<p>I have a niece who completed 3 semesters at SVA before she decided that she owed too much money to finish. She loved her art courses as well as her academic courses, but she had gone through just about all the academics and still had another 2.5 years to finish. She decided to transfer to a CUNY (City U. of NY, tuition $5.5k/year for NYC residents) school and pursue her art education elsewhere.</p>
<p>NYC is an expensive city to live and SVA is an expensive school. Unless a student comes from a wealthy family, s/he will graduate with a lot of debt.</p>