The best merit aid is for incoming freshmen, not returning students.
Was all $100,000 in legal fees paid in the 2014 tax year. That is the info that will be used for your current financial aid.
Also, this would need to be an essential legal fee. Can you provide documentation that this is the case?
My opinion, if your family can’t afford health insurance for your mom, they can’t afford To pay for NYU
Study harder - you can’t take standardized test this year for your gap year.
If you do not take classes anywhere, you can qualify for merit based on your stats you have from last year’s application plus your final GPA for HS. The merit testing deadlines won’t move for you.
Can you perhaps put in two years at CC, or go to a lower cost school you have been accepted to if you do not want to take a gap year and can afford those costs?
If you have room/board covered with family, then maybe you need to defer NYU for a year if you cannot work out the $$. However you do not want to take out loans, run out of money before finishing a degree, and then have a big hole and a little shovel (what you can earn w/o a degree).
yes I have the documentation to prove this case.
Do you have $49,000? You still can’t afford this school. I’m going to be really frank and honest, much like everyone else has been on this post. You CANNOT afford this school.
It’s not that much of a difference from $70k if you don’t have it.
But, it sounds like you don’t really care how much it costs because it’s “NYU”.
They are not going to give you a full ride. You’re full pay at this stage. What’s worse is that you knew that NYU was known for poor financial aid! It won’t get better next year, it’s worse!
If you had received money from those other schools would you have attended?
My guess is probably not, and given your previous post about NYU, any other school would not have been good enough.
Now that reality has hit, just before the start of the term and you’re stuck with bills, the “if only the lawsuit had settled” wouldn’t have solved this, there would have been something else.
Will your future occupation pay you enough to pay back these loans? That’s a lot of debt to pay for bragging rights that you attended NYU.
Newsflash! It doesn’t really matter where you get your diploma, as long as you graduate, employers don’t really care. It’s what you do that matters.
So, these would be my suggestions:
Solution 1). Wait a gap year, save money, don’t take ANY classes and reapply to a new batch of schools that will give you scholarships as an entering freshman.
Solution 2). Go to a CC and transfer to a more affordable option or try to transfer back into NYU, maybe your lawsuit will be settled in two years.
Solution 3). Continue with NYU, with a lifetime of debt (not exaggerating), so that you will be able to:
*continue to live with your parents,
*not have decent credit to buy a car or home,
*but, you will be able to tell your family and friends that you went to NYU.
BTW, you can file bankruptcy, but school loans aren’t included in bankruptcy proceedings, so you and your parents are stuck with those loans for life.
Please, please, please listen to the advice from aunt bea. She is absolutely on target.
If your family is in such a state that some members are without health insurance, you cannot justify the costs of NYU this year. Maybe next year after taking a gap year and saving some money that you’ve earned, but certainly not this year.
You won’t get merit next year. That’s not how schools work. They don’t give out merit to continuing students for good grades. You have to get the pkg going in.
You can’t afford this school unless your parents will pay for it.
So your dad can’t pay anything the first few years.
And, somehow you think that even if NYU cut your costs by a couple thousand, you’ll be happy???
Once you graduate, how do you plan on paying back the $80k that you owe???
BTW…has your dad said that he’ll cosign those loans? If not, then this convo is moot.
Almost anyone can get a Parent Plus loan. But it doesn’t mean it’s smart to do so.
NYU is going to primarily look at your family income and assets. The school is a Profile school where there is a place to put extenuating circumstances. Did you put the lawsuit and medical expenses there? If not, why?
If your Dad can’t pay the tuition immediately, the school disenrolls you from the roster and you are NOT ALLOWED to register for any class or lab. You are dropped immediately and some counselor nabs that open spot for someone else.
We (posters) have experience with this because most of us here have paid for our children’s tuitions and fees online.
The Bursar’s office (cashier) sends the bill online and we have the money deducted from our banks online; it’s a very efficient process with immediate deadlines.
They don’t say, “oh, well she can’t pay for two years, so let’s wait until her Dad can pay”.
You pay upfront per semester or quarter and they are very good about emailing, texting and calling every phone line in your house to request payment. You are not enrolled in classes until that money has been paid.
An ironic twist is that you are required to have health insurance; this will show up on your bill.
@thumper1 I wrote in my CSS profile my family’s situation but I’m starting to think they have overlooked it. On the fafsa there was no section where I was able write about my family’s medical or lawyer fees … There was only a section for my dad’s income and other income based questions that really didn’t help us out. Please tell me if I did anything wrong or anything I can fix. I have already took out the parent’s loan with my dad because if I didn’t I wasn’t able to enroll in classes. So Im covered for this semester but I want to know if I could at least change anything … And I just want to thank you for trying to help me out.
