<p>On their 2012 (or was it 2013?) document about admission stats, average SAT scores, average finance aid and scholarship money, etc… the AVERAGE financial aid package was about $7500.</p>
<p>That leaves about $50,000+ for paying the annual tuition… it certainly lives up to the “stingy school” rep NYU appears to have.</p>
<p>That being said, is NYU the worst, or one of the worst colleges for financial aid?</p>
<p>Jar…NYU is a private university. No one is forced to apply there. They do not meet full need for all accepted students. Most colleges do not meet full need for all. There are plenty of other expensive schools that do not meet full need. NYU isn’t the only one.</p>
<p>Apply elsewhere if the costs are too high.</p>
<p>NYU became a Profile school in the last two years…and this means they scrutinize your family finances more than what the FAFSA does.</p>
<p>There is a net price calculator on the NYU website. Put your figures in there…and see what you get. Keep in mind…if your parents are self employed, own a business, are divorced, or own property other than your primary residence…the NPC will not be accurate.</p>
<p>The super short answer is: yes.</p>
<p>The slightly less short answer is: a combination of manhattan real-estate, heavy (and some would say, often superfluous) infrastructure investment, and surprising wage competitiveness V. Columbia and Fordham, has helped ensure NYU (already infamous for its extreme expense) has, in the last decade, become one of the least affordable schools in the country for students relying on financial aid.</p>
<p>Deciding which is the ‘worst’ is a bit of a pointless exercise. Many schools have horror-stories concerning financial aid (although, many would argue none so many, or so egregious and downright skeezy as NYU–especially circa 2009ish), and many can dramatically change policy and directives depending on a fired financial aid director here, or a revalued investment portfolio there.</p>
<p>The bottom line is if financial aid is a factor, YOU SHOULD NOT APPLY TO NYU. NYU will never, ever, ever, meet the full-need of a student with a low EFC unless that student is of ivy caliber and would almost surely get their full-need met everywhere else.</p>
<p>I wish we could help more, but there’s no tips or tricks to understanding NYU’s financial aid process beyond the fact that they will always charge more than any other comparable competitor.</p>
<p>No it is not.
There are worst schools than NYU.
NYU only is able to get away with that or bluff because it can.
It is In NY city, It has one of the best academics, its Alumni network is thriving, and it is private.
So yes there are probably applicants 2x their class size willing to pay the full price tag, but they still have to find a way to ignore that greed and balance its class for diversity sake.
Think about business, example real estate, people are willing to pay 10x the cost to purchase one a house or condo in NYC.
SO no, it is not the worst, they could have done worst.
Best of luck to you.</p>
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<p>I would differ slightly here, as some students who are Ivy-caliber might actually prefer to go to NYU, especially if the financial package is attractive. I know one student from our area that did get full need met. And yes, he was a very desirable candidate anywhere, but NYU is what he wanted so that is where he went. </p>
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<p>No, it does not have “one of the best academics.” Some programs are top-notch but many others are simply mediocre. A LOT of classes are taught by adjuncts. And remember that incidentals that are cheap in a typical college town are exorbitant in NYC. NYU absolutely, 100% is one of the “worst” schools cost-wise.</p>
<p>Ran the net price calculator with a family income of <$30,000, one kid in college.
Price = over $23,000. Only mediocre privates (no-name liberal arts colleges or religious universities) are this expensive for low income students.</p>
<p>And meanwhile, the university acquires and builds out more and more real estate in Manhattan and at its other campuses around the world…</p>
<p>^^ I totally disagree! Some of the "mediocre privates (no-name liberal arts colleges…) provide great FA packages for low income students especially if they have the stats.</p>
<p>@scsiguru
Ok, “mediocre” may be an exaggeration, but there is quite a gap in FA between top schools and decent schools.
For example, low income TX students will pay over $15,000/year for Austin College, Saint Edward’s, The University of the Incarnate Word, Southwestern University, while Rice University charges them less than $10,000/year.</p>
<p>Never mind. You’re right. These schools offer better FA than NYU.
