College

Guest Post: Giving a SUNY School the Old College Try

Posted by Jean

Hi readers. I’m Julia Venditti, a senior at a high school in Westchester County, NY. I intern with Jean as a last semester class alternative for seniors. Recently I had a job interview and was asked to relate my largest obstacle of senior year. I knew immediately what to say because it was something that I had struggled with for months. I had put everything I had toward achieving my dream. And then I decided that my dream came with too high a price tag.

Early in my senior year, I diligently devoted my attention to college applications. I applied to NYU Early Decision and couldn’t fathom any alternatives. I love New York City and knew I’d always end up there. I love that NYU is practically an international institution and day dreamed about meeting people from foreign countries. Perhaps a friend would whisk me to Brunei on Winter break. Or maybe one of my NYU film buddies would land a spot in Sundance and ask me to accompany him. I felt like anything could happen at NYU. I felt like there was no opportunity for mundane monotony and my life would finally begin. While my indecisive sister applied to 18 colleges in her senior year, I applied to just four (two of which were SUNYs that I applied to as a fallback due to the competitive nature of NYU).

My dad reminded me how challenging it is to get into NYU and urged me to be realistic. On a daily basis, he recited statistics that made my goal seem unattainable. In high school, I was not at the top of my class and I wasn’t the most dedicated student. Nevertheless, I finished high school with a solid GPA and excellent SAT scores. But my dad was convinced that NYU, one of the most competitive schools of the nation, wouldn’t be impressed. He often said, “Stop fooling yourself; they turn down Valedictorians at NYU!” When I did get in, he was floored. I was elated. The next day, I came into school with my NYU sweatshirt on and an ear-to-ear smile firmly in place. I had never known any greater pleasure.

It wasn’t until some time later that the hard part came. From the moment my acceptance letter arrived, my dad broke into a persistent sweat. Though he was, of course, proud of my accomplishment, he was incredibly stressed about NYU’s exorbitant price tag. One of the most costly universities in the nation, NYU’s 2009 price tag for a full-time student is in excess of $53,000 a year. This is the price of tuition and room and board before I ever spend a dime on a slice of pizza or any of the other expenses that come about from living in an expensive city.

So, although I didn’t want to hear anything about it, my parents began to investigate financing for college. You see, there is a condition to the otherwise binding Early Decision Agreement. If the applicant seeks financial aid and is displeased with the package, she is no longer obligated to accept the offer for admission. In my case, NYU offered me a scholarship of $5,000 and an unsubsidized Stafford loan of $5,000 for freshman year at an interest rate of 6.8%. An Unsubsidized Stafford Loan is a federally guaranteed loan that is not based on financial need. Interest will accrue from the time the loan is disbursed to the school. I don’t have to make interest or principal payments until six months after graduation, or six months after I drop below a half time status.

The scholarship wouldn’t have to be paid back but the student loan would need to be paid back. So, I would still be responsible for $48,000 per year of tuition in just my freshman year. College costs go up every year. If I assume that tuition and room and board for four years will cost at least $200,000 and my college fund has $80,000, I will need to take loans of at least $120,000 over the four years.

What I wanted to do was to forget everything and just go to NYU. But I couldn’t. I had to run the numbers. As I figure it, this level of debt outweighs any appeal NYU has for me. What would I do once I had used up the $80,000 in my college fund? I would take out low interest student loans. So, I would need to take on over $120,000 of debt, with no money for graduate school (which I plan to attend for journalism). If I have $120,000 of student loans (Stafford loans, PLUS loans, private loans) at an average 8.0% interest rate (and it would probably be higher), it would take me 20 years to pay it off if I paid a bit more than $1,000 per month. That’s too intense for me.

Personally, I freaked out a little bit. I didn’t want to start my life in a hole. As much as I love the idea of NYU, that debt scares me even more. It is, however, avoidable, so I decided to avoid it.

After much deliberation, I have [grudgingly] decided to attend SUNY Geneseo in the fall. It is one of the best SUNY schools and is often referred to as “public ivy,” meaning it is of private school caliber at a public, state school price. I won’t sacrifice anything on the education front, but that was never the issue. This decision makes logical sense. SUNY Geneseo asks for less than $16,000 in annual tuition – including room and board. I can even spend a semester studying abroad at SUNY Geneseo prices. At SUNY Geneseo, that $80,000 in my college fund will cover all four years of my education and I will graduate debt-free.

Having to deal with this sort of personal dilemma is a uniquely senior year experience. We all saw senior year coming, but few of us knew just what that meant. As juniors, we took our SATs and sat through our AP exams and visited various institutions of higher learning and we all thought it was real. It was real, until senior year came and we weren’t just visiting schools but we were sending in deposits. We are now actually paying for our caps and gowns and actually buying shoe bins for college and actually living with the daunting prospect of being on our own and making new friends.

At first, I felt like I was forfeiting my happiness, which I had convinced myself only existed at NYU. I didn’t know if the city girl inside of me could survive the rural life of Geneseo. As bad as it sounds, I was scared that I’d start chewing wheat, sitting on my porch for hours on end, and go cow-tipping on the weekend. But when I visited the school, I realized that it doesn’t have to be like that. There were some really great and interesting people I met when I visited as an accepted student. I’m looking forward to orientation and meeting more new people.

Happiness doesn’t solely exist for me at NYU, though for a while I thought it did. I keep telling myself that life at Geneseo will be great, I’ll meet interesting people, I’ll strive in my classes, and I will be happy. But these are the thoughts and prayers of every graduating senior and perfectly normal. Happiness doesn’t depend on locale, but rather it is a matter of mindset. With the appropriate attitude, happiness will follow me wherever I go, especially to SUNY Geneseo.