Was there a mistake?

<p>ok i know that NYU is notorious for their horrible financial aid but mine is more than a little ridiculous. My father makes about $30,000 a year, and i have an older sibling thats at NYU right now who pays tuition for. I recieved a grand total of $4000 (a pell grant, $2000 per semester) and the rest of my aid was work study, stafford loan, and a perkins loan. They also expect me to take out $17,200 in plus loans each semester. </p>

<p>How can they expect a man that makes $30,000 a year to pay $50,000 (my and my sisters tuition combined) a year?!?!?!?!</p>

<p>obvs i am going to contact the financial aid office first thing monday....but is it possible this was a major mistake or is this type of aid normal for NYU?...</p>

<p>How does a man making 30,000 pay for an NYU education for one child? There has to be more to this story. Aid is also based on student income, student assets, and parent assets. Do you live in a very expensive home that has lots of equity, or do you or your parents have other significant assets?</p>

<p>You only can qualify for a Pell grant if your EFC is $4,400 or less- so I am really confused too.
Parent PLUS loans should not count as part of the financial aid package.</p>

<p>im sorry i was a bit vague...my sisters scholarships and grants left my dad with about $15,000 to pay per year for her...and she contributes a lot she works during the year and during the summer so they get the money together.</p>

<p>and yes we live in a very affluent part of long island..our house is our biggest asset worth over half a million. my parents are in a lot of debt but i know fafsa doesnt take that into consideration</p>

<p>And also..in my orignal estimate i recieved a new york state TAP grant...and now they took that away and i only have the pell grant</p>

<p>Is NYU a profile school? The profile looks at the home equity, otherwise this package does not make sense to me. It looks like nothing but debt for you and your family.</p>

<p>Our family has also had plus loans listed on 2 of our financial applications. Both of these schools also had nothing but loans to offer. My son is not going to attend either of them, and they are not nearly as expensive as NYU.</p>

<p>Seems like it is not a profile school, and if this is the case, I don't understand it either.</p>

<p>hmm i am not sure if it is a profile school..i will look into it..but guess i am not the only one that is baffled :-(</p>

<p>Does NYU have any of its own financial forms, so that they look at home equity?</p>

<p>How do you pay high property taxes that LI has on an expensive house, and still fund one child's education (scholarships considered) at NYU? Honestly, to me it simply does not add up.</p>

<p>EK, Can you have a lot of home equity, and then using the profile get an efc below 4,400 to qualify for a Pell grant?</p>

<p>as far as I can tell from the Us news site- NYU does not meet 100% of need.
To not actually give you any money at all- ( I don't count loans as money & the school doesn't pay for PELL )
is pretty chinzty.
Two years ago- average student debt was $27,000 ( and that does not count Parent Plus loans)
I am not sure why they are so notorious for bad aid- but it doesnt' seem to be concerned about changing that image.
( they don't look at PROFILE although they may have their own aid forms)</p>

<p>Ek, I meant to ask, can you use the fafsa and have an efc below 4400, and still have a lot of home equity (not looked at by fafsa), and get a Pell grant?</p>

<p>as far as I can tell- if they only look at FAFSA to determine the qualification for PELL grant & your income is low enough that it would qualify- then you could get a grant even though there is a lot of equity.</p>

<p>But most families with really high equity- probably aren't going to have low incomes- unless of course they are like us- and found their equity increased when houses around them sold to people fleeing other parts of the country where housing was even crazier.
But if you have a lowish income- which $30,000 certainly is- how they expect you to take out an equity loan to access it for college I don't know.<a href="http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/2005-2006/english/index.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/2005-2006/english/index.htm&lt;/a>
Since they jsut redid the qualification process for Pell grants- it is surprising that the student qualfied and yet still was expected by his school to pay the bulk of expenses</p>

<p>nope NYU didnt have any special financial aid forms i just filled out the FAFSA</p>

<p>Did they meet the efc through the pell grant and loans? On average they meet only 68% of need. Your need can be met in the form of loans, but on average they give is 59% in grants, and 41% in loans.</p>

<p>Yes they met the EFC when all the bs aid is included (plus loan, work study, stafford loan) but without it i am expected to pay over $40,000 a year which seems very VERY wrong.</p>

<p>I agree and we have seen 2 of these type of packages, although one was from an out of state school (though 30% of oos gets merit aid from them).</p>

<p>If this is all they are going to do, in my way of thinking, they either think that you don't really need the aid, will attend regardless of the offer, or they don't care whether you attend or not.</p>

<p>Do you have other options? I would not allow my son to go into this kind of debt, and I would not take out parent loans for myself either. My son got over his first choice school for this reason. Actually, after he thought about it, I offered to call the school to see about a better offer, but he opted for another school. He is now very happy about his decison. His second choice, has actually become his first choice school. They both have very different things to offer students, and one can get a good education in both places. I might add that the school that he decided not to attend offered him merit aid, but it was still too expensive for our family without additional grants.</p>

<p>Superman, the award does NOT meet the EFC -they can't designate a PLUS loan as part of meeting need. I understand that NYU writes up their award letter to make it look that way, but the bottom line is that NYU is being dishonest in the way they present the package. For you to understand your award, cross out the words "PLUS loan" and instead write "unmet need". That's the real story. </p>

<p>To everyone else. NYU does NOT (a) count home equity; (b) ask for any financial information other than FAFSA; and (c) even begin to meet the full need of all its students. NYU's financial aid system is entirely merit-based with a need-based component: they decided who gets the bucks based on their stats. The top 5% of applicants get full tuition scholarships. After that, the amount of aid awarded depends on where the student is on the scale of very-good to not-so-good in terms of academic profile. </p>

<p>Superman's problem is that Supersister must have had better GPA & test scores, so she got a reasonably good aid package. He's come along expecting the same, but based on his financial aid award it appears that NYU simply doesn't like him as much.</p>

<p>So no, there was no mistake, Superman. This is how NYU works. If you make enough noise, they may toss up to $2000 your way.</p>

<p>


That doesn't meant that they meet 68% of need for most students -- that means that they meet 100% for a few, and much less for many. I think I figured out that our NYU award was meeting about 50% of our need - but its not a percentage thing. When we have compared notes, there simply are certain levels of grant funding that tend to be fairly consistent no matter what the EFC is. Someone who has the same status as my daughter in terms of aid priority, but a lower EFC - won't get more money -- my d. is getting more than many Pell grant qualifiers, less than some kids who have less need.</p>

<p>I am a little mystified - if you only filed FAFSA and you received the full PELL , why your TAP was taken away ??</p>

<p>northeastmom-i think they know how desperate i am to go and may even find a way to attend regardless of this aid. i know its a lot of debt to graduate with but a degree from stern will pay for itself, and at this point i dont see many other options i am kind of in a hole. do you know if there are there any type of other loans available to students beside the plus loan. deffered payment loans that i can pay for after i graduate..</p>

<p>and calmom i had much better stats/gpa than my sister, the thing is she is in GSP and i am in stern which makes a major difference. today i called the fin aid office and the response i got was pretty much tough luck. im going to contact stern admissions and see if i can get any additional merit aid.</p>