Even RPI’s FA without the medal is better than NYU’s!</p>
<p>If NYU is not the most expensive overall, it’s right up there. It may very well be the most overpriced school. Realistically, it’s only sensible for business students from very rich families that won’t miss the $300K after tax.</p>
<p>Worst? That is debatable. Certainly the worst for some students. The thing with NYU is that it is very expensive in that it’s price is right up there with the most expensive schools, and it does not meet need anywhere nearly as well as many of the private peer schools. It also is need blind in admissions and it’s a large school, so one can see students accepted with need, and not getting much of it met. GW would have just rejected those students, as would a number of school that are need aware in admissions. NYU will accept and leave it up to the student and family to come up with the money somehow. Being located where it is in Manhattan, adds a lot to the cost as well.</p>
<p>I’ve known some students who got their best aid/merit package from NYU, so it wasn’t the MOST expensive school to those lucky ones. But NYU does NOT give much in the way of scholarships; very few students get big merit awards,and they do not meet full need for most students.</p>
<p>A quick look at the list of the top National Universities as put together by USNWR puts NYU right after BC, Brandeis, Wm &Mary, and right befor Uof Roch, Gtech and Case Western. William and Mary and Gtech are state schools, so have lower sticker prices, and are very inexpensive for most of their students as the majority of them are in staters, so they will do a lot better on the bang of the buck. BC meets full need as they define it, and URoch, Brandeis and Case Western are known to discount heavily with merit money. But the sticker price for NYU, considering its location in Manhattan is not that far off from the that of the top 30 or so top national Universities from the USNWR list. </p>
<p>Here is one take on why NYU is so expensive: <a href=“The Expensive Romance of NYU - The Atlantic”>The Expensive Romance of NYU - The Atlantic;
<p>Total bombshell just last week. I live in a pretty rich town in NY. Close friends of ours live in the mansion side of town. Their son is a rising junior at NYU, with another daughter set to graduate high school next year. They are selling their multi-million dollar house because they can no longer afford it on top of the NYU tuition. Now nobody needs to hold a benefit for them, but it’s shocking that these wealthy people chose the most expensive school in the country without considering their cash flow.</p>
<p>Chardo, my son’s close friends go to NYU. After the older lived in NYU housing for a year, he and the younger one who also wanted to go there were told they had to commute if they wanted to go there this year. And so they do, and it’s not that big of a savings once train, NYC Metro, snacks, meals, sundries are taken into account. Another NYU parent I know is putting house on market earlier than planned because they now have 3 in private college, not all at NYU, and the drain on the financial resources is that heavy. I know, yet another NYU kid, who had to commute after freshman year. These are all well to do families. </p>
<p>We took out PLUS loans for our oldest, but started repayment immediately and that way could feel the impact of what we borrowed immediately. It’s been a long 15 years of paying off this loan, and we came to the conclusion we could not pay for the top priced privates. Big slap in our faces, as we had so hoped to be able to provide this for our kids. We really wanted them to be able to go to any college they wanted to which they got accepted. But the reality is that we can’t afford it without compromising other priorities.</p>
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<p>It’s a pretty abbreviated NPC and it obviously doesn’t account for all accepted students since the kid I know is going basically for free. </p>
<p>ON AVERAGE it has lousy FA but in a few cases their aid is obviously very good. Now the odds of getting a top scholarship/aid vs getting into a top 10 school that meets need? I have no idea.</p>
<p>This is a pretty generous policy:
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<p>And there are a few full-tuition scholarships, mainly merit-based.</p>
<p>So to answer the OP’s question, “is it the worst?”. No, I don’t think so (though Princeton review does). I bet the vast majority of for-profit schools are worse.</p>
<p>And it does well by several criteria here: <a href=“http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/most-financial-aid-colleges”>http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/most-financial-aid-colleges</a></p>
<p>This is soooo one sided.
OP is talking about NYU as if it is an island.
NYU is just one of the schools in New York City, and some how has created a brand for its self that people are willing to pay for.
I am using the real estate analogy because it is true. people move to NYC to live in cubicles the size of their childhood closets with cost 10x their parents mortgage, but they love it and will do it over again.
WHY?
Its the city, that they are in love with and everything that comes with it.
NYU does offer aid to some low income students but not a lot, just enough to keep their quota as far as academic-culture-gender-diversity is concerned… what ever that quota is.
So, it is expensive, but not the worst. There are way more expensive schools in this country with worst financial aid policy.
Just take a look at Forbes ranking and look at the COA column and see what most of these schools cost, who are also known to be stingy with aid.
<a href=“Forbes America’s Top Colleges List 2022”>Forbes America’s Top Colleges List 2022;
<p>So, NO, NYU is not the worst or even the top 10 worst. It only seems so, due to its popularity. </p>
<p>A reason why NYU has the policy of allowing outside scholarships to go to unmet need first, is because they have a lot of students with unmet need. A school like Columbia would meet full need, so that any outside scholarship could make it so the student is making money. </p>
<p>I have no idea what schools would make the worst in financial aid. Some specific criteria for how to target such schools needs to be listed before one can even begin to come up with such a list.</p>
<p>^ this. IDK why they accept students and then gap them by, apparently, a lot, but I guess they aren’t alone in doing it. </p>
<p>As a NYC kid myself, NYU wasn’t even on my radar. I don’t recall any friends going there or even applying. I think its appeal is more to non-NYCers. Or rather, was, in the dark ages. It seems they pull 30% of their class from NY state now. IDK how many from the city.</p>