<p>I was accepted to both Hunter and NYU. I received the FA from NYU, with annual $31,300 in scholarships/grants, $4K work-study, and $9,500 in loans. </p>
<p>Would it be reasonable for me to attend NYU? They give their total tuition as $40,000, im not sure if this is the case for everyone, maybe less depending on your courses required. If the annual tuition is more like $38K, i could handle that but I could not accept anything beyond that (excluding book costs). Any suggestions to help me make a decision?</p>
<p>Would you be living with your family? The costs you gave seem very low for NYU with room and board included. </p>
<p>You might want to ask on the NYU forum whether people with 4K in work-study were able to get that much work. That’s the highest work-study amount I’ve ever seen, and I would be worried about getting enough hours to really earn all that money. Also, the work-study money comes in only as you work the hours – most likely a few weeks later – so you can’t rely on having any of it available for the start of fall semester. </p>
<p>How was your package from Hunter?</p>
<p>*I was accepted to both Hunter and NYU. I received the FA from NYU, with annual $31,300 in scholarships/grants, $4K work-study, and $9,500 in loans. *</p>
<p>Are you commuting from home?</p>
<p>Yes, im commuting from home.</p>
<p>I didnt get any FA info from Hunter yet (they mention some scholarship in passing in their email) but all they said was to provide documents like tax returns.</p>
<p>Checking my messages, I saw that I got the Hunter College Community Scholarship. They say they cover the full tuition, but I already know people who attend other CUNYs who are completely covered by just Financial Aid grants, no need for scholarships.</p>
<p>I initially prefer NYU because its closer to my home.</p>
<p>It looks like you are a commuter student and the amount you gave for your COA is about right. Tuition for this year is approx 38,000. That does not include books or any other expenses.
The work study is not deducted from your tuition bill. You have to go out and look for a job and try to earn that amount money.<br>
So it is really 13,500 you need between loans and your earnings.</p>
<p>I think NYU could be doable without quite so much in loans. If teshubisthelight can earn enough this summer to buy a laptop (if he/she doesn’t already have one) and buy textbooks for fall semester and pay for August/September transportation back and forth from home to school, the fall-issued grants plus the fall disbursement of loans should be enough to pay all of the tuition and fees for fall semester. If the OP gets the work-study job in August, by the end of September he/she should be starting to get regular paychecks that can be used to pay commuting expenses, miscellaneous costs, and some lunches/meals at NYU, as long as he/she sets aside $400 or so for books for spring semester out of this. </p>
<p>If a winter break job is available at NYU to keep earning work-study, that’s great, but if not, finding at least a temporary job during the winter holidays should bring in a bit more.</p>
<p>I’d probably take the full spring loan disbursement, with a goal of not spending all of it and keeping some in an emergency account, in case there is a disaster with the computer or something similar. </p>
<p>It will take some work, but if you’re able to get summer employment fairly reliably, I would think that you might be able to take less in the way of loans soph. year. </p>
<p>This is one of the few reasonably manageable NYU packages I’ve seen here. Congratulations!</p>
<p>For Hunter, you would also receive other grants like a $5500 Pell and around $4900 in TAP. These will be limited by your total COA, so they may not be for the full amount you’re eligible for, but in effect you would be going to school for free or could have the option of living in the residences. So, the question you must decide on is whether NYU worth ending up $35-40K in debt. You should consider that NYU is going to raise their tuition/fee rates every year, that you must earn money above your annual loan amounts, that interest will be accumulating on unsubsidized loans while you’re in school, etc. and factor in how much financial stress this is going to create for you. If the only reason you’re favoring NYU is the shorter commute, I would say that will quickly become negligible in comparison to the hours you’ll put in earning $4K in work study! Just my $.02…good luck with your decision!</p>