NYU Stern is my top choice. Our EFC (the numbers I plugged in are all accurate) is only 20k. Yes, my parents have explicitly stated they will pay up to 20k.
The net price calculator on NYU’s site gives me an estimated net price of 35k. The COA is about 70k.
Would it be a terrible idea to apply ED in this situation?
That does not seem like it is going to work. What are your other options?
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Are you saying that your FAFSA EFC is $20k, but the NYU NPC is saying that your family will need to pay $35k?
If so, then why would you rely on a FAFSA EFC? NYU is a CSS Profile school that doesn’t “meet need”.
You can apply ED if you want, but understand that it likely will not be affordable…and in the meantime get your apps in to schools that will give you merit for your stats…those can be your back ups and their merit deadlines are in Nov and Dec.
Yes, that’s right.
I have 7 other schools I’m applying to (2 high reaches, 1 reach, 3 low matches, 1 financial safety).
Basically, I’m not sure I’d be able to get out of the ED agreement easily even though I know we’re allowed to if the financial aid isn’t sufficient.
EDIT: I don’t know much about css profiles vs fafsa. I’ll look more into it, thanks.
I'm not sure I'd be able to get out of the ED agreement easily even though I know we're allowed to if the financial aid isn't sufficient.
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you can be sure that you can get out of ED easily. After being given the inadequate FA pkg, you just decline…probably right on the NYU portal or thru some other easy means. It’s not hard.
Don’t apply ED if the NPC clearly shows it to be unaffordable. (I personally wouldn’t apply RD, either, why waste the application fee and time on an unaffordable school?)
@cityonanocean, the FAFSA EFC just tells you if you qualify for a Federal Pell grant. After that, it’s pretty useless because colleges don’t care about that number. They have their own formulas for determining family contributions. If the NYU Net Price Calculator gave you an estimated out-of-pocket cost of $30k, bank on it being at least that. If they included the Federal Student Loan in the aid (before they got to the $30k), then your yearly cost would be ~$35k/year excluding books and travel. If your parents can’t/won’t pay that, I wouldn’t ED there.
@intparent: Well, I keep telling my oldest that she is allowed to apply on my dime to one and exactly one unaffordable but dream school, if only to see if she can get in after all. But ED? Nope, I agree with you—no way one should have one’s hands tied that way.
Well. NYU has a reputation for miserable FA… I’d sure encourage my kid to pick a different “unaffordable” school to shoot for. No one ever gets lucky with NYU FA.
So it would be a pain to get out of the ED agreement even if there’s a 15k difference between our EFC and net price?
I think a better question is, if you know that there is a significant gap (in the wrong direction) between what your family will pay and what NYU thinks you can pay, why would you apply there ED? Why sign yourself up for the inevitable pain of trying to get out of an ED contract when you know up front the school will be unaffordable? Seems like your energies could be better used elsewhere.
It’s not even so much that it would be a pain to get out of the ED agreement, it’s that you would have missed the priority funding deadline for many other schools in the meantime.
It would be a pain because you would actually have to do the paperwork involved, and because you will use time, energy, and money to apply there that could better be expended elsewhere instead.
Right now you know that NYU looks to be unaffordable, and you haven’t found any random special scholarships out there that would magically pay the difference for you. This means that even if you were admitted, there isn’t likely to be any possibility at all that you would be able to attend. So, unless you are a trophy hunter who wants to be able to hang an NYU ED admission letter on your wall (should you actually be admitted) then there really isn’t any point in applying to NYU ED. Kick it to the curb, and move on.
If your parents can pay $20,000 but NYU’s net price is $35,000, then you can probably cover $8,000 to $10,000 of the $15,000 difference with a $5,500 federal direct loan and some work earnings. But that still leaves you short by $5,000 to $7,000 per year. However, NYU’s net price calculator asks for very little information compared to other schools’ net price calculators; if NYU’s actual financial aid calculation uses more family financial information (e.g. everything on FAFSA and CSS Profile), NYU’s actual financial aid offer may differ significantly (possibly worse) from the net price calculator estimate.
NYU does offer merit scholarships and/or preferential packaging of financial aid (i.e. hidden merit within the financial aid package). However, since merit scholarships are used to attract students that the school wants, a student who has already declared the school his/her first choice through applying ED may not be the one the school thinks it needs to attract with merit scholarships and/or preferential packaging of financial aid. Since it appears that if you apply to NYU, you will be trying for the merit scholarships and/or preferential packaging of financial aid, not merely admission, it does not make sense to apply ED, and it should be considered a more of a reach than it already may be for you.
I’ve decided to stick to applying to schools EA and RD. I’ll apply to NYU anyway so I don’t have any regrets–perhaps a part-time job would make it possible.
Thank you all very much for taking the time to contribute your thoughts.
Wise decision. In your circumstances, ED would be a poor decision. No reason not to apply RD; NYU can give good aid with a heavy merit component if they want you. Won’t ever know unless you apply. But, RD not ED.
And, only apply if you know you can walk away from an acceptance that doesn’t meet your financial requirements. If you can’t commit to doing that, then you should not apply. This advice applies to every college, btw, not just NYU. “Meet full need” schools don’t always meet YOUR definition of “need.”