I was very fortunate to be accepted into my top two choices - NYU and Stony Brook. NYU has always been my dream school and I was super excited to receive a very nice financial aid package, but it’s still beyond what my family can afford. With NYU, I’ll have to pay around $16k out of pocket (all of which will be loans) and for Stony Brook, I’ll only have to pay $1k (much more manageable cost, so I’ll be debt-free). My question is: is it really worth going to NYU even though I’ll graduate with a ton of debt? Or am I just better off going to the much more affordable Stony Brook where I’ll be debt-free?
Btw, I will be an applied psychology major with a pre-med track.
You can’t borrow 16k on your own. And if you are aiming for med school, then you should be conserving cash for that, not racking up big undergraduate debt.
Agreed with @GMTplus7. Stony Brook is a great SUNY school. Unless you love NYU enough to be paying an extra $60K for a similar-level undergraduate degree, I’d go with Stony Brook.
Stony Brook - if your family can’t pay 16K out of pocket, then it’s not affordable.
You may want to email NYU and let them know you’d like them to reassess your financial need based on the fact you have these … expenses (… = can’t avoid them, like medical bills, caring for ailing grandparent…)
If they don’t budget, and they probably won’t, then Stony Brook is a great choice for science. Will you be living on campus? Start joining the FB page, looking at the Living Learning Communities to join…