<p>so, question, is what we see is what we get, straight from the acceptance letter? they dont send a separate fin. aid/scholarship thing in another one do they? northeastern did that, etc.</p>
<p>so plus loan isn't a good thing. if not nyu, im probably gonna end up at bu</p>
<p>I thank you from the bottom of my heart calmom,that was the best thing i read today. Needless to say, i am in the same position. Similiarly, i HAVE THE SAME EXACT aid that your daugher recieved w/o the extra 10,000+ for dorming so my Loan Plus is around 20,000 :(. NYU has been my dream school but now i really dont know what i will be doing to pay off the debt and i dont want to have to put a burden on my parents :(</p>
<p>I am hoping for a miracle in the next week...</p>
<p>I don't see anything wrong with Vassar...seems like a good school, pretty campus, nice location, strong liberal arts education. I've heard Poughkeepsie isn't very nice, but most students seem to stay on campus or go to NYC, Boston, etc during breaks.</p>
<p>I think the general student quality of Vassar is a bit higher than NYU (of course, Stern and Tisch are different stories altogether).</p>
<p>A few thoughts. Yes, NYU's f/a packages almost always include large amounts of loans. It's a personal decision whether or not you're willing to take on debt like that. For workstudy, $4000 may sound high but lots of kids get that amount allowed. Jobs are not difficult to find <em>IF</em> you make the effort. You can't sit around and wait for something to fall into your lap. If you do that, you're going to have trouble at NYU, and not just because of workstudy. </p>
<p>I have several friends who have workstudy jobs which pay $12+/hour. Two of my friends make $15/hour. So to say that they'll all be minimum wage isn't true. If you get a good paying one and you manage to work enough hours to get to your limit, you can often get it increased, depending on the job. If you do America Reads which is a popular one, it's $12 anhour. </p>
<p>It's true that some kids don't work enough to earn their workstudy amounts but it IS possible if you want to do it. Lots of NYU kids work 12-16 hrs./week. It's doable for most kids, with the possible exception of Tisch drama kids- they don't have the time to devote to p/t jobs in most cases.</p>
<p>Comparing full rides to other colleges to what you get at NYU is always rough. Depends which major you're doing, I think, in that situation. If you're doing Stern or Tisch (drama or film), you won't be able to compare between NYU and say Vassar or Brandeis or Sarah Lawrence. The rep of the programs just isn't anywhere near the same. Does that mean that kids at those three can't be successful? Definitely not. But the program just isn't the same, nor is the training, nor does it have the contacts or the established reputation. If you're studying something like science, or math, or history, or poli-sci, then I think it makes more sense to give serious thought to a full ride. Vassar is a great school, I have two friends there but Poughkeepsie is awful. I've visited a few times. They love the school but the city is sketchy and you don't want to be wandering off campus very much, especially at night. Vassar also has an acceptance rate which is higher than NYU, if that kind of thing is important to you.</p>
<p>The same goes for me I have $28,000 in PLUS loans, but the perkins loans and other types of loans. I got an almost FULL ride at Smith College and UCLA. NYU is my dream school, but it doesnt seem likely that I'll attend.</p>
<p>is it possible to increase the amount of stafford/perkins loans? i don't want to burden my parents with the stupid plus one.</p>
<p>At least some of you people got some grants and merit aid! My EFC is ridiculously high, but my parents simply dont want to pay. I got something like 44K plus loan, LOL. I really wanted to go here, but I can't get ripped off for the next 4 years of my life.</p>
<p>Paulakg, I'm glad you can manage to find it funny. My poor daughter really had her heart set on Gallatin. She is going to go for University Day, but obviously the money is not there. Fortunately she has been admitted to Barnard - and the financial aid people there are really nice. She's got an award that I think is very generous. So I think the gods are smiling on us...</p>
<p>I was also aware of the lack of financial aid, but I didn't think it would be THAT bad -- I mean, I figured we'd be gapped by about $8-$10k or so. We've got an EFC of $5600 - so basically there is a $24K gap. Ouch.</p>
