I heard a lot of negative things about NYU’s financial aid and people trying to dissuade others from applying here.
My family makes about $24,000 a year. And my stats would put this school somewhere between a target and safety. Can I expect to get lots of financial aid from NYU or is it a school only wealthy students should consider like the others say?
With NYU, there is no way to know what your financial aid package will be unless/until you apply. NYU could meet your need 100%, or it could meet none of it at all.
My advice to low income applicants - or to anybody who can’t afford NYU without financial aid - is this: do not apply unless you know you will be able to walk away from an acceptance that includes poor financial aid. If you are confident you can walk away from that type of acceptance, then apply and see what you get.
@prospect1 Why is it so unpredictable at NYU? Is it because most of their scholarships are merit based?
NYU does not promise to meet the financial need of its students. In fact, NYU does not have the endowment funds to do so. Therefore, scholarships are not awarded to everyone, and are not even offered based on who is the neediest. You will hear about students with EFCs of zero (i.e., the neediest) being awarded nothing, while students who are much better off financially will get very nice scholarships. It seems to be based on who NYU desires the most (for varied and unpredictable reasons), so, yes, qualifying for an NYU scholarship appears to be merit motivated. Some NYU colleges seem to have more to spend than others (Stern and Tisch especially). There appear to be some pure merit awards available at some of the NYU colleges; these are very rare. There are, however, no pure-need awards. Meaning, your pure need alone will not get you a scholarship from NYU.
How you will be viewed and valued by the admission committee is ultimately unpredictable; therefore, any scholarship from NYU is unpredictable. Your raw need, which is something you can predict, will not in itself get you institutional funds from NYU. It could get you Pell money and other possible governmental aid, but under no scenario would governmental aid alone be enough to pay for NYU for somebody in your circumstances.
Do you live in NYC and qualify for HEOP?