Hi! I’m new to the group so hope I’m doing this correctly! I would love some advice or sympathy. My daughter has wanted to attend NYU since 2nd grade - it was a dream of hers and we all supported it. I am divorced and her father and I don’t make much money - NYU is expensive! We were hopeful for a reasonable financial aid package. To help us I hired a service and they fill out the FAFSA, the CSS etc and submitted it. I thought I was fairly on top of it and him but clearly wasn’t. The noncustodial CSS wasn’t submitted on time. I called NYU financial aid and they said just get it in and you will be considered - the woman I spoke to refused to give me her name. They guy I hired for help didn’t say much but got it in. We applied ED and my DD was accepted! Yay! We were so happy! We opened thatfinancail aid package and NYU offered us nothing - nada - zilch -zero. Pell Grant, work study, loans. That’s it! We appealed the decision and asked for reconsideration, I was told yesterday that because the noncustodial CSS was late that we weren’t considered for any grants or scholarships and that can’t change and it stands for four years. Imagine my devastation. This seems so cruel. The guy I hired contends it was done on time. He has proof and said he will talk to NYU today, that it was a glitch linking them in a new system. But when I put all the pieces together I think it simply fell through the cracks. I feel so foolish and keep retracing those days looking at all I could have done differently. I was disappointed when I saw the original package, stunned even, but decided to work a lot more and just pay NYU (it’s a unique voice program
In Steinhardt she was accepted to). But now, knowing we weren’t considered I wonder if we would have gotten aid and how much! I understand NYU is not a generous school for that, but any amount would have helped! We had a EFC of zero, her grades and test scores were average for NYU. Has anyone been in this situation? Any advice? At this point I’m still hoping for humanity on the part of NYU, and having DD apply for any scholarships she can get her hands on!!! Needless to say, I’m losing a lot of sleep about it!
Big hug.
1- Your D needs to find a few other schools to apply to ASAP, or decide to take a gap year for next year and reapply. The idea that your D is going to come up with enough outside scholarships on her own to pay for NYU is- to put it bluntly- a waste of time.
2- I don’t know who recommended the guy you hired but you should go back to that person and explain what happened. You do NOT need to hire anyone to file the forms on your behalf. They can be time-consuming but it’s not rocket science. Going forward, you need to promise yourself that you and your D are going to handle the paperwork on your own. You just cannot afford extra fees. (nor do you need to.)
3- What is “reasonable”- i.e. what can you and your ex actually afford to pay out of pocket?
4- Where do you live and what are your instate options? There is a reason that most kids end up staying instate- and that’s because it typically becomes the most affordable option. Either commuting to a local private college that will give you a hefty aid package, or going to one of your state public colleges.
Hugs. Your D will go to college. LIkely not NYU. Start working on getting rid of that magical thinking. It is one of the most expensive colleges in the country, and even if you got EVERYTHING in on time, they are notorious for NOT giving enough aid to make it possible for a low income kid to attend. So pinning your hopes (and an ED application to boot) on NYU was not a realistic plan from day 1. How can you possibly “work a lot more” and pay for a college which isn’t giving you aid? What can you reasonably pay per year, four years???
5 - NYU is well-known for giving excellent aid to a very small number of students that it really, really wants, and lousy aid to everyone else. So even though right now they say that this is due to the CSS Profile arriving late, the truth is that your daughter might not have received a single cent more in aid even if everything had arrived months earlier.
Hoping your child has some other affordable options on her application list. If not…start looking for some TODAY…and get those applications submitted.
Average grades and test scores for NYU won’t even guarantee admission. Stats would need to be well ABOVE average to guarantee admission.
In terms of aid, NYU does not meet full need for all accepted students. They leverage thei need based aid they offer to kids with VERY high stats who they want to have attend for some reason.
Do you have your FAFSA ID information? Did you give this out to this third party person? Do you have all of,the log on information for your Profile form? I sure hope so! If not…you need to get that all ASAP…so that YOU can submit your FAFSA and Profile to additional schools. Do NOT…do NOT pay another dime to this third party person. Assuming you can access these forms, you can submit yourself to additional schools. FAFSA will be FREE. There is a fee for submitting the Profile to additional schools…but I’m betting it’s less costly to pay the fee than to pay this vendor.