<p>cloverdale, my son went to Sarah Lawrence - so if you have any questions you can ask me - or PM me - or we can take it over to the SLC thread. I'd think Vassar would be the better option, but one nice thing about SLC is that it is really a very short train ride into Manhattan, so my son did get to spend plenty of time in the city. What would your son be studying at Tisch? </p>
<p>While I would agree that Tisch is stellar for the arts - and very few schools are comparable -- you run into a big problem going into a lot of debt for something like dance or musical theater, where earnings tend to be meager in any case. </p>
<p>I'm wondering with awards like this, who the heck goes to NYU anyway? (I guess it must be mostly rich kids and children of faculty members). It must really impact their yield, since it really is not a matter of stretching the budget for families like the one's posting in this thread -- it is simply impossible. I'm willing to take out a small PLUS loan for my daughter, but I have to look at what monthly payments would be, and I just don't have the ability to handle the amount that they are talking about.</p>
<p>Calmom, To top it off, I have a second son who is a junior at college! He has wonderful financial aid but still costs $6K a year. I too could imagine going up to $10K for second son --but $33K?? a year?</p>
<p>Son is a dramatic writing major --and I am especially skeptical of this because he also loves fiction writing, poetry writing, and is seriously into great literature. Sarah Lawrence is a great fit for him but he feels it is too small. Vassar is also a great fit and I personally feel would enable him to explore more sides of himself.</p>
<p>Besides he would come out of NYU $200K in debt and out of Vassar $10K in debt. I simply am not able to take on the debt of NYU myself.</p>
<p>I'm from Canada. I got in Stern of NYU but in my acceptance letter I didn't find anything about financial packet in term of grants, scholarship or loans. I desperately want money to go to stern and my family income is below 25k. What should I do?</p>
<p>international students dont get financial aid. sometimes scholarships, but not anything need-based.</p>
<p>Cloverdale, the Sarah Lawrence creative writing offerings are awesome -- but you are right, the school is small, and that was a factor that led my kid to to drop out after 2 years. I'd lean toward Vassar unless the kid has his heart set on being in an urban or close-to-urban setting. </p>
<p>Making a living doing dramatic writing is difficult. I've got a family member who is a graduate of UCLA Film school and still, after 30+ years, only gets sporadic employment and occassionally sells a script. You can't take on a lot debt if your goal is to work in a creative endeavor -- because the end result is that after graduation, your son would have to take on some other type of employment to pay the bills, and his day job would eat into all of the time he might otherwise devote to writing -- and with the debt he would have very little choice as to the type of job he takes. (For example, he can't accept a low-paid internship). </p>
<p>My daughter has shifted from elation at being admitted to Gallatin to the position that she "never" expected to get enough financial aid anyway. I imagine that in a week or so this will devolve into NYU-bashing -- or, as happened with my son when his first choice college refused any grant aid, it may become a college-that-must-not-be-named. </p>
<p>Life goes on. At least no matter what, we know our kids were good enough to get in.</p>
<p>As an NYU student, I know plenty of kids who were in the same boat. NYU's endowment isn't as huge as some people think, so financial aid is tight. The only reason I'm here is because of my merit scholarship - without it, I couldn't afford this school.</p>
<p>If you have other offers from comparable schools with more aid, consider talking to the Admissions and Financial Aid offices. Bargaining might up the amount of money you get.</p>
<p>Yes Calmom, We are all writers on this boat --perhaps that is why we don't have the money to pay for Tisch in cash. Besides, it seems to me that he might have more flexibility to explore at Vassar, without being so locked in. When you are young you deserve the right to change your mind, and it might be hard to do when you have taken on $200K of debt for a specific goal. There is always graduate school. In my opinion it is a better place to focus on screenwriting, exclusively, money notwithstanding. I have an older son who started as a math and physics major and now is a lit major. Thank goodness he didn't wind up at MIT, as he wished. It would have been a trap for him.</p>
