<p>I'm having a tough time whether my financial packet is a good one...or one that I should reject.</p>
<p>Don't know what to do or what college to choose from so it comes down to the financial aid I receive.</p>
<p>This is for both the spring/fall semester</p>
<p>GSP Scholarship - $4000
Provost's Grant - $1000
Pell grant - 3700
Federal Work - Study Eligibility - $4000
Perkins Loan - 2400
Stafford - 2625
PLUS - 29,075</p>
<p>...Hard to decipher..</p>
<p>yeah im having a tough time too.
first of all, when it says, 'suggested loan',, what does it mean?
need ........... help.................</p>
<p>Also I should note that my parents have bad credit and won't likely contribute to college.</p>
<p>If you qualified for a Pell grant, I sincerely doubt this aid package will be enough for you. You only recieve $8700/year in grant money, the rest is loans which you shall have to pay back. Further, the PLUS loan has a crappy interest rate.</p>
<p>Basically it means you'll have to pay $34,100 out of pocket in loans...Ouch...this is gonna suck..I'll probably have to pay ALOT too if I get in.</p>
<p>I don't know much about financial aid. But loans have to be paid off and remember that (29 + 2.6 + 2.4) * 4 thousand dollars is a lot of money. I think you can turn down portions of your financial aid, such as the loans or the work study. The grants and scholarship dont have to be paid back so dont turn them down :p
The acceptance folder has a packet on financial aid that you should read... i havent yet :(</p>
<p>if you get outside scholarships, i think loans are the first to be taken away, so you dont have to worry about them if you have outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Suggested I think just means, that's how much theyre giving you unless you're 2005 tax returns say you won the lottery.</p>
<p>The weird things is.... this package was based on my FAFSA EFC of 334.</p>
<p>Now..I told them my new EFC, cuz i edited my FAFSA, and it was 3181.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if I receive even less money or not. They're sending me a differrent form in weeks to come.</p>
<p>Damn. I'm guessing it's because you're GSP, and they usually don't get much money.</p>
<p>The financial aid officer said that each school is separated into their own category so everyone accepted to GSP will be separate from the other schools. But then again, GSP is the second largest school at NYU</p>
<p>Looks like a trend. My D got a scholarship for a whopping $967 total for the year. She got accepted everywhere except Columbia. This is by far the weakest aid package. It's not like NYU doesn't have a decent endowment.
Oh well, that frees up a slot for another Olson twin :)</p>
<p>Wow, I rather like my $13k CAS scholarship and $4k work-study now :P</p>
<p>I expected nothing, so I guess I was one of the fortunate ones. Good thing, too, since the only other schools I was accepted into were my safeties, several tiers below NYU.</p>
<p>i got the same as you jack.
i was accepted at BU and st. johns with similar scholarships.</p>
<p>donkey, that's a pretty typical NYU f/a package. Basically, you got $8700 in free money, you can find a workstudy job and earn a max of $4000, and the rest is loans which will have to be repaid. This is what lot of NYU kids get. Loans loans and more loans because NYU does NOT promise to meet 100% of need. Everyone knows this going in if they've done their research.</p>
<p>Ok. So this definitely doesn't mean the end of the world cuz I will simply be in debt after college but i can gradually pay them back right?</p>
<p>One of my problems is that I don't have the financial support of my parents. They can't cosign the loans cuz they have extremely low credit.</p>
<p>^ thats my problem exactly, im not sure i can even get the PLUS loans because my moms credit is horrible</p>
<p>My moms credit is HORRIBLE as well. I need to find someone to cosign. </p>
<p>I am ED though so I HAVE to find some way to get money.</p>
<p>OK, some financial aid basics (I'm a mom who has been through this before):</p>
<p>First of all, we received my d's package yesterday and if I didn't know it was real, I would have thought it was an April Fool's joke. Our award is very close to yours - you are getting about $300 more of grant money than us, and other than that it's pretty much the same. </p>
<p>So here's the analysis of the award you posted:</p>
<p>GSP Scholarship - $4000
Provost's Grant - $1000
Pell grant - 3700</p>
<p>This is fine - its all money that you keep - it's just not enough. </p>
<p>Federal Work - Study Eligibility - $4000</p>
<p>This is a high amount for work study -- my daughter was offered the same at NYU, but $1800 at another college. The problem is that you don't get work-study money unless you earn it -- and so as a first year student a high amount can be a very bad thing, because you may have to work a lot of hours. I think my son had $1500 work study his first year of college, maybe it was more -- but he only ended up earning about $500 of it. He was at a different college in NY, but his problems could effect anyone. First, since he was new on campus he didn't know the ins & outs of getting employment, so all the really good jobs were snapped up by upperclassmen before he really had a handle on how & where he should look. Then he found out that most of the jobs he could get paid only minimum wage. </p>
