Hello everyone,
I’m Asian, and I’m deliberating on applying ED for NYU Stern majoring in Finance, asking for a financial aid package that amount to a total of 30-35 grand.
My grades in 9th grade was pretty bad, but I went to a high school in the US and my grades improved significantly. Unweighted average around 97, took 0APs 0 Hons in 10th 2 APs 4 Honors in 11th, and 3 APs 2 Honors in 12th.
SAT I’m estimating a >=1550, with Essay >7/7/7 (I prepped real hard for this)
How high of a chance do I have at getting in NYU and getting the financial help?
And do you know any international students that get into NYU paying less than or equal to mine? Please do tell me your anecdotes.
Thanks a lot!
You can look at NYU’s website to see what scholarships are available. Usually the description of the schoalrship will summarize what is needed to get one. I can tell you that NYU is notoriously tight-fisted. There may be some great scholarships, but they are going to give them to the best of the best, especially for internationals.
NYU is NOT known to be very generous with aid or scholarships. Like most schools, you will have an even harder time getting money as an international. However, I have heard of internationals getting anywhere between 10k to full tuition, so it’s definitely not impossible. Keep preparing for the SAT (and I would recommend taking the ACT at least once, since you might do better on one of them.) and keep your grades up. Your GPA and course rigor is definitely within Stern’s range, and if you do as well on the SAT as you think, you will have a decent chance of getting some aid if you are admitted.
One thing to note, though, is that NYU’s financial aid policy is a bit different in that they combine merit and need based aid. This means that even if you have good stats, if they decide your parents make enough money to pay full tuition, they won’t give you anything. If your family actually can’t pay for college without that scholarship, you will probably get aid. But if it’s just a matter of “mom and dad could probably pay full price, but they want to pay less,” I wouldn’t get my hopes up. If your parents’ annual income is below 80-100k, around 30k in scholarship money seems within the realm of possibility.
That’s very optimistic @koreanstudent . The OP had “bad grades” freshman year. The OP will have a total of six APs, which may be a lot for his school, but quite possibly not enough to overcome bad freshman grades, or be more competitive than a kid with ten APs and great grades every year. Yes, the hoped-for test score and course rigor are within Stern’s range, but they are not going to give a $30k scholarship to someone within range. They are going to give that kind of money to someone with stellar grades,test scores, and ECs. OP, please don’t confuse scholarships with financial aid. They are not the same.
I would not apply binding ED to a school like NYU that is not known for generous aid. You would be better off applying to multiple schools in the RD round so you will have the chance to compare financial offers.
@Lindagaf OP said his unweighted average was a 97; I automatically assumed it was his three-year average including his “bad” freshman year, but perhaps my assumption was incorrect. If OP made up for his bad year with stellar grades sophomore and junior year and his total UW GPA is a 97, I don’t think that sounds too bad at all, but if the 97 is from just sophomore or junior year, you’re right; it will depend on how OP did freshman year.