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If you're doing Stern or Tisch (drama or film), you won't be able to compare between NYU and say Vassar or Brandeis or Sarah Lawrence. The rep of the programs just isn't anywhere near the same. Does that mean that kids at those three can't be successful? Definitely not. But the program just isn't the same, nor is the training, nor does it have the contacts or the established reputation. If you're studying something like science, or math, or history, or poli-sci, then I think it makes more sense to give serious thought to a full ride. Vassar is a great school, I have two friends there but Poughkeepsie is awful. I've visited a few times. They love the school but the city is sketchy and you don't want to be wandering off campus very much, especially at night. Vassar also has an acceptance rate which is higher than NYU, if that kind of thing is important to you.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>When I visited Vassar, I got to see the new Film and Drama department building. It was decked out in state-of-the-art equipment and had just been built over the course of the last few years. Tom Hank's daughter is attending Vassar, and Samuel Jackson's daughter graduated from there not too long ago, which may explain the recent big donations to Vassar's Film/Drama department and all the renovation/construction that's been going on. Of course it's nothing like studying film at Tisch (which I hear is on par in reputation with USC's film school as tops in the nation), but I don't think your son will get a bad education at Vassar.</p>
<p>Also, Vassar's acceptance rate is 29% (dunno when the figure is for, but it's on collegeboard.com). NYU's acceptance rate is listed as 37% on collegeboard.com, so NYU's acceptance rate is definitely not lower than Vassar's.</p>
<p>besides ...my son is studying to be a writer, and his interest goes beyond screenwriting to fiction writing, as well. I am positive Vassar is better for creative writing outside the screenwriting area than NYU --if only because you have access to the courses and can take endless tutorials, as well. </p>
<p>I know Tisch is special ...but it isn't a good idea for a creative artist to start out with all that debt. It isn't the same as Stern and business school.</p>
<p>here is my fin aid:</p>
<p>SCPS scholorship: 15000
Work Study: 4000
Perkins Loan: 900
Stafford Loan: 2625
PLUS Loan: 24275</p>
<p>i think my fin aid is pretty reasonable, considering NYU's stingyness with fin aid</p>
<p>my efc: 24000
annual income: 56000</p>
<p>see you guys next year at NYU!</p>
<p>I really want to attend NYU, but they gave me $28 K in PLUS Loans and about $2000 in stafford and perkins loans. This is just a little too much for my family to handle. I'm in a single-parent household, and my mom just doesn't make that much. I'm going to be attending University Day this Sunday and is there a chance I could speak with an admissions councelor about perhaps receiving more aid? I also got into some really good schools that are giving me an almost full ride.</p>
<p>lewisloftus, not sure why you're replying to my post but anyway. I never said that anyone would get a bad education at Vassar. In fact, I said I had two friends there who love it. It's a great school but it's not Tisch.</p>
<p>The acceptance figures were the last ones I heard, the year I applied. I'm a sophomore. Vassar's were 43% that year. NYU's overall rate is between 29-33% (including E.D.), but Tisch's is much more selective, especially for drama and film. Anyway, none of that matters if you end up at a school which you love, which was my point. I have a friend in Tisch's DM program. It's great and she loves it and is doing unbelievable work. She's also double majoring in CAS, so it's not like you're limited with what you can take at Tisch either. </p>
<p>Certainly it isn't a good thing to start off a career in debt, any career, but it's a personal choice. This seems to happen every year, kids (and parents) are gung ho on NYU until the f/a package arrives, then they start to bash the school and rationalize that it isn't as good as they originally thought. I just don't see the need for that. Everyone should make their personal choices based on going to the best school that they can afford, but if you (general you) loved the program originally, and I'm assuming you do since you applied, then why bash? The program is the same good one you wanted to go to last week before the letter arrived. Anyway, I just don't get it when people do that. Good luck to all of you, wherever you end up.</p>