NYU Admission

I recently got admitted to NYU, which has been my dream school forever. I applied to the Gallatin school with the intention of a pre-med track ( I would major in neuroscience or public health and minor in political science and Spanish). I didn’t receive any aid though- I am expected to pay the full 78k, but my parents aren’t very wealthy ( income of ~110k). I feel like my financial status is being held at the same standard as the “rich” who go to NYU seeing my tuition price. Is it worth it to attend with the goals I have in mind? And if I came out of NYU with the intention of taking a few gap years to work so I can save up for med school, will I come out having a job that will have a good salary?

Nope.

thanks, for your input! any reasoning behind your opinion?

You might get a job, but your debt will be enormous. You should consider appealing your aid offer, as you would drown in debt if you attend. My question, why did you apply ED, since most ED applicants get little to no aid? NYU isn’t exactly known for their great aid offerings either.

How would you pay if the cost of attendance is roughly equal to your parents’ net income? Graduating from NYU doesn’t guarantee you a job, much less one that pays enough to allow you to save for med school in a few years. And there’s the small question of where the ~$320k for your undergrad would come from.

Lets assume that you and your parents can pay 20k/year. If THEY (you can’t) borrow the rest, you would have a debt service payment around $2,300/month. That plus food, housing and taxes likely puts you in a negative cash flow position.

NYU is notoriously bad with financial aid. It does not appear that your family can afford NYU without taking on huge debt load. IMO there is no way that working an entry level job for a few years after graduation will get you enough money to pay off undergrad debt and save enough for med school.

Unfortunately you, like most college students, must take finances into account when choosing a college. I’m sorry but I strongly suggest you move on and find affordable college options.

^^^echoing what they said above. Appeal your offer ASAP! If they can’t give you more than you need (I’d say you need around $40,000 at the least) then you’ll have to withdrawl. In hindsight, you shouldn’t have applied ED, and your parents should’ve known better.

thanks everyone for your advice. yeah in hindsight, ED wasn’t the best decision. We did a lot of research going into it and used a lot of net price calcs do see what the tuition cost may be, but it was a significantly lower estimate. NYU doesn’t have an appeal process for incoming freshmen so the odds aren’t in my favor

@cohelp2024 call the Financial Aid office and talk to someone. You’ll get better information from the school - tell them that your aid is substantially different from the NPC and make sure they have your family’s information correct. It may be you didn’t fill things out correctly or they are missing income verification info. Don’t walk away from your ED acceptance without making sure you won’t get aid. The fact that there’s no appeal process online doesn’t mean people can’t appeal their financial aid package. That said, if the end result of the discussion with NYU is that you have not been given financial aid, let them know you can’t afford the school and look elsewhere. NO school is worth saddling yourself and your family with that much debt and the NYU degree won’t impact your income enough to rationalize the debt.

Echo what @CaMom13 said. There was a similar case last year (where it seemed unbelievable that there was no aid given the income) and there had been an error. Assuming that both your FAFSA and CSS forms were ticked and received (in some cases the forms did not have the student application ID and had not been linked) then I would agree with checking to ensure all the info is correct. NYU is stingy with aid, but not to the extent of expecting entire after tax income to go on paying fees.

If NYU remains unaffordable though, then no it’s not worth large amounts of debt, especially if you have graduate school in mind.

NYU is known for its poor financial aid to middle income students. They have enough students who have money or, who think that if their parents take out loans, it will work out in the end. NOPE.

Med school will run your family another $300K. They don’t give aid at medical school other than bigger loans.
At my daughter’s med school, most of the students are funded by trust funds or huge loans. ALL of the students would qualify for merit, if the school gave it, because, let’s face it, these are the best of the best students with perfect undergrad grades, perfect MCAT’s, and great volunteer/work histories.
Your parents would be out over $½ million to fund your education on mostly loans. Your return on investment wont begin to cover that in the first 20 years of practice.

I’ve seen that if you are in-state, they (NYU) tend to give a little more, but not much. Assume full pay because you did apply ED.

I’m not sure where this idea that NYU doesn’t give aid to ED students comes from. Both this years and last year’s (much more active) thread have plenty of ED students with aid, occasionally even generous aid for those students it really wants.
Apparently NYU on average provides around 60% of need through grants/scholarships and expects the rest to be funded by loans.

I agree that NYU is known for being stingy. It’s not worth debt. How much can your parents pay per year without borrowing? Do you have any financial safeties on your list? You can take the ~$5500/year federal student loan. If a school requires more debt than that it’s too expensive.

Dream school or not, $78k a year is a pathetic value for a bachelors degree. Here’s my advice. Your dream is being a doctor, not going to an expensive school with a pretty purple logo. You can be a doctor at ANY accredited university with top grades and strong MCAT scores.

If you want medical school, you need to keep the debt to a minimum. This means you really should go to an in-state university. The best chance of getting into medical school is in your home state, because state schools favor state residents.

Can you appeal for a reconsideration for higher financial aid?

thanks for the input @izrk02
I applied ED after doing a lot of research and calculations. Using multiple net price calculators, including NYU’s, tuition was estimated to be around $20k less. Although an estimate, my parents agreed to help out with that as we all assumed that I would receive some aid

thanks guys for the input. I applied ED after doing a lot of research and calculations. Using multiple net price calculators, including NYU’s, tuition was estimated to be around $20k less. Although an estimate, my parents agreed to help out with that as we all assumed that I would receive some aid (I know they are awful at giving aid but we don’t truly qualify as a family who can pay with no worries). Also I was planning on taking student loans and my parents were going to help pay as well

This really sucks for you, I’m sorry about that. IMO, you might just have to turn down the offer. It really sucks but it’s better than being $300,000 in debt at graduation. You could also save money for med school by going in-state and then working for a few years.

You don’t have to turn down the offer. My sister went to NYU. She managed to finish her study in 3 years, but it didn’t save our family that much money because the cost of living in NYC itself. Everything is EXPENSIVE. BUT, you could consider pushing yourself a little harder to save some money. I also know students who have part-time job, and they managed. If it’s your dream school, you should give it go. However, I would suggest you start to save up now, make a clear plan, and really really talk with your parents. Overall, there’s

a lot of pressure. Good luck.