Unfortunately, NYU’s policy is not unusual. There are many schools where if you don’t meet the financial aid deadline, you don’t get money
Right now you have an admit-deny; your D has been academically admitted but not given enough in aid to remotely make its financially feasible option. Pull out of the ED agreement. Hopefully you have some affordable options and stay on top of the deadlines.
Even if NYU gives a little bit of aid you probably can’t afford it. Even if you had gotten the forms in on time, how much do you think they would have given you?
You said she got Pell and loans, so you are a lower income family. You have about $12k of the $70k you need. This school is just not going to work out. Plenty of other good schools. A 7 year old should not have a dream school, especially one that she cannot afford.
If it helps, the following schools are both known for music and still accepting regular decision applications until January 15th:
St. Olaf
Skidmore
Oberlin
Lawrence U. (WI)
Unfortunately none of these schools are need blind.
^^ Good suggestions there. Don’t worry overly much about these places not being need blind for admissions. If they really want your daughter, they will find the money. Need-awareness comes into play when there are students who are equivalently desirable, but one needs less aid than the other.
Did the NCP submit the NCP Profile?
Are you from NYS? If you qualify for free tuition through TAP/Pell/Excelsior, then make sure she has a few SUNY on the list and applies asap. I think Fredonia and Purchase are good for music? @sybbie719 ?
As per Thumper, you need to make sure that the NCP stuff really is done and dusted. This means you, not some random who preys on people who are afraid of filling in forms. If he was worth paying, NYU ED would never have been a thing.
SUNY Potsdam too. For music.
@NYUbound2018: has your daughter been able to apply to the top schools listed in #6 (all of which “meet need”, meaning your daughter wouldn’t have to take more loans than the federal limit, and yourself none)? have you applied to SUNYs (free tuition)? Since you’re EFC zero had you applied HEOP to NYU?
Nyu still uses non-custodial profile to determine HEOP eligibility. For her D to be EOP eleigible non custodial income/assets, when combined with moms, would have to be under the income threshold for family size.
SUNY collects the non custodial info for EOP eligibility as part of their verification process. Remember the first EOP/HEOP cut is based on academics. The second cut is based on finances.
Hi and thank you all for your replies! I’ve been busy trying to straighten things out with the NYU financial aid department, with a lot of help from the company I hired. It’s complicated but apparently there is a glitch with the CSS profiles linking to the NC-CSS profile. It was submitted on time but didn’t properly connect to my daughters. The case was reviewed and we were considered and awarded financial aid - I’m so grateful it all worked out! I have read other comments on CC about people having similar issues linking the accounts. It’s such a frustrating process!
But did you receive ENOUGH financial aid?
Because what’s at stake with NYU is that they may give a bit of money but nowhere near what the student needs, and expect parents to take on debt for their kid.
I an glad that you were awarded financial aid but, as @MYOS1634 said, will it be enough? You have a 0 EFC. If there is an EFC based on the non-custodial parent’s income and assets, is he willing to help pay for college. If the answer is no, are you in a position to take up the slack and fill any gaps in the package. With the cost sure to rise, you have to think about how will you be able to finance NYU for 4 years.
Hi @sybbie719 and @MYOS1634 - yes, aid is enough and she will be able to attend without either of us accumulating an unrealistic amount of debt. Very grateful!
if the debt is more than the $5500 federal loan that your D is able to take in her own name, you are walking the unrealistic debt line
Agree with Sybbie - Parent Plus loans are a financial time-bomb. They are NOT financial aid.
I know lower income parents that took out a Plus loan for Freshman year and then did not qualify Sophomore year. DD has to drop out. The payments on the original loan then started and because there was a balance due the school DD could not transfer to a lower cost school until the balance was paid in full. The school would not release the transcript (this is standard).
There is no such thing as a dream school. Find another option!