<p>GFG, there are plenty of kids at NYU and Columbia living on modest budgets. If you give her $500 per month she will spend it- it is very tempting with so many wonderful restaurants, theater, jazz clubs, etc. If she has to live on significantly less she will do that as well, and will have plenty of company. There are free or cheap tickets to a wide range of wonderful shows, music, etc; she will learn to take the subway; she will avoid the $4 latte syndrome and learn to make a decent cup of coffee in her room like the vast majority of students in NY.</p>
<p>I think you are overthinking this so early in the process. Very few kids at her age have much direction. You have posted many times about the pressure cooker school and community your daughter lives in… why not be a soothing counter-balance and not get caught up so early on in micromanaging? After a few overnights she will have very definite ideas about what she likes and doesn’t like; if she thinks she’d be happy at Columbia, your job is to provide a reality check on what you can afford, not to point out that you think she’d get more career direction and be surrounded by more ambitious people at Harvard.</p>