If you were me, what would you do?

<p>For me, it's down to either NYU or PSU. NYU is by far my #1, it's been my dream school for as long as I can remember. The problem is, it's twice the cost of PSU. I got into GSP at NYU, and will eventually head on to CAS for journalism and economics if I end up at NYU, so I'm wondering, if you were in my position, what would you do? NYU or PSU? My reasoning is that being in NYC, I'd have a lot more career opportunities than in the middle of the PA farmlands, and NYU is just plain a more prestigious school. Am I generally correct in this assumption? Really, I'm not afraid of taking out the loans to pay for NYU (because my parents CANNOT afford it), I'm just worried that I won't be able to pay them back after I graduate.</p>

<p>What everyone's take?</p>

<p>I would try to get in touch with journalism and econ majors from each school, and then determine if the difference in career opportunities are worth the price tag</p>

<p>I'm from PA, so I'm pretty familiar with your problem. I've always been turned off from PSU because of its reputation as a party school. Don't get me wrong, Penn State is a good school; but NYU has more distinguished academics that I believe will serve you better in the future.</p>

<p>Now, as to whether its worth taking out lots of loans, that depends on your specific financial situation. I'd recommend talking to someone who 's familiar with finances to figure out how much of a loan you would actually have to take out and then make your decision.</p>

<p>Hope this helped, and good luck!</p>

<p>My suggestion:</p>

<p>Go to PSU for two years and apply to transfer. It is hard to double major at CAS if you were at GSP for two years. This way, go to PSU, start being a double major in Journalism/Econ.. save a crapload of money... and get a NYU degree. If you do well at PSU, it should not be terribly difficult to transfer.</p>

<p>IHeartNY08--that is horrible advice. One should never bank on getting into NYU as a freshmen, let alone a transfer, which is even harder since its dependent on space availability. If the OP got into GSP-it means he's not at the top of the NYU applicant pool; transfering to NYU is going to be no easy task, even if he does well at PSU, your HS record still counts (albeit less so then for freshmen admissions, but its not ignored). </p>

<p>Also, if you think its hard to double major in CAS coming from GSP, its likely even harder for transfers. At least from GSP, NYU will accept all your credits (since they are from NYU). On the other hand, NYU is notorious for not taking all the credits from a transfer.</p>

<p>Furthermore, you don't want to miss the freshmen year experience at NYU (living in all freshmen dorms, meeting others, etc.)...though certainly not impossible, its always harder to make friends later on no matter what college you go to. </p>

<p>I say, you have to sit down with your parents and assess the situation. Just how much is money an issue? Unless going to NYU is going to make your parents homeless or something, this is an easy decision.</p>

<p>thanks jwblue- transferring after 2 years was never something I really wanted to do.. and as far as money, it is an issue. my parents are already in debt, and can't contribute that much to my education, and I highly doubt they'd take out a second mortgage on our house just to pay for my education (especially because I have 2 younger sisters). that said, we can't really afford the 20k for PSU either- so I'm taking out loans either way. </p>

<p>ughhhh.... decisions, decisions</p>

<p>It's actually easier to transfer:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nyunews.com/news/campus/7228.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nyunews.com/news/campus/7228.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Anyway, yeah, if money is that big of an issue I still standby what I suggest. GSP is notorious for not giving that much money, so don't get your hopes up. I've met a lot of transfers who come from colleges significantly lower in rankings than NYU - even community colleges. Just do really well at the college you are at before transferring.</p>

<p>No it is most certainly not easier to transfer. Quoted directly from the article you posted (what NYU admissions dean Hall says):</p>

<p>"The College of Arts and Science receives the most transfer applications, making it harder to transfer there. Perhaps, then, the transfer myth was only meant to apply to CAS, according to Hall. </p>

<p>"Understanding that competitive is defined as the likelihood of being offered admission, [CAS] is the most competitive," Hall wrote in an e-mail. </p>

<p>Although CAS attracts more freshman applications than NYU's other schools, its undergraduate acceptance rate is higher than its transfer acceptance rate. Thus, transferring to CAS is marginally more difficult than applying as an undergraduate." </p>

<p>-The fact that the transfer admit rate is slightly higher than the freshmen admit rate means nothing. Transfer admissions is much smaller and the applicants are self selective. You have to DO WELL in college to have any chance of transferring to NYU. A 3.59 college GPA (NYU's transfer average as indicated in the article) is not exactly easy to get, it would be extremely hard to get at a large state school like Penn St. where there would likely be a brutal curve in some intro. classes. </p>

<p>Furthermore, those transfer stats. are also skewed by School of Ed. which is well known as the easiest NYU college to transfer to (they even have arrangements w/ community colleges)..the OP however would be transferring to CAS. Again, HS record will not exactly be ignored in trasnfer admissions either. </p>

<p>Lastly, if the OP can avoid it, why transfer? He'll miss the NYU freshmen experience. NYU is one of the best college experiences around...why would you want less of it...doesn't make any sense to me.</p>