NYU vs American U vs George Mason University

I want to go to college to study International relations with a double major or minor in Linguistics.

My problem is that American University is one of the best colleges for international relations but does not offer linguistics at all. NYU offers both but is the most expensive and GMU offers linguistics as a minor but not a major.

Therefore, I don’t know where I should attend. I want to be in a city so NYU and AU fit this and GMU is close enough. However, if I attend AU or GMU and decide I do not want to do International Relations I cannot do linguistics and would have to transfer or choose a different major.

Major is important but there are lots of other factors to consider in a college. Sometimes, based on the other things a college offers, it may make more sense to pick a major that’s kind of close to what you want or fits only one of your varied interests because the rest of the university’s offerings make it the best choice for you.

First of all, you mention that NYU is the most expensive. What are the comparative costs of these universities? How much would you have to borrow or pay out of pocket to attend each one?

If you decided not to do international relations, are there other majors at each university that also interest you besides linguistics?

NYU is the way to go - opens up more options

Very true, well NYU and American are both relatively close in price.I’d end up paying approximately $30,000 out of pocket anywhere I go because I will use my dad’s GI bill unless I go to GMU.

I have been looking at other majors each school offers to see if they have majors that are close enough or I would also be interested in

That would be a benefit of NYU since it is known world wide and has a great reputation.

@juillet @ccfk1221

Can you afford to pay $30K out of pocket? What does “out of pocket” mean - your family will be paying for this in cash, or you will have to borrow? And is that $30K total or per year (so $120K over four years?)

I don’t think NYU will necessarily open up the most doors. It depends a lot on what you do eventually major in and decide to do. Also, the goal isn’t necessarily to open the most doors in a vacuum; it’s to give yourself a sufficient number of opportunities while balancing other goals and costs.

@juillet I actually have an additional source that I didn’t previously know about but will be able to use and after calculating It should cover full tuition or at least the majority with only $5,000 or less out of pocket each year.

That’s very true, and I believe that NYU since I can now see myself attending with little to now out of pocket cost, as well as having the major I want, and overall being a great school leads me to be 99% that’s were I’ll be attending but I will still give it more thought.

Thank you for the advice