I am looking for affordable schools with decent business programs on the East Coast, roughly costing 30k to attend. I have already applied to 13 schools. I received acceptance to Fordham, Loyola, and a few others already. However after receiving financial aid offers from loyola and Scranton I would be paying around 40k a year. I am not sure what to do because this seems like a lot, even though I am earning generous scholarships to these schools I do not qualify for any aid. I am looking for a “financial” safety school. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
How about West Chester? One of the best PASSHE universities and the business school is AACSB accredited. My D17 is a graduate and has done well finding jobs in San Francisco. Students live on campus freshman year, then the majority move to off-campus apartments. York College of Pennsylvania is a lower-cost private school that also gives merit.
@Jacksonh, if you could let us know what didn’t appeal about some of the schools in the other thread, that might helps posters here give suggestions more likely to interest you.
They tend to place above their weight and students have access to internship opportunities in NYC.
Here are some rankings for Baruch College’s business school:
U.S. News & World Report: In 2024, Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business was ranked 53rd out of 124 schools for best business schools, and 40th out of 269 schools for part-time MBA. In 2023-2024, Zicklin was ranked 49th nationally for best business schools, and was the top public business school in New York.
Niche: In 2023, Baruch College was ranked #1 for best colleges for accounting and finance in New York.
Wall Street Journal: In 2025, Baruch College was ranked #1 for value.
Baruch College is known for its academic excellence, affordability, and post-graduate outcomes. Some of its most popular majors include business, management, marketing, and related support services.
I visited West Chester as I only live about an hour away. I really didn’t like the campus it didn’t have the feel I was looking for. Thank you though!
One crazy thought is Ogelthorpe I’m Atlanta. Tuition will match PA - so aboit $20k but should come less than $40k. They have Flagship 50 - match in state. You can get similar at SUNYs.
York College of PA is low cost with merit.
If you’re willing to trade off - and go south - Alabama won’t make cost but they have scholarships above what they advertise. A TO just got $28k making about $20k all in. W Carolina just us $20k all in.
I’d really look at Millersville. That home state school at least will get you to the price. You can decide later about attending.
You might consider SUNY schools as an option. The 2 best SUNY schools for Business are generally considered to be Binghamton and Albany.
Albany has the advantage of having a tuition match program whereby you pay your home state’s tuition & fees at their flagship U instead of SUNY’s normal charge for out of state students. Pennsylvania is one of the states on their approved list. Using in state tuition & fees at Penn State as your cost at Albany would reduce your cost there to about $37,000 from the normal out of state cost of $47,500.
Current direct costs (I just use direct and not indirect so things are apples to apples) are $45K even. Things like insurance, transport, and miscellaneous can be whatever the school makes up - and most don’t include those when setting a budget.
But you are correct - it looks like it can get to $40K-ish.
Sorry about that. And thanks for the correction.
Salisbury is $36,074 direct billed. And they offer out of state $6K to $8500.
It’s an easy NPC - I looked and you get $8500 off - $2.5K for the Presidential and $6000 for the Sea Gull.
So that appears an assured to meet costs.
So Salisbury and Millersville might make a good 1-2 punch.
My last finance major chased merit in the northeast with a similar gpa but higher test scores. Her best offers came from SUNY BING, Saint Joesph’s in Philadelphia, and temple. Saint Joseph’s came down to about $22,000 all in after merit.
One of the schools I had previously suggested was Bryant in Rhode Island. In looking at its NPC (lovely because it lets you do the merit scholarship estimate before needing to input any financial aid info) it is estimated that you would qualify for its Trustee Scholarship of $30k, which would leave a sticker price of about $37k (tuition, fees, and room & board). And, perhaps, depending on how they’re doing at getting enrollment deposits, they could end up increasing their offer over time (that’s speculation, not a fact). Its admission deadline is February 1.
Another one previously suggested was Emmanuel in Boston. Its NPC (which also allows one to not calculate need-based aid) estimates that you’d get $29k in merit aid, bringing the sticker price to about $33k (I excluded the nearly $2500 in indirect costs of books, personal allowance, etc). Its application deadline is February 15.
But if that’s not far enough below $40k, then it would be helpful to know what the new target price is.
Additionally, you could run through the NPCs on the other schools that were on the page that we listed to see what the estimated scholarships would be, as that’s all I did for the two schools above. Other schools may come in as affordable.
Also, there were some of your in-state publics like Penn State: Behrend in Erie there that have a sticker price of about $31k, and you might get merit aid, too.
Are you still seeking a small to medium-sized school? And is your preference still for a city?
Let’s regroup. Which schools, if any, mentioned on your two threads (or otherwise) have you applied to that might get below $30K all in? Do you have an affordable acceptance yet?
If you’re talking about a school that is strictly a financial safety and you like the big city, then the recommendation for Baruch which you’ve already received is far and away the best financial safety you can find. City College is also very good. Non-resident tuition is $620 per credit + fees at both. Assuming a course load of 15 credits, annual tuition + fees would be about $19,000. While the City University has some limited dorm space, you would have to plan on finding your own housing and provide for your own meals. Both colleges are in Manhattan. Once you establish permanent residency, which you should be able to do with a year round lease on your own apartment, annual tuition drops to about $7000 per year for the next 3 years.
If you prefer something in a more residential neighborhood with possibly lower cost housing, Queens and Brooklyn Colleges also have good programs. Or you can live in one of the lower cost neighborhoods in an outer borough and commute into Manhattan.