money they have given you is a very generous grant package for NYU. In general, most college graduates are in debt when they graduate and a lot of the loans you have been offered don’t even gain interest till after your 4 years so if you don’t feel like going into massive amounts of debt then NYU isnt the right fit for you. But…sometimes you have to weigh the value of the education against the loans you will need to take out and decide from there</p>

<p>So is there any good scholarship program outside of NYU that you recommend that I can apply to? Or else I am screwed.</p>

<p>I have a similar aid package; is it reasonable to think I can pay back all those loans once i have a degree from NYU??</p>

<p>It depends on your major. And, you are not going to pay it off immediately. You have to factor in taxes, housing, insurance, etc.</p>

<p>Should I e-mail them a heartfelt message, asking them to increase my financial aid package?</p>

<p>NYU does not reconsider aid. And if you would like to know why, please refer to my previous post: </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/new-york-university/1117221-parents-students-concerned-financial-aid-please-read.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/new-york-university/1117221-parents-students-concerned-financial-aid-please-read.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You’re all so lucky. My family has an EFC of $0 and I got a $4000 scholarship. $4000!!! That means about $55,000 a year is coming from loans and outside scholarships! I, personally, expected NYU to give me nothing. </p>

<p>But honestly?! You’re complaining about $27,500?! You’ve got it a lot better than some of us darling.</p>

<p>Wait… Your family has EFC $0; are you accepting NYU admission and planning to take on that much debt???</p>

<p>Well I’m fortunate enough to have a good amount of outside sources coming in, along with various other things I’m not going to go into detail just yet. But imagine if I really had pay all that! I mean, I’ve talked to so many current students, accepted students, and alum and let me tell you $27,000 is quite a decent chunk of money when it comes to NYU. NYU is infamous for giving pretty much zip for financial aid. I’m not trying to sound mean, I’m just saying be grateful!</p>

<p>I’m not sure of the details: But the general consensus is that a student should not assume more than $60,000 worth of debt for the majority of undergraduate majors. Occasionally, some will agree it can be pushed to a max of $80,000, but this is very rare. Realize that loans have to be paid off over ten years, which means a loan for $60,000 is around $700/mo, which, when added on top of living expenses, leaves little to no left over money for the average graduate.</p>

<p>Even $60,000 is considered by most people to be way too much. Really, the maximum anyone should be borrowing for undergraduate is $25-30,000 - the combination of maximum Stafford loans.</p>

<p>A $700 a month student loan payment is like a second rent check every month.</p>

<p>Is this your best option? Can’t imagine you not having a better option if you could get into Stern.</p>

<p>I am in a similar situation, and I just have a quick question: If my parents can afford to pay the same amount as the parent plus loan without taking out the actual loan, do I not accept it on the financial aid page? Would it then show up on my tuition bill? Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>If your parents can afford to pay the tuition upfront, then you do not need to accept the plus loan and NYU will bill your parents upfront. However, if your parents can afford it in installments or payment plans, etc. I would call the NYU financial aid office and see what they suggest. NYU might have a payment plan option, or your parents can take out the plus loan but they will pay it back shortly as to not acquire too much interest.</p>

<p>To the original poster, the others are right: If you got into other schools JUST as good academically and otherwise as Stern and they gave you more financial aid, I’d seriously consider going those schools. As you must know, there is always the option to transfer (after saving up some money and/or trying out other schools) to or go to grad school at NYU. If they accepted you this time, they’ll accept you transferring (unless you fail college or something). It’s always a good option if you think the price of paying $700 a month for 20 years is a little too high for you.</p>

<p>To the person worrying about my financial well being, it would have cost just as much for me to go to a crappier undergraduate school for cheaper and then gone to Tisch grad school, which was my plan, and I personally would like to start full-time work after four years :)</p>

<p>Think seriously before taking out major loans to pay for college. Universities are big businesses, and some of them draw from undergraduate tuition to maintain graduate programs. </p>

<p>Check out this report about a student graduating from NYU with a lot of debt:</p>

<p>[Cost</a> of College – American Morning - CNN.com Blogs](<a href=“http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/category/cost-of-college/]Cost”>http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/category/cost-of-college/)</p>

<p>@viacollege thanks for clearing that up! man, loans sure can be scary.</p>