@Sportsman88 Columbia is very generous and their awards do not differ much from other Ivies. The major difference is that they do consider home equity but the allowance is generous. From experience, Columbia’s financial aid is far, far better than NYUs. Our NYU package included more than $20K in loans (subsidized, unsubsidized, parent). Our Columbia package was 100% grants and no loans. Both universities calculated our need to be roughly the same.
@BuckeyeMWDSG Applying to Brown is better from a financial aid perspective, the problem however is that you need to be admitted. Brown is far more competitive than NYU.