Should I take Posse??

@thumper1 the numbers don’t really back that up as they only met full need of 8.4% of need recipients. If those were packages to slightly over 200 freshman who were star artists, athletes or academics, that leaves more than 2500 kids who on average still had 2/3 of their need met.

Some of those who were not shown the love didn’t get the memo to pass on the offer and choose a better financial fit. If those students did not enroll, NYUs need met percentage would look better.

Granted for a school of their endowment they voluntarily should do a better job with financial aid. Perhaps in future years government could step in so schools with so much money either pay tax on their endowment or meet need.

Bottom line per the numbers don’t expect NYU to meet your need.
But don’t expect NYU to meet none of your need either.

@ClarinetDad16 I DO think this student will,get some need based institutional aid from NYU. The issue is…how much. With an income of $0, even if the kid got 50% aid, there would,still be a large balance to pay. They have NO income.

Where would that money come from to pay the balance.

The OP needs to consider all options. The issue here is that this would be a binding ED offer…and she is not sure Dickinson is her school of choice.

But at the end of the process, she will need someplace that is affordable…and I’m not seeing any slam dunks on her current list.

If NYU gave $50,000 that might be unaffordable for the OP. And assuming the parents get jobs, the cost would go up in future years. So it might not be a great choice for the OP, but perhaps the parents will be major earners in the future and truly can afford it.

The only point I am making is once again it would be highly unlikely for the OP to get an offer of $0 from NYU.

I agree that this poster will get an offer from NYU IF accepted. But it could easily be an accept/deny situation in that the cost to attend will not be affordable.

I’m just hoping this poster has affordable options in the application pile.

Clarinet- with the OP’s stats, the likelihood that NYU will be digging deep to come up with a package which beats Posse is extremely remote.

Could it happen? yes. could the parents both get great jobs in the next three weeks? yes. Could one of the siblings now keeping a roof over the OP’s head win the lottery? Yes.

Is NYU a viable plan A? No. Not by a longshot. The kids I know who have gotten amazing packages from NYU have had acceptances from JHU and U Chicago and Columbia- and have taken NYU’s very generous offer since their out of pocket was less than they’d have paid with purely need based aid at these other schools.

This is not the OP’s set of choices. Seems time for a reality check. Not a knock on NYU, but it seems like a VERY poor reason to turn down Dickinson- which might, when the dust settles, be the best and most affordable option on the table.

Posse offers much more than free tuition. It provides a lot of prep before you enroll and lots of support once you are in school. They are committed to your success. I would take the Posse at Dickinson.

It’s also something prestigious that will always be on your resume.

Hello, OP. Congrats on your Posse acceptance! You sound like a very motivated student, and I am interested to hear what you decide about this step of your college search.

You are lucky to have enlisted experienced posters on this thread. When I first came onto CC some of these same folks gave invaluable advice. One of my kids got into an HEOP program and the other into Questbridge.

HEOP is not automatic. Yes, your income makes you eligible economically for any HEOP program. However that is only half of the equation – the other half being “academic” eligibility. The school will decide according to its own benchmarks whether you fit their school-specific criteria. As Sybbie mentioned usually the 25 percentile for test scores is a good indicator. I think it was already mentioned that Vassar does not do HEOP. I don’t know where your stats fall for Skidmore or NYU.

The thing about HEOP is that you are competing for limited spaces. You can’t count on it – even if you do meet a school’s specific benchmarks of the academic eligibility. D’s school takes about 15 - 18 students a year.

Without HEOP…
Others have already explained that NYU fin aid would probably not make it affordable.

Skidmore is a school we visited for both kids. Be aware that it is not need-blind. Without HEOP, your fin aid would probably be generous, yes. Net price calcs will show an estimate. But…if I am not mistaken, Skidmore takes students in groupings according to stats AND ability to pay. Students at the lower end of the stats spectrum are not as likely to be admitted if they are applying for financial aid.

Vassar’s fin aid is generous, and I believe they are need-blind, but their stats are higher = more difficult admit.

If the Posse scholarship covers tuition, if that before Pell and any SEOG the student could get? If so, the student could use the Pell and the student loan to get $11000, and that would come close to paying for room and board at the Posse school. Pretty good deal.

@twoinanddone

Right now op has nothing, because s/he is not guaranteed Posse or HEOP. Out of all of the Posse finalist selected across the city, only 10 students will be ultimately accepted into each NYC Posse Partner Colleges.

If Ray is ultimately matched with Dickinson for Posse (because being a finalist is not an automatic admit), s/he would automatically get free tuition. Ray would also be eligible for any need based aid ad Dickinson. If accepted there is a very strong possibility that Ray would attend Dickinson without paying more than the student loan of $5500.

If Ray is not accepted to Dickinson, s/he would go to the Posse Access pool

Minimally, Ray should let the Posse process play it self out. IF Ray should be accepted to Posse, s/he would know that she has an affordable option with built in support program for his/her success. Being matched is only one step of the Posse process. After they are admitted to the school they spend the rest of the school year with their Posse, from NYC, attending weekly meetings on team building and academic success.

Worse case scenario, if s/he is not admitted to Dickinson, OP would become part of Posse Access and will be free to apply RD to NYU and any other NYS school through HEOP/EOP/SEEK to see how that process will play out.

Thanks for the elaboration @sybbie719