<p>i've heard it costs about 50k a year, which is pretty steep but understandable. i've been having a hard time seeing about the financial aid, and i was wondering if i would be able to attend, despite the fact that my parents only make about 30k a year. i'm hispanic, and i have two siblings living with me. i'm taking a load of AP classes and going to start strengthening my extracurricular activities next year (my junior year) with some volunteer work as well as interning, clubs, organizations, and so on. are there scholarships or a system set up for entering nyu students that will enable me to attend? nyu is sort of my back up school, and i need to know about how good the financial aid is.</p>
<p>NYU is a FAFSA only school. They do not guarantee to meet full need. The do offer scholarships to highly sought after students in addition to their need based aid. I have no personal experience with NYU but by all reports in general their need based aid tends to leave students with large gaps between the cost of attendance and the aid it offers. HOWEVER, there are some posters on this forum who have kiddos attending NYU who received generous need based aid or merit aid. </p>
<p>I’ll stick my neck out and say…I’m not sure it’s a “financial safety” for many students. So if you’re looking for a financial safety, maybe you should consider other options as well.</p>
<p>You say that NYU is your “backup”…what do you mean by that? Is it your academic safety school or what?</p>
<p>thank you for the information, and i didn’t mean to insult nyu’s credibility by calling it a back-up school. i only meant that the school i truly aspire to attend is so beyond my reach, but i still want to apply to other similar colleges in the area, that area being new york. nyu seems like a really good choice, but it wasn’t originally my first one.</p>
<p>I didn’t think you insulted NYU!! I just wondered what you meant. If you have the stats (standardized test scores/gpa) for entrance into much more competitive schools than NYU than there are also schools where you might get some merit aid as well. Your post seems to indicate that you want to go to school in NYC. Is that your only criteria for a college choice or are there other things too. There are folks here who might be able to give you some suggestions in addition to NYU if you are able to tell more what you are looking for…and your financial limitations.</p>
<p>The single most important question…how much CAN and WILL your family be able to contribute to your college education each year? That is a very important thing to know.</p>
<p>alright, well my family can’t offer up much. my mother MIGHT be coming into a little bit of money, which she said she will set aside for my college education, when i ship off to college, but that’s a crap shoot. i do prefer new york because of the culture, the diverse populations and such are totally fascinating, and i think it would do me good to study sociology in a city filled to the brim with people. another reason i have is that i’ve received a lot of letters from colleges in the new york area who have asked me if i was interested in attending, nyu being one of them. it seems the most compatible colleges for me, the ones that sort of clicked automatically or stirred some interest, were from new york. if not new york, any college in the northeast would probably be welcome into my consideration; i don’t want to be one to bash my home state, but i think i’ve had my fill of living in georgia, and i feel like i really need to reach out to bigger places if i ever want to prepare myself for a career based in international affairs or government work. </p>
<p>also, i want to keep my college in new york, in the hopes that if i do well enough at nyu or whatever other university/college i attend, i’ll be able to successfully transfer columbia university, which is really my top choice but super, super, super, extremely difficult to get into, especially with my future application.</p>
<p>Don’t count on NYU, apply because you never kknow, but do not count on it. The vast majority of applicants who can not pay on their own do not get enough aid to attend.</p>
<p>Transferring to Columbia will not be helped by going to college in NY, you can transfer from anywhere and should start at the best college you can get into.</p>
<p>Nyu should not be high on your list. It won’t come close to meeting need and even if your mom comes into a little money it won’t go far at nyu. Besides, if your family is low income whatever money she gets would be better saved for some other need or even retirement. To waste it on nyu is siily.</p>
<p>understood. so, there is no financial aid that will cover the costs?</p>
<p>The aid from NYU is notoriously terrible. Like Thumper said, there are occasional posts here where a student gets a good aid award, but they are very rare. It’s a great idea to apply anyway just in case, but don’t expect much. If you’re accepted you’d probably get a some aid, but chances are very high it won’t be even close to what you need. And Redroses is right, going to NYU does nothing to help your chances of transferring to Columbia.</p>
<p>got it, got it. i’ll look into some more colleges in the surrounding areas.</p>
<p>Do you live in NYC? Could you live at home and attend NYU? We did see a student posting here a few weeks ago who was from a low or zero EFC family, and it did look like he/she was going to be able to make that work. Otherwise, the vast majority of NYU financial aid stories posted on CC are pretty sad – big gaps, big loans. Apparently the financial aid fairy does occasionally do a nice job for a student, but she seems to not do that very often at all.</p>
<p>i definitely do not live anywhere near new york. a little further south, actually, but i really want to study up north, or possibly in california, but mostly likely in the north. maybe not new york, but probably around there somewhere. i honestly think these financial aid occurences i hear of are seriously making me think twice of applying to nyu.</p>
<p>i wonder if barnard is a good alternative? i haven’t looked into the financial aid for barnard yet…</p>
<p>Since you’re only a soph now, it’s very likely that your tastes and interest may change in the next 18 months. It’s great to start thinking about college now, and planning for the expenses, but make sure you concentrate more on successfully managing your high school career and trying new activities/clubs. There are many interesting cities in the US with colleges - if you have the opportunity to explore/travel while you’re in high school, take it! It will broaden your horizons immeasurably.</p>
