<p>The financial aid of-course. I know there are many threads on this, but I don't seem like I was fulfilled. So here it goes.</p>
<p>After you get a financial package that covers only probably 50-60% of your total cost, how do you think you would be able to pay it off? Imagine if you are on a scenario that your family made only 60k a year. How would you pull it off? </p>
<p>Do you think that your job would pay it off? For example if you had a 12k-20k a year job with a 22k financial aid package (That was the average aid package students get --> Data from the College Board). That's 34-40k. Now what? How would you pay off the other 6-8k? (Average cost of NYU is 46-52k). Oh and if it helps if you use both Room and Boards and without Room and Boards. </p>
<p>Any ideas?</p>
<p>I know this might not how-ever be the case. Maybe you might have a crappier job and have to pay more. But please use the 12k a year job scenario more then the 20k a year job please, as I would like to see some better answers. </p>
<p>NYU is way too expensive, and they are known for crappy financial aid. Besides, you have your whole life to live in New York City, but only four years to experience a traditional college experience.</p>
<p>^^ I would go to Hunter, but I am deterred because of everybody calling it a crappy school, or a dumb school. People call CUNY schools dumb as a whole. I don’t want to jeopardize my future by going to a CUNY if it is a low-standard school.</p>
<p>I could apply to Columbia, but it would be hard. Cornell is another good university I am looking forward to.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, I heard too. Plus my HS teacher said that Loans are hard to pay off. Which is turning me off from loans. I just love how NYU has 50,000 students with only 2b in endowment <.<</p>
<p>Just after the acceptance date in April, we received a letter from FA office for my DD and it says you are qualified to get full ride financed at 8% interest rate fully amortized payment stating on day one… Which means almost $275,000 balance at the time when she graduate.</p>
<p>I’ve got a cousin who always feels the need to clarify that he’s at the honors program at Hunter College… It’s sad and strange. Still, it’s a great deal, considering how worthless an undergrad degree is.</p>
<p>Who thinks the SUNYs/CUNYs are “dumb” schools? “Crappy,” fine, but full tuition and room more than compensate for that. But, “dumb?” The very people calling these schools “dumb” probably didn’t even graduate from college themselves.</p>
<p>CUNY schools have graduated some top-notch people in almost every field imaginable. Baruch’s Zicklin is a very good business school and the Grove School at CCNY is decent for engineering. What do you want to study?</p>
<p>The ones with cosigners get into extreme debt, those without just can’t go in many cases. There was an interesting NYT article quoting a recent grad saying she wanted to give back her diploma posted here a few months ago.</p>
<p>There are many equally good schools, apply and see if you’re one of the few they want badly enough to be generous with, if not, run!</p>
Then you should go directly to Hunter. For an undergrad it doesn’t matter what you study as long as you learn to think critically. Law School is another bill you will have to pay. Delay school bills as long as possible.</p>
<p>If you are from NY and go to NYU for undergrad over a CUNY or SUNY, you are crazy! No question about it. Attending SUNY and especially CUNY could save you as much as 70% per year. Moreover, NYU is a VERY big, impersonal school. It isn’t right for many people.</p>
<p>The sad reality is you don’t pull it off. Maybe you manage to make the finances work for year 1, but after your parents’ credit is shot by the large Parent PLUS loans and neither they nor you can borrow any more, you just can’t make it work.</p>
<p>So—you need to learn to compromise up front in the college search process. In addition to applying RD to NYU (on the off chance that they do wind up giving you a great FA package that meets your need and doesn’t include large Parent PLUS loans and/or a large gap), you:</p>
<p>1) look at every other college in/near NYC including the CUNYs if you feel like you absolutely must stay in the city. See if any of the other privates in/near NYC give you better need-based FA than NYU does.</p>
<p>and/or</p>
<p>2) look farther afield and try something new—like living in a small city (Binghamton? Buffalo? they’re far from villages and small towns, you know) or get really adventurous and try a small town or rural environment for school—like Fredonia or Geneseo for SUNYs or any of the numerous small LACs with good need-based FA that meet full need for all students that your stats are competive for.</p>
<p>I agree it would be nuts to attend if you had to have that much debt. If family makes less that $60k then research and apply to need blind schools. Sounds like the state schools are your best bet, though, so research which are the best programs. Especially if you want to go to law school, you will need to be as debt free as possible because you will incur enormous debt at law school.</p>
<p>Since law is not an undergraduate field of study, you really need to think about what you want to study as an undergrad. Many prelaw students do English or Philosophy or Political Science to develop critical thinking and writing skills. But really you can major in anything. The important thing to do is get a very high gpa and a high score on the LSAT. Since you might change your mind on law school (or not get in, or find the job market in law is even more depressed than now and choose not to go) you will have to have some alernate possibilities in mind.</p>
<p>So you guys are saying that Undergrad isn’t as important as getting a graduate degree? I know an undergrad is a bit useless, but wont colleges (When you are applying to a graduate school) look at what college you went to for undergrad, and decide not to choose you because the college sucked?</p>
<p>How much undergrad matters depends a whole lot on what you plan on doing with your life. Most Americans who manage to earn a bachelor’s degree in something, do it at large public universities, frequently the nameless, unknown ones that you think “suck”. Most Americans with bachelor degrees do not go on to earn a graduate degree because for many careers, an advanced degree is just simply not needed. [And there’s such a thing as being “overqualified” for a position too.]</p>
<p>For students who do plan a career that requires an advanced degree, the name on your undergraduate diploma is not usually all that important. For law school, your grades (where ever you are) and your score on the LSATs are very important. LOR from your faculty are also important. And note that people make it into law school from tier 2, 3, and 4 schools as well as tier 1 schools. People make it into law school from regional schools (including tier-4 regional schools) too.</p>
<p>Now, yes, there are differences between going to a top tier national college and a place like Buffalo State College (the “little” SUNY in Buffalo, not UB), where I teach. Having classmates who were all tip-top high school students does tend to make the rigor and intellectual richness of the undergraduate courses a bit deeper. Faculty can (and often do) expect more from their students when they know that the students are all cream of the crop ones.</p>
<p>But what * you * get out of * your * undergraduate experience is largely a function of what * you put into it* regardless of the quality of the school. And even at schools like Buffalo State College there are a few really good, strong students who have chosen to enroll primarily as a way of saving significant $$ for graduate school, law school, med school, etc. When these students are proactive, they can find professors who will work with them on their level—on individual research projects, on reading courses, etc. At many SUNYs and CUNYs there are Honors Colleges that are available that give the students in them certain perks, among which are Honors classes where the students in the class are all really good, strong students who could have easily gotten into colleges with much more prestige, but chose not too.</p>