<p>gradygrad, is it a small group of people who read every thread about NYU? I doubt it. And many people post throughout this site about colleges they don’t have firsthand experience with. But if it makes you happy I will refrain from posting about the university. I have done what I can to enlighten people. The rest, as you say, is up to them.</p>
<p>Sally, you bring up very good points. Also worth mentioning is that the CAS faculty has issued a vote of no-confidence wrt the NYU president, in large part because of the dilution of the NYU brand with the overseas campuses. I suspect the CAS kids are smart enough to understand the LPS kids are “cheapening” their degrees, and are resentful. As they should be, imho.</p>
<p>ETA - the ONLY thing that makes the LPS program marketable to students and parents is that students can transfer into CAS with minimal standards (some majors limited). In essence, students can buy an NYU degree. As more professors realize the NYU brand is being brought down, and the other students realize this, there is no guarantee this policy will continue.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with being given an opportunity to transfer from LSP into one of the other schools at the end of two years. That’s not “buying a degree.” Many other schools have this option. One of them is Emory. At Emory some students are directed to start at Oxford College for the first two years and then transfer into Emory. At USC in California, many students attend the first two years on a special pre-USC track at one of the community colleges. You can’t be flunking LSP and transfer into another college at NYU and you can’t graduate from NYU without attaining a certain GPA. How is this buying a degree? Also, Sally selectively chose words from the article she cited that refered to the General Studies program that eventually became LSP. Did you know that students can now choose to attend LSP on their applications? There is an incredible amount of rumors and incorrect information being spread on this thread by resentful people with an agenda.
My D is attending NYU next year and I was not at all surprised by the finances because I did my research and knew what to expect. Stop blaming NYU because you cannot afford to attend. No one forced you to apply there. No one promised a certain aid package.</p>
<p>And btw Sally, yes, I do consider a #32 to be a “top” college ranking. Out of the 3500+ colleges in the U.S., #32 is in the top 1%.</p>
<p>Of course NYU is a top university. A few of it’s programs, like Stern and Tisch, are among the very top of their respective schools of undergraduate study. Any competitive college and university consistently ranked in the top 50 USNWR is a “top college”, with a caveat that there are many, many fine institutions of higher education that are far lower ranked than NYU, if they even made the list at all. And NYU would be ranked even higher save for it’s horrible financial AID allowances, cost, and lack of strong athletics, which are all factored into the ranking. The fact that NYU is ranked “only 32” on the USNWR, despite having very low marks for FA, cost, and sports, speaks volumes. Like any other university, it has some departments that are stronger than others. But the overall university is prestigious, selective, highly desired, and yes, well ranked.</p>
<p>This just seem like a rather absurd debate to have, regardless of one’s personal feelings about the school. If somebody came on to this board claiming that Boston College, Tufts, Georgia Tech, Penn State, and Wake-Forest, all colleges ranked close to, or below, NYU, were not top schools I’d be just as flabbergasted at the insinuation.</p>
<p>We are still really new here, but I dont understand all the angst over the prices. They are what they are, and there are well over 20,000 students every year paying the price, either with their own money, their parents’ money, loans, or someone else’s money (smile … grants, scholarships, etc). The tuition is by no means way out of line with what most other better known private colleges and universities are charging. Given that its NYC, the room and board is pretty high, and that’s what does make NYU stand out in terms of total costs. Slightly higher tuition and significantly higher living expenses = a really big annual number.</p>
<p>I do understand the discussion about giving a little merit money or grants versus all loans. Our daughter got accepted at Tisch this fall, but NYU was the only school not to give her any merit money, which averaged 15 - 25K a year at the other schools. A few of these other schools are (arguably … as all these things are) slightly higher on the “pecking order” than NYU. But Tisch is a very unique and very well respected program, so they can … simply due to the supply and demand … still get highly qualified people that are willing to pay. Oh well, that’s just the way it is. But to get all acrimonious over not getting any merit aid or the overall costs is silly as all of that should have been known before the application was submitted. We would never had allowed our daughter to apply unless she knew up front the hards facts of the financial situation.</p>
<p>We are also fortunate to have planned ahead and saved … through a College Savings Plan that we have been working on for 10 years … to save enough to pay for 1/3 - 1/2 of the cost, and we figure we can do the rest through proper household budgeting and a minimum amount of loans. But there will be some loans, as we want our daughter to understand that there is a cost that she has to be willing to personally incur to go to NYU over other really good schools that are offering her more money.</p>
<p>Sally 305…I should do more research about LSP???</p>
<p>My son was accepted into the program. I know a little bit about it. He chose not to go to NYU but there was plenty of material sent about the program. There was no mystery about classes, where you could choose to study, and how after 1.5 to 2 years later you would transfer to your selected program. And we had no trouble finding the website.</p>
<p>Very interesting discussion.</p>
<p>Regarding the cost. To have a strong desire to attend one of the higher ranking, but woefully expensive, universities in the US, just to be thwarted by finances feels cruel. It truly does, and I sincerely sympathize. When you, or your child, has a dream school, that place you crave in a deep down way, a school where you feel you truly belong, it does feel almost like an entitlement. It seems completely unfair that a student should have the intelligence, grades, character, talent, what have you, to make it into selective universities and colleges, only to be stopped at the door for a lack of deep pockets, real or deferred. </p>
