Hello,
I am a senior at NYU. I am not in Stern, but I had a question about its financial aid in particular. So, to be brief, I had a private tutor who never stopped talking about her niece getting a full ride to NYU Stern. I didn’t really care at first, but it started bothering me, because she never stopped bragging in my face. However, I do know that full rides do exist at NYU, but they are not full merit scholarships. But what I thought was suspicious is the fact that my tutor’s niece got the whole 70,000 or so tuition, fees, and dorm cost in merit scholarships. I can’t get myself to believe this because I know that NYU is notorious in financial aid.
Also, I thought that NYU’s scholarships are merit + financial aid. I thought her niece got grants + outside scholarships to say that she got a full ride, but apparently her niece is filthy rich, and has no need for FAFSA, and doesn’t qualify for grants (?) Then does it make sense that she got a full ride just on scholarships ?
And I’ll believe her if the niece was super stellar. I know that she had a good GPA, with a SAT score over 2300. (Asian btw) But she had zero extracurricular, and I’m not even exaggerating. LIKE nada.
I guess her niece was smart, but I don’t really think she is that special to have gotten 100 percent covered financially with merit scholarships. Doesn’t most Stern students have similar GPA and SAT scores ? I heard plenty of other students at Stern who had similar grades and SAT scores, with stellar extracurriculars who didn’t get any financial aid except loans. And these kids that didn’t get financially covered weren’t even rich…
I don’t know why I’m even writing this tbh, but please let me know if there are any sternies out there that can tell me the truth. Thanks so much. This topic has just been bothering me these days 
