My name is Jeff Selingo. I am the author of a forthcoming book on college admissions and working on an article for the New York Times. I have received permission from College Confidential to post here. I am interested in interviewing parents of NYU students about financial-aid gapping. That’s the practice of when colleges give you substantially less in financial aid than an expected contribution shows you should receive. If your son or daughter is enrolled at NYU right now and has been substantially gapped in their financial-aid package, please email me at jeff@selingo.com. I’m looking for people willing to talk on the record and share their financial-aid letters.
I do hope that you are able to get some good examples of NYU gapping…which is common because NYU does not meet full need, and they are up front about that, stating it multiple times on their website.
I encourage you to also give examples of cases where NYU did meet full need…they do this for some applicants who they really want to attend (as do some other schools that don’t meet full need for all).
I also hope that your article takes time to bring light to to other, even more, important issues:
-FAFSA EFC should never be considered to be what applicants “should receive” from any school’s FA package…not from meet-full-need schools, and of course not from a school which doesn’t meet full need. FAFSA EFC is simply used as a mechanism for determination of/access to Pell Grants, Direct Student Loans, SEOG, etc. It would be good if the government changed the terminology, because ‘expected financial contribution’ does not make sense in the FA system we currently have.
-Explanation of net price calculators (NPCs)…and their accuracy. Not sure how accurate NYU’s is, but I do think it will show an expected cost of attendance typically higher (sometimes significantly higher) than an applicants FAFSA EFC.
If an applicant uses an accurate NPC, there should not be any surprises when they receive their FA package. Making sure applicants use NPCs would ultimately save much time and frustration…applicants would understand what schools are unlikely to be affordable before they apply. Why apply to a school that will likely not be affordable? (excluding situations where potential large competitive merit awards could be in sight)
Good luck.
In relation to above I would also be interested in how this author defines “gapping” for the (many) schools like NYU who are upfront about not meeting full need. Is it a real gap if they tell you upfront to expect one?
I do think a valid criticism of NYU is the simplicity and therefore inaccuracy of its online npc calculator. It gave us around $25k (I don’t recall the exact amount) to come in grants and scholarships, but we pretty much knew we would be full pay, which is how it ended up.
They even go beyond full need in some cases. I met a parent of a mlk scholar last year, whose kid was on a full ride and then some (for example an internship fund that allows them to get “paid” for unpaid internships, etc).
I think a good article would teach parents to use the common data set. It makes accurate info available to all who seek it out for every school. NYU traditionally meets 67% of need and gives out very little non-need merit aid. It’s there in black and white for anyone who does research.
The bigger story is to try to see who gets more of their need met. What attributes/ stories led to their better packages? Or who wins the MLK scholarship without need ( if anyone.) Most other non-need aid goes to music and art students for talent.
Both my students attended for undergrad and grad school.