<p>I am going to be a Junior in High School and i am just getting a job. I know it’s going to be hard for me to go to my number one schools because they are expensive, so do you think it’s a good idea for me to start putting away everything i make in my savings account and keep it there for college? would i even make enough to make a dent in the tuition?</p>
<p>Ok…we know that you want to go to NYU-Tisch and won’t likely qualify for any aid (parents make too much and you’re an only child). And, your stats are not close to qualifying for any merit…I think you said that your SAT is around 1800-1900??? Even if you retake, it’s unlikely that you’d score high enough for substantial merit. </p>
<p>Frankly, I highly doubt that you could earn/save enough to make a dent in NYU’s cost for 4 years. Keep in mind that it costs $240k to go there. If you saved $8k over the next 2 years (which would be hard for a full time student who also has some expenses), that is only $2k per year!</p>
<p>What are your parents saying? You need to deal with the reality of your family’s situation. How much will they pay each year? You need for them to tell you NUMBERS. I realize that they may not be able to say, “We can give you exactly $22,500 per year for college.”…but they should know whether they can give about $5k??? $10k?? $20k??? $40??? </p>
<p>Sit down with BOTH parents (not just one) and get them to figure out how much they can pay each year. As I said in one of your other threads, if with your parents high income they can’t pay a lot for college for their only child, then likely they can’t afford to make the payments on big private loans either. </p>
<p>I know that you really, really want NYU…but if it’s not affordable, you need to start finding schools that will you will be happy with AND will be affordable. You won’t likely be earning much when you graduate with your intended majors, so keep that in mind. It’s very easy to get caught up with the idea that big loans will solve everything…but those really just create a nearly-life-long nightmare later.</p>
<p>Thanks. I also like Pitt which is a lot cheaper since I’m instate and the tuition is 25k. My parents said they could pay 25k and up to 30k at the most. I am going to apply to NYU and just see what happens, see how much aid i get and see what out financial situation is at the time and see if i even get accepted. It will be hard to turn it down, but if i have to i have some other schools now that i could fall back on i.e Pitt, Purchase, Flagler, Charleston and Emerson (which is still pretty expensive)</p>
<p>When filling out the FAFSA, students have to indicate how much money that have in a checkings/savings account, and in cash. If you saved money, it might negatively impact your financial aid from the university. That doesn’t necessarily mean you should intentionally not save money, but for some people this might be an option (although possibly a little unethical). </p>
<p>With that said, I would say NYU is an exception. You’re going to want to start saving as much as possible, because most of the financial aid NYU gives is in loans. Definitely start looking at other colleges. I initially wanted to go to NYU because I was attracted to the city, but after I factored in transportation from NY to Indiana and even just living in NYC on top of tuition, there was absolutely no way my family could afford it.</p>
<p>It’s a very laudable idea to save money for college. You should save the money in a 529 account to minimize the potential impact on financial aid.</p>