I’m not going to debate you because I know what NYU’s practices are and I have been on CC as long as it has existed, and see the same thing happen year after year. A small fraction of NYU students get substantial aid – the rest get awards in varying, mostly small amounts that are tied to NYU’s perception of merit, not actual need. And year after year after year there are students and parent coming to this board with posts like the student in this thread who posted that family EFC was under <$10k and who was offered only $20K in aid and who said that NY is her “dream” school and that if she doesn’t get aid her parents will take out a loan – based on COA that would have to be a loan for around $40K.
There simply is no way a family whose EFC is $10K can afford to take on $40k x 4. (And it will be likely more than that because the fees at NYU will continued to go up but the $20K scholarship probably won’t). In the end that would be $160K of debt, with a montly payment in excess of $1800, and total interest over the life of the loan (assuming 120 month payoff) of almost $63K — so in order to send the child to NYU, that parent would end up paying around $203,000 (and that doesn’t include loan origination fees of more than $1700 each year.
The question in this thread was whether the awards could be appealed. I told both the parent with -0- aid and the student with $20K that they should appeal for the sake of having done so, but that they should not expect significant changes. If they appeal and I am proven wrong – then I’ll revise my opinion. Other than that, there is now more than a dozen years that I have been on CC seeing the same results year after year after year, with not a single exception.
And yes of course NYU is also very happy to accept federal Pell grant money as well as direct loan proceeds, but if they are expecting or encouraging the parents of Pell grant recipients to take PLUS loans – it only reinforces my opinion as to their practices.
If your child is among the small fraction of favored applicant who get strong awards – good for you – but the point is that NYU does not meet need or even factor in degree of need in computing awards for the vast majority of students it admits. Its practices (average 67% of need met) - are on not on par with peer institutions if you go by US News rankings (current NYU rank=30). For example, Boston University (ranked at #37) meets 92% of need on average (and I also know from experience is very transparent about its leveraging practices). Case Western (also #37) meets 100% of need. Tulane (rank #40) meets 97% of need. George Washington (rank #52) meets 90% of need. Fordham (rank #61) meets 80%. Even Pace (rank 187) manages to meet 70% of average need.
And those averages reflect only students who enroll – so we know that - on average – a student with financial need at NYU has 33% of unmet need, and that, on average, parents who take out PLUS loans for their kids are taking out $32.4K of loans.
These figures are not my opinion. They are facts drawn from easily verifiable sources. By the numbers, NYU is underfunding its students to a much greater degree than any other comparable colleges, and also worse than many lower-ranked schools.
That you see statements of facts as “bashing” is your problem, not mine. I live near a large city with very nice homes, very high cost of living, high property values, and a way too many homeless people living in the streets. If I opine that the city is doing a poor job of providing housing for the poor – that is not “bashing” the city – that is pointing out a very real problem. Similarly, if someone was planning to relocate and asked my opinion as to whether to come to this high-cost city, and I knew that person was not wealthy – I might counsel that person to look for more a more affordable city or region to live in.
So same deal – every college has strength and weaknesses, but some have bigger problems than others. When it comes to a pocketbook issue like financial aid & debt, it happens to be a problem that can follow students and parents for decades-- so not a good bet for students like the ones who have posted here who were not offered meaningful financial aid.