Question about Financial Aid

I’m aware of NYU’s limited financial aid that is desirability based, but I thought I’d display my situation for some second-hand opinions. I’m a rising Gallatin sophomore transfer and highest level pell grant recipient who received a scholarship (Gallatin specific) and no aid. I’ve only heard from one other school than NYU thus far to compare financials with – which also doesn’t provide full need aid – and I received 15k in need-aid alone (and more in merit). For some of the other schools I applied to that grant full need aid, they in all likelihood ostensibly be a full ride (presuming I get in). That said, I’m curious what others’ thoughts might be about my options regarding NYU and if it’s worth it considering the connotations placed in their desirability rankings related to financial aid. I did hear about instances where NYU made an error in inputting financial aid, but that seems highly improbable.

NYU defines need Acc to their own institutional formula which is not likely to match up with need defined by FAFSA EFC. Then, on top of thst, they do not guarantee to fully meet that need as they define it. From what I’ve seen, any merit awards and scholarships reduce financial need, soon your case it appears as though that Gallatin specific scholarship reduced any financial aid that they may have had available for you. As a private school, they can do as they please.

If you are PELL eligible, you should be able to get the PELL grant from the feeders government. You can also borrow up to $6k as a sophomore, some of it likely with subsidized interest if your FAFSA EFC allows it with the scholarship factored into the equation.

Most all of the schools that state they meet need fully, do so according to their own formulas and many do not include Transfer students in that guarantee.

When your other acceptances and aid/merit packages arrive, you and your parents should assess the affordability of each school. Yes, you can discuss the aid packages with the school financial aid packages and appeal for more. However, in my experience, my observation that it’s rare that one gets substantially more in grant money. Though it can happen, I advise you to focus on the affordable options as reality and not count on getting what you need from packages that come short. Unless your parents are in good financial shape and willing to make up any gaps, it’s not a good idea most of the time to push them to borrow the gap. Unlikely , you, the student can borrow enough to make up a large chasm.

I think they state somewhere that aid is also more limited for transfers. (Note this is the case for some other schools too.) But you can ask for more, the worst that can happen is they say no. Agree you should not engage in large debt just to attend.

yes, I’m a transfer

That’s what I figured, and yes I did get the Pell Grant.

Nibble, how do I send you a private message?

@Yankeefan20 You must first have 15 posts.

Are financial aid awards the same for each of NYU’s undergraduate schools?

There are almost always programs and “schools” within a university that may have different methodologies in giving out aid, but the underlying theme for NYU and financial aid is that it does not tend to meet full need. The statistics are right out there on the common data sets. It’s a refrain that the Financial Aid board on this forum release over and over again.

Yes, there are students each year who get generous merit and financial packaged each year, but that is not at all the general case. NYU is a very expensive School that tends to gap big time.

Depends exactly what you mean by “aid”. Need based aid should be roughly the same (bear in mind tuition differs across schools so that could impact it). As pointed out above, NYU usually does not meet full need.
Merit scholarships that go to the top x% of the intake will differ both in amount and who gets them (as in, your grades may have you in the top x% for school A but not for school B, schools will have different amounts of these to allocate, etc ).

@nibbie Congrats on being admitted to Gallatin! I was wondering when you got your financial aid package relative to when you got accepted? I got accepted on the 24th and am yet to receive it. I’m super concerned about it too, since they don’t tend to give out a lot of aid as you mentioned… Even though it’s an amazing school, we really have to weigh in the possible debt!

Can you post a link to a dataset?

Is there info for each undergraduate division within NYU?

Sorry for late response – I believe I got my package around a week after I was accepted. As you said, financials are certainly something to keep in mind.