<p>Now if you are a hard worker and proactive I am sure you can earn a lot of money... but I don't want my daughter taking on that burden her first year. At $7/hour, $4000 equals about 570 hours. So basically, in general I think first year students should be wary of work study awards of more than $2500. However, you should inquire as to the availability of campus jobs and what they usually pay. (Things got better for my son at his college when he found a $10/hour job) If you have some special skills, you may be able to find higher-paying work. </p>
<p>Perkins Loan - 2400
Stafford - 2625</p>
<p>These are subsidized loans that you will have to pay back after you graduate. This isn't too bad of an amount for loans, but the colleges with the better award packages only ask student to take the Stafford loan. But I've seen colleges ask for an even larger Perkins loan from students -- the Perkins loan is low interest so it is a good deal, but the problem is that loan amounts usually increase from year to year. So I can see why NYU students tend to graduate with so much debt. </p>
<p>PLUS - 29,075</p>
<p>This is the "gotcha". In my opinion, it is dishonest & misleading when a school lists a PLUS loan as being part of a financial aid package. First of all, a PLUS loan is not something offered to YOU, the student - so it shouldn't be listed as part of YOUR package. It is something that only the parents can take out.</p>
<p>Secondly, the amount of the PLUS loan is always equal to the amount of your UNMET need -- so if you wanted truth-in-labeling, the line would say:</p>
<p>Unmet Need - 29,075</p>
<p>Parents can ALWAYS get a PLUS loan in the total amount of the unmet need -- the school isn't doing you any favors to offer it. Of course the parents need good credit to qualify. </p>
<p>So what they are telling you is that your parents need to pay $29K next year, and offering one way to finance it. The payments on PLUS loans will begin about 6 months after you start school; I think that this year they are being changed so that they will have a fixed 8.5% rate. </p>
<p>Here's what I get when I run this figures through the loan calculator at <a href="http://www.finaid.org:%5B/url%5D">www.finaid.org:</a></p>
<p>Loan Balance: $29,075.00
Loan Interest Rate: 8.50%
Loan Term: 10 years</p>
<p>Monthly Loan Payment: $360.49
Number of Payments: 120</p>
<p>Cumulative Payments: $43,258.50
Total Interest Paid: $14,183.50</p>
<p>So basically, the question is: can your parents afford $360 a month, every month, for the next ten years. Note that this means the $29K you need for the year will really cost your parents $43K. </p>
<p>Now... how many years do you intend to stay at NYU? </p>
<p>========</p>
<p>Anyway, we have a financial aid award that is very similar, and my daughter will not be attending unless there is a big change. My daughter is going to meet with the financial aid people to see whether they are willing to make any changes -- but I am not optimistic. </p>
<p>I'm sorry you are in this situation and I hope that you have some other good alternatives. I had always heard that NYU was bad about financial aid, but somehow I didn't believe they could be this bad. </p>
<p>I'm still glad that my daughter applied to Gallatin, because at least she's getting another trip to New York out of it - I did manage to get a good fare to send her out for University Day, and that's her spring break so she is going to stay all week. But I wouldn't really consider this sort of award to even be in the ballpark of what is reasonable. </p>
<p>A note to matth: you are right about NYU's reputation and policies - but unfortunately I was under the impression that they would do somewhat better. I just don't see this sort of award as being workable -- though perhaps for families with higher EFCs it would make some sense. I mean, if the EFC was $20K, then I can see the family handling the extra $10K to send their kid to a dream school. But if the EFC is close to nothing and the family qualifies for a Pell Grant.... well how are they ever expected to come up with $30K more?</p>
<p>ca;mom,</p>
<p>Thanks for explaining the NYU aid package so succinctly! I too simply had to laugh when I read my son's "award" in his acceptance letter. We however, have the priviledge of receiving a PLUS loan in the amont of $44,000.00 per year!
We had heard on NYU's vaunted lack of financial aid, but I guess hope springs eternal. Oh well.</p>
<p>Calmom, Thanks for your post. We got a PLUS loan for $33K. We are comparing this to a near-full ride at Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and Brandeis (and still waiting on one other top choice.) Son wants badly to go to Tisch, but it seems absurd on its face. Is it really worth all this debt compared to almost no debt for Vassar? Is there anything the matter with Vassar?</p>
<p>Calmom, very informative post. Gawd...it seems i have no hope for NYU so far. My parents arent able to take out PLUS loans.</p>