<p>But someone in the thread said it best; these are luxury universities. Most people do not need to attend even the top 100 universities in this country in order to cull out successful careers. When applying to the more expensive schools, I do believe the reality needs to be addressed before you ever even peruse the application. Can we afford this in the event that we get little to no aide? Can I, or my child, handle the high of potential admission tempered by the financial reality of struggling to pay for these overpriced institutions? In some cases it might be best to not even apply if you, or your child, have a difficult time facing this quandary. </p>
<p>But thankfully there are thousands of institutions of higher learning that can provide wonderful learning experiences, and do so without breaking the bank. I do think we tend to focus too much on the top-whatever colleges, universities, schools, to the point where we may grow myopic in focus, and forget that going to a “top school” is neither a right, an entitlement, and in tons of cases, even a necessity.</p>
<p>Couple of clarification points and then I promise I’m out…</p>
<p>1) We didn’t feel entitled to or expect a certain amount of money. We told our kid up front that we would not pay 260-285K, or allow her to take massive loans, for her to go to NYU. As disappointed as she is, even she thinks that would be ludicrous. Even if we could pay cash we wouldn’t do it. That said, she wanted to apply and took a chance on getting 12-15K in merit. She did get that and more from schools rated as highly or higher. Anyway, she didn’t get it and that’s fine. I have no doubt that in part the allure was NYC more than NYU.</p>
<p>2) All of you saying to quit whining and that NYU is well within their rights to not give more money are correct. They can do what they want. However, it does impact who goes there and the composition of the student body. Sure, they may have a few to whom they are giving major aid, but for the most part it is a very wealthy school with wealthy students and the expansion seems consistent with that.</p>
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<p>That’s a pretty broad generalization coming from somebody who has never attended nor has any family attending. NYU scholarships are based off a mixture of need and merit. If there’s an extremely qualified student, they will offer them however much money they’ll need so they can attend. Yes, NYU has its crowd of rich students, just like any other prestigious private university is expected to yield. But I can safely say the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students vary greatly for the most part.</p>
<p>NYU expects the majority of admitees to decline their offers; there otherwise wouldn’t be enough dorm or classroom space. NYU’s endowment wouldn’t support meeting full need and still be need-blind.</p>
<p>vonlost, that’s true of all these school. They offer acceptances based on anticipated yield.</p>
<p>WedsTomato, what schools in the US do you believe have a higher % of wealthy students???</p>
<p>I was just responding to your question “So, NYU expects us or our kid to take on a total bill that will exceed 300K?” suggesting they “expect” most to decline the offer.</p>
<p>“Over 31% of freshmen requested no financial aid from the school [NYU] in 2009…” </p>
<p>This article lists some of the schools that have a higher percentage of wealthier students. </p>
<p>[Where</a> The 1% Send Their Kids to College - College Stats.org](<a href=“http://collegestats.org/articles/2012/07/where-the-1-send-their-kids-to-college/]Where”>http://collegestats.org/articles/2012/07/where-the-1-send-their-kids-to-college/)</p>
<p>“Another notoriously expensive school, NYU appeals to the children of the super-rich largely because some of the country’s richest people, their parents, already live in the Big Apple or nearby on the East Coast. George Soros, the 12th-richest man in the United States, has sent two kids to this school. Wealthy Oval Office occupants John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton also had children attend here. Its 14.8% rate of Pell recipients in 2008 made it the 33rd-richest school that year. Over 31% of freshmen requested no financial aid from the school in 2009, a year the school earned itself a major black eye for calling financially needy kids to warn them about the high price tag of enrolling.”</p>
<p>gradygrad, helps when you quote the whole thing. You left out the “major lack eye.” You also failed to mention that NYU made the list of the wealthiest, and with the exception of GWU, every other school featured is far more prestigious (all Ivies and Duke, WUSTL).</p>
<p>Finalchild:</p>
<p>“Couple of clarification points and then I promise I’m out…”</p>
<p>Kenosis…promises are made to be broken :)</p>
<p>Especially when you see gross abuses of text used to give the exact opposite impression of what the text says.</p>
<p>I shared a link to the entire article, right? Didn’t think people here couldn’t (or wouldn’t) read it. And you proved me correct, finalchild. </p>
<p>The line I quoted was based in fact, and that’s why I chose it. The author doesn’t know for sure why the “super-rich” send their kids to NYU, that’s pure speculation. And, the children of rich and famous attend a variety of schools – not just NYU. I could have also included the Pell Grant stat (though 33rd “richest school” isn’t exactly an indictment) – guess you got me there. By the way, the “…” means that there is more. </p>
<p>The bottom line seems to be that you are very unhappy (understandably) that NYU did not offer your child enough money to make their attendance feasible. If they had, you’d no doubt be telling a different story. But even if that had happened this fact would have remained the same: NYU does not have a large endowment and as a result, is known for being “stingy” with financial aid. For whatever reason, some applicants are awarded significant scholarships/aid, while others aren’t. Some applicants (as I know you know) aren’t accepted at all. And I am sure there are parents who are deeply disappointed and offended by that as well. </p>
<p>Regardless, I am sorry it didn’t work out for your child to attend NYU. I hope they are very happy (and I am sure they will be) wherever they land.</p>
<p>gradygrad, I suppose you are technically correct. I think I am correct beyond a technical sense. Someone challenged that NYU has a high percentage of wealthy kids. You posted an link that confirms that, to the extent that NYU is one of the handful of highlighted schools and most of the other Ivies.</p>
<p>And you are correct. If NYU had given my kid 15K in merit she very well might be going there and of course I would have a different feeling. That’s sort of the point, right? :)</p>
<p>OK, I’ll try to keep my promise now.</p>