<p>You might want to check out some colleges that guarantee to meet need with no/low loans. Although this list may change over the next few years, it would be worth looking into periodically…here’s a place to start:</p>
<p>[Project</a> on Student Debt: Financial Aid Pledges](<a href=“http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php]Project”>http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php)</p>
<p>Have you visited New York City? How about NYU? Visiting is key before deciding on NYU - most people get a good or bad vibe pretty much right away. I liked it enough to apply, but I didn’t end up attending. The financial aid I received from NYU was fairly good actually (comparable to Emory but not quite the offers from Rice and Cornell). As mentioned, this seems to be unusual. It can’t hurt to apply and see if you can get aid if you think NYU is a good school for you.<br>
Columbia will meet your need, but will be a reach to get accepted.</p>
<p>i’ll be visiting new york this summer (two weeks left in my sophomore year!!!) because my sister and her husband live there with my nephew. they live in syracuse, but they offered to take me around to different college campuses while i was up there. my brother-in-law really wants me to go to syracuse for journalism. emory is in-state for me, so i’ll be getting the hope scholarship which is for georgia students if i plan to attend there.</p>
<p>i’m just so fixed on new york right now; i’m sure anything not in georgia (not that i hate georgia or anything) will be a great experience for me, and i’ve always sort of had a disposition for the northern states, which is a little weird, i guess, since i’ve never traveled past tennessee.</p>
<p>please don’t think i’m a hick.</p>
<p>and also, i’m super grateful for all this advice. this college search has been super overwhelming.</p>
<p>sk8rmom, that list is incredible! i’ve also received letters from a few of those colleges on that list, most of which seemed legitimate. thanks. :)</p>
<p>Why is NYU so sought after despite their HORRIBLE financial aid? Is it really just their location? I understand their grad law school is good but really for undergrad any school is good. OP research about University of Rochester they are extremely generous with their financial aid and have many departments with better reputation than NYU. I don’t understand why people would want to surround themselves with rich, white preps all day while taking out mass loans at a school, especially for undergrad.</p>
<p>Syracuse is a LONG way from NYC. </p>
<p>I would also suggest you look into your state schools in Georgia. UGA and GT are excellent schools. I know you “want” to leave your state, but financially, these two schools will be your best bet unless your grades/standardized test scores are such that you get accepted to a “meets full need” school. Those are never a safe bet as they accept about 10% of students who apply.</p>
<p>Also, don’t take this the wrong way, but receiving letters from universities does not indicate true interest in accepting you for admission. They are marketing tools pure and simple. By the time my daughter completed her applications we could have filled several garbage bags with marketing materials and that does not even count the emails.</p>
<p>Anyone who needs financial aid needs to have financial safeties on their list. NYU is NOT a financial safety. They make no claims at all to meeting 100% of need. However, they are need blind in admissions, so they often gap, big time. Which puts kids who don’t have the money in a quandry. They are accepted, but the aid package is inadequate.</p>
<p>However, for some students that NYU really wants, they are generous. I’ve known kids for whom NYU gave the best merit/aid package out of all of their choices. So if you like the school, don’t cross it off of your list. Just be very aware that it is very possible that you could be accepted and not get the aid you need to attend. By knowing this up front, you won’t be hit with that situation as a big surprise if this does indeed happen.</p>
<p>The surest safeties are those local state schools where you are pretty much guaranteed admissions and where federal and state funds could make it a very sweet financial deal. Maybe even free, with ancillary expenses covered as well. Lehman (a CUNY) offers students full scholarships including year abroad and computer and supplies. That is a great deal for those who absolutely need the money.<br>
The schools that tend to guarantee to meet full need and be need blind as well, tend to be reaches in terms of getting accepted. But certainly have a couple of those on your list, as they just might pan out.</p>
<p>My friend who is PELL eligible had her daughter complete a number of different types of colleges in terms of need blind and meeting 100% of need, need aware but meeting 100% of need, as well as schools where she was in the very top % stat wise and was a highly desirable student so that merit awards were possible. She also included local schools where she could commute and most of her cost would be paid by PELL and subsidized Stafford loans. She also avoided schools that tended to be loan heavy in their packages.</p>
<p>Out of a dozen schools, other than her two financial safeties, only one offered a near full ride. The state flagship even gapped her. If she lived close enough to commute, it would have worked out but the room/board added to the tuition made it out of range. Her two safeties are local state colleges. </p>
<p>But she did hit the jackpot with one school that is offering her a doable package. It is a $50K+ costing private school that does not guarantee to meet full need, but she was a top applicant in the group and was offered a nice merit scholarship which paired with the PELL, some local money, loans and work study makes it doable. The loans are within reason and are almost all subsidized. </p>
<p>Yes, it did hurt that she was accepted to two top choices that did not offer sufficient scholarship or aid to go there. Just not worth the nearl $40K in loans she would have to take per year to make it work. And she was waitlisted at a couple of schools that are need aware, and it could well be that her need numbers put her on the waitlist rather than getting accepted as they tend to be less selective than those two schools that did accept her. Though both waitlist schools guarantee to meet most of regular acceptance kids’ needs, there is no such guarantee for waitlisted students. </p>
<p>That is what you have to do to ensure you get enough money and some choices.</p>