Hi, this is my first time using this site, so I hope I am in the right place.
Basically I need help making a decision about college. The deposit is due in two days and I am stuck. Here is my situation:
I live in New York City and was accepted to the Macaulay Honors College at the CUNY City College of New York for the Grove school of engineering which entails free tuition, study abroad, a laptop, and personalized academic advisement. Sounds great and I and my family are really not in a strong financial situation so I would not be able to afford to pay full college tuition. CCNY is within a ten minute commute via subway. When I got this acceptance, I pretty much thought at the time that this was where I wanted to go.
Then, I got my decision for NYU back and found (surprisingly) that they gave me a full tuition scholarship to their Tandon School of Engineering (formerly Polytech). With financial aid from the government, room and board costs are approximately $5000 for the year. Without room and board, I am looking at a three hours commute back and fourth.
So, I need advice. What do I do? I know that NYU is a prestigious institution, but I have heard so many good things about CCNy and Macaulay,
Go with NYU. Unlike CCNY, NYU has a more nationally recognizable name, giving you greater mobility should you decide to move out of New York. Also, it’s only going to be $5000 a year, and even if you take out loans for that, as an engineer it wouldn’t take long to pay it off. I’m not very familiar with Macaulay, but this is just my personal opinion based on the prestige. Also, NYU rarely gives full scholarships, so getting one must mean that the school does really want you. Congrats on the full scholarships!
What is the total cost for Room & Board at NYU and is $5K per year cost net of students loans? How would you pay the $5K per year if student loans are already factored into the equation? Is study abroad opportunities something that is important to you? Any plans to go to graduate school? Undergraduate major?
Is there any minimum GPA requirement to keep the full tuition scholarship at NYU Tandon School of Engineering? Macaulay Honors College requires a minimum GPA Freshman year of 3.3 and a minimum of 3.5 for sophomore through senior year. Did you receive 1-year of Room and Board at the Towers at CCNY? Grove school of engineering graduates enjoy a wide array of companies that recruit on campus (geographically diverse).
NYU for 5K including R&B is a steal. I am not saying this because of prestige - Macaulay is plenty prestigious in NYC - but because NYU will allow you to have a more pleasant learning experience, less redtape and inflexibility (comes with the CUNY territory and can’t be avoided even with Macaulay), no budget cuts or restrictions, greater odds of graduating on time, better contacts for networking through NYU (you can even double major or minor in any field in Manhattan), more study abroad options, better facilities. Please realize that people actually pay (willingly or sometimes foolishly) 70K to attend NYU so you get to have something many want, at a price most can only dream of.
so you get to have something many want, at a price most can only dream of.