<p>The e-mail looks like a scam: "I have to come up with big-time cash," writes Max Stephenson. The 18-year-old is headed for New York University, he explains, but his mom is on disability, his dad works three jobs, and all his grants and loans only cover half of the school's $50,000 annual tab. So to cover the gap, he's hoping 10,000 friends of friends of friends will each put $2.50 in the mail or send the money via PayPal. </p>
<p>i did something similar. he’s had quite more success with it though. i read about a story where a guy 20+ yrs ago asked for a penny via a newspaper ad. he collected enough pennies to be able to pay for most if not all of college. so i figured i’d do the same using paypal. i managed to get around $87. I used it towards my tuition. Even though it wasn’t a great deal, it helped. Since then times have been better and I’ve managed to get 2-3 flexible school part-time jobs each semester and have not had to take out private loans. It’s good to see that kid doing well in his plea for money. most people I asked online just thought it was some sort of scam and/or told me to take out loans like everyone else. just like that kid, an article was done on what i did in US News and World. Wonder where this kid will end up in 3 years financially speaking with the school situation.</p>
<p>I thought of three somewhat contadictory things while I was reading the article:</p>
<p>1) This makes NYU look really, really bad.</p>
<p>2) Why didn’t the kid choose a cheaper college option rather than NYU? Didn’t he have a state school he could have attended? Lots of kids have to turn down NYU for financial reasons.</p>
<p>3) The father “works three jobs,” but who knows how much money he makes? He may end up with a pretty good income. The article implies that the family is low-income, but that isn’t stated anywhere.</p>
<p>Why didn’t he take a good, hard look at finances BEFORE making the decision? Once again it appears a decision has been made to attend a college based on name recognition. Wake up people, it costs money to attend college!</p>
<p>mountains: no it did not make any more money for me. just like this Time magazine, it did not give out my website so people were not able to send me donations.</p>
<p>LurkNessMonster: it’s not always the same financial aid situation at every school. i remember when I applied to SUNY schools I ended up getting less financial aid there than I did at the other schools I applied to. Most of the aid I got came in the form of federal loans (subsidized and unsubsidized) and a few federal grants that didn’t add to much. I got more financial aid from a private institute (the school I currently enroll in) and other out of state public schools. So it’s not always the case that you can go to cheaper schools to pay less for an education or to state schools to get more aid. Not to mention, you’re not going to get the same education at every school or have the same employment/networking opportunities at every school.</p>
<p>BP, I am aware that financial aid differs from school to school. That is why everyone needs to apply to a variety of schools and wait until you see what you get in financial aid from each one. I’m saying, after the kid in the article saw that NYU was giving him half the amount of tuition in aid, leaving a shortfall of $25,000 a year for him and his family to pay, why didn’t he pick another school from his list of acceptances? </p>
<p>Pretty much anyone in the United States can attend his or her in-state college, even paying room and board, for less than $25,000 a year. Or he could have enrolled in a community college. Or got a job and went to school at night. There are many options for low-cost colleges. Everyone knows that NYU isn’t one of them.</p>
<p>possibly the kid did not get a better fin-aid package at other schools. maybe he wanted to dorm, and not commute. there could have been a bunch of reasons he picked NYU from all schools on his acceptance list. he’s not complaining about having to pay that amount of money though. he’s just getting creative with ways to make up that money to pay college.</p>
<p>Can’t speak for this kid, but when I was in college it was cheaper to get financial aid from a wealthy private school than to go to a state school. I am puzzled he didn’t get a full ride somewhere as a hockey player.</p>
<p>That’s an interesting question. I think there’s a lot more to the story than what’s contained in the article.</p>
<p>And yes, BP, he may have wanted to attend NYU for a variety of reasons, despite the seeming poor financial aid. I would prefer to drive a Lexus, if I had a choice. Sometimes we have to do what we can afford. Personally, I think what he’s doing is cheesy.</p>
<p>I work with a Doctor (in his early 60’s) who said he put an ad in the NYTimes, stating his case that he needed money for medical school. Some very wealthy women with no children met with him. They talked and she paid for his medical school. The only thing he had to do was meet with her for lunch once a year to update her re: his progress.
He stated to me, that you never know what people are willing to do, you just have to take the risk with the idea that it might not work. It either will or won’t.</p>
<p>It seems a bit greedy to me to ask for money because you want to attend a private school that costs an unreasonable amount of money. I admire his determination, but it just seems kinda wrong.</p>
<p>That’s probably one of the most important things my parents taught me: Beggars can’t be choosers, and never live above your means.</p>