I’m a freshman in a decent small private LAC in a rural area, paying about 20k a year (including 3.5k in federal loans). I got accepted to a CUNY last week and the tuition and fees is about 7k without financial aid (I’m still waiting to hear from them about aid). I am not sure if I should transfer. My family veers more towards the lower end of the middle class spectrum, so it would make sense to go to a cheaper school. I’m also thinking that it would be better for me to be in the city because of the internship and job opportunities, which are scarce in the area where I am going to college now. My major is undecided but I’ll probably end up majoring in visual arts, film, or something else “liberal-artsy” (what I’m saying is that I’m not going into a field where I’ll be making a whole lot of money).
I really like the school I go to now but I’m not sure if it is worth the money, as my workload is not too stressful and I feel like I spend a lot of time doing nothing since I am not in a stimulating place like NYC. However, this is still a very intellectual school and I have a lot of friends here. What do you think would be a good plan? Should I stay or go?
Message me if you want the specific names of the school I go to and the school I may transfer to.
It depends. The CUNY schools in general are commuter schools. Most of the students come from the 5 boroughs, many are non-traditional, first generations immigrants. It might be harder to make friends and you won’t get the “college experience”. This is a great environment if you are from nyc already but the issue is that they don’t really have dorms and housing is super expensive in most parts of the city so you would have to live with family. Another thing is that the cuny bureaucracy is really bad. I have heard so many horror stories of people being dropped from their classes in the middle of the semester, not being able to register, long lines. But the classes tend to be surprisingly good and the professors are knowledgeable. And it’s cheap so you can’t complain about that. If you do decide to look at cunys you should look at hunter college(liberal arts) or baruch (solid business program).
If you were to go out and get an apartment or room in new york all the money you save on tuition would just be eaten up by money you spend on housing and transportation. So if you like your school right now it really wouldn’t be worth it.