<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I will be a senior next year at a public highschool in IL. My dream school is NYU; however, as we all already know, NYU is not the most gracious in terms of financial aid. Their website doesn't set clear parameters on who qualifies for what sort of FA, and so I was wondering if someone who attends NYU or knows anything about it could help. Looking at my stats, could someone tell me if I would qualify for Merit aid and such?</p>
<p>4.35 W GPA/3.90 UW
34 ACT
Mom+Dad $200,000 combined income
I'm the oldest of 5 brothers and sisters; we'll all be in college within 7 years
I'm Assyrian
5s on all 6 of the APs I've taken the past 3 years; I'll be taking 6 more this year</p>
<p>I'm planning on pursuing a double major in political science and middle-eastern studies. I also want to be a human-rights lawyer. </p>
<p>Thanks again for any sort of help!</p>
<p>NYU merit aid is not predictable. You should just apply and see what happens, and make sure you have other, more realistic options.</p>
<p>With your stats, there are many colleges where you could earn merit aid.</p>
<p>Does “I’m Assyrian” mean you would be an international student?</p>
<p>Nearly all of nyu merit scholarships have a need component. With that income I’d doubt that you’d get much. And you might need a higher act as well</p>
<p>How much will your parents pay.</p>
<p>Have your parents run the npc on nyu website</p>
<p>No I live here, but my nationality is assyrian. </p>
<p>We do have 5 kids so my parents are unwilling to pay a lot. Even if we all went to the state school, UIUC, my parents would still pay $500,000 for us all to go to school. That’s why I’m asking about aid.</p>
<p>
Well, see [FinAid</a> | Other Aid | What If No Help from Parents?](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/parentsrefuse.phtml]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/parentsrefuse.phtml).
</p>
<p>I think you should look schools that offer a lot of merit scholarships, like U of Alabama, see [Undergraduate</a> Scholarships - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/]Undergraduate”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/)</p>
<p>Find a new dream. Really. The chances that NYU will come through with big merit money for you are…slim to none. And, it is one of the most expensive schools in the country. I’ve seen students whose families have far lower incomes than your family has get minimal merit aid with higher stats. Nothing wrong with submitting an application, but don’t consider it any more than buying a lottery ticket. The question is not will you get it – you might well – but is there something that would suggest that NYU would give you fabulous merit aid when they give fabulous merit aid to a tiny, tiny percentage of students. (And their general financial aid is sucky.)</p>
<p>Their cost of attendance is $63,537, and their average non-need-based award is $7,331. If you happened – by chance – to get an average award, NYU would still have an out-of-pocket cost to your family of $56K/year. I can well understand why your parents are leery of big costs with so many kids yet to come.</p>