You live in New Jersey-how long is your daily commute to NYU?
Do you have siblings who want to go to college?
How much do your parents earn each year?
@madison85 I do not have any siblings who is planning to go to college. I have an older sister who has already graduated. And my commute isn’t that long. Its 40 minutes maximum and I’m planning to use 3 dollars every time I go to school as a train fare because my sister will drop me off close to her workplace which is very close to nyu. And only my dad works. On fafsa it says 160,000 which I know is a lot but he pays half of his income off as company debt and plus the lawyer fees. So I roughly estimate that he brings 50,000 or 60,000 back home.
So basically would you want or do you expect your family to pay every remaining dollar they have on NYU? Would you want them to borrow per year almost as much as they bring home in order for you to attend NYU? Of course not!!
I know that this is not what you want to hear, but NYU is not affordable for you and you need to look for an affordable option. The only thing that NYU is looking at is that your family makes $160k, which means that you have no financial need for institutional aid (unfortunately debt and lawyers fees are not considered)
As others have stated, you need to take a gap year and look at schools where if you can get full tuition or close to it, (check the stickies at the top) to bring college into an affordable range.
I speak as a person who:
Has 2 graduate degrees from NYU (employer paid)
Have worked very closely with NYU for many years in my other life because we sent a lot of our employees to school there
a parent who had a student turn down NYU Law (with no money) to attend a top 20 school with a 3 year full tuition scholarship (it all worked out in the end for her).
NYU is famous for leaving a trail of broken dreams and tears for many young students who consider it their BAE only to find out that the monetary realities make it impossible to attend. You have the goods to do well, just find an affordable option; your gift will make room for you.
What we are going to do is this; you are going to tell us your SAT score (CR+ Math), and we are going to recommend some schools where you stand a good chance of getting merit $$
NYU did not overlook what you wrote on your Profile. BUT it was your jib to immediately (like when you first got your award) to provide them with documentation about both issues if you wanted them to reconsider your financial aid.
You didn’t do this.
Sure, go and talk to them…but please don’t get your hopes up. Even if they adjust your aid, and give you $3000 more for the year…that is a drop in the bucket overall.
Remember too…the cost of attending NYU will increase annually. Your aid likely won’t.
It’s unfortunate that you are in this situation, but truly, if this is going to be a financial burden to your family, then better to take a year off now…and reconsider. See if NYU will allow you to do this. Perhaps your family finances will reconcile by next year.
My opinion…if your family is going to take a loan out for anything…it should be for health insurance especially since your mom needs medical care.
I don’t think NYU missed that your dad has expenses that reduce his $160k income to $60k take home. Even if they give you some aid at this late date, it won’t be enough to make a dent in a $50k loan.
NYU isn’t worth $200k worth of debt. If you enroll this fall but can’t afford to continue, you’ll no longer be eligible for grants from other colleges, you’ll have to begin repaying the $50k you’re borrowing now, and your parents may not be able to borrow any money to help you. There’s no school within commuting distance that you can pay for without taking out more than the federal student loans (~$5500/year)? I’d look into that instead of wasting time talking to NYU.
I doubt NYU will consider your father’s legal cost but they will consider unreimbursed medical expenses. Those should have been reported at the time of filing for aid. You see the COA for dorming is a lot higher than COA for living at home (see the website for the different amounts) so they think you have less ‘need’ being at home. NYU doesn’t meet need anyway.
I would advise that will these family financial issues that you don’t put them in debt. You can borrow your student loan amount, but unless most of the cost if from savings, then your family borrowing 35 or 40k a year is crazy. You should go to City college and look to transfer in as a Jr or something. Many kids get blind to NYU and go even when it is disastrous for family finances. You might consider a gap year and find somewhere affordable to go. NYU will likely let you defer admission.
How much will you earn each year on average in your future career from your Art History degree?
What type of job can you get with a degree in Art History?
Do your parents plan to pay off all the loans ($200,000) for your degree (ask them) or do they expect you to?
An art history degree qualifies you for any job that requires a Bachelor’s degree. Many people will just take some business job. One I know is working at google, another is running a gallery, another takes moderate pay non profit jobs at different conservancies.
"An art historian’s degree and area of expertise will often help determine his salary. For instance, an art historian with an advanced degree will often be able to command a higher salary.
http://www.theartcareerproject.com/blast-into-the-past-with-an-art-history-career/355/
In 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, museum curators and archivists made $47,220 and $45,020, respectively. University professors, on the other hand, made an average of $58,830 in the same year."
Why didn’t you appeal your NYU financial aid award in APRIL?