First of all, every single award letter I’ve ever seen (three kids - apps to as many as 20 colleges each) was worded pretty much the same way as NYU’s. Sheesh. Minor variations, but never did any school (INCLUDING NYU) attempt to deceive anybody into thinking that the “loans” were anything but exactly that. How feebleminded do you think families are when reading these award letters? Do you really think anybody accepts an NYU loan without realizing it will need to be paid back? LOL! Blame a family who takes on more loans than it should, don’t blame the school. Bashing NYU for issuing letters that clearly spell out loans is really reaching new levels of NYU-bashing.
But, but, but…NYU is a dream school and it’s not fair that it: doesn’t offer enough money/accepts kids who can’t pay/etc. Look, NYU IS a dream school for many valid reasons that I won’t go into. I don’t need to defend a top-30 university located in a city with abundant and fantastic opportunities right at the doorstep. As far as accepting kids who can’t pay…are YOU the judge of who can’t pay? NYU properly accepts the students who have demonstrated worthiness to matriculate. Whether their financial picture allows them to attend is their business, not yours. Sometimes the EFC does not tell the whole picture. If a college - any college - is unaffordable, the family should decline. Personally, I’d rather get “accepted/denied” as you put it, than denied outright, from any university. Maybe YOU would not prefer this. But that’s just your opinion, and it doesn’t make the NYU admissions process “unethical” in any way.
As far as this statement goes: “NYU appears to have the highest overall number of Parent PLUS loan recipients of any private US college, with 4,258 PLUS loans borrowers in the 2015-2016 school year, averaging $3,495 each” … do you realize that NYU is second only to BYU as the largest private university in the nation…by a LOT. It has nearly 30,000 undergraduate students…the next largest has only about half that many, and the vast, vast majority have only a tiny fraction of that population. OF COURSE NYU will have the highest overall number of PP loan recipients… by a LOT. Again, sheesh, enough with the NYU bashing.
If your student did not attend NYU, then you cannot possibly know or understand the wonderfulness of it. Mine does attend. Mine loves it. Sure there are kids struggling to pay … just like AT EVERY OTHER COLLEGE. Sure there might be better colleges out there - not for my kid, but maybe for yours. Sure there are probably kids there who are unhappy - which is true everywhere. Is this a reason to hate NYU - a school your child does not even attend?
Seriously, if you don’t have a kid attending the college, you really have no basis to judge the experience of others. The anonymous, anecdotal NYU bashing you see on this website is just that…anonymous and anecdotal. There is a reason NYU gets the most applications of any private university in the nation. It’s a fantastic university in a fantastic city, whose students do fantastic things. Stop insulting the many families and students who have chosen NYU as their university (and yes, you ARE insulting us when you bash the university we have chosen).