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Times is Hard: Things to Do when NYU Has Emptied Your Pockets
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ETW section 3 (from right): Russell Peck, Ashley Salvagin, Joshua Eisenhauer, Sam Greif, Lisbet Portman, Abby Anderson, Briana James, Veronica Venture, Maria Wilson, Kristen Michaud, Me, Terence Anderson.
I want to start this out by saying I really do love this school. The experiences I've had here and the education I've recieved thus far have been incomprable to and far byond anything I could ever have imagined.
It'd been my dream to come to New York University to study drama since I was about twelve or thirteen years old. At that point, I didn't even know that there were schools for acting. My mother didn't start taking me seriously until I was about fifteen and still going on about how many shows I could fit in before I had to apply; she was worried, but not about the money.
She never said to me 'you can do anything so long as you have the money' even though we certainly didn't have it, and for that I truly deeply appreciate and love her. A lot kids in my hometown of Utica, New York didn't have that luxary. Many were welfare kids with young parents who let them know that life was about getting money. If you didn't have it, you didn't count, and college was a laughable dream for rich white kids. Not my mom. She always told me that I could do anything as long as I got good grades and I believed her with all my heart and still do. If I could get to NYU from Utica, then I could do anything.
Then I started applying for aid.
Even being a minority with a single disabled parent, even with having graduated in the top ten percent of my class, I still did not earn enough aid from NYU, the state, or the scholarships I won to cover all my expenses to come here. I didn't have any books last year but I focused and I fought. I was on the phone with financial aid and the bursar every other day grilling them about my tuition and possible ways it could be reduced. What I couldn't pay for while I was in school, I worked a full time job all summer to pay off so I could come back again. I refused to let my dream slip through my fingers just because I didn't have enough money.
If you get nothing from this article, please understand that you use money, don't let it use you.
This university is stingy, rumored to be run under a bussiness model developed by our president John Sexton, and rated one of the worst as far as aid goes. So, I present to you a few ways in which I've gotten around the money grubbing sytem and managed to obtain what I needed to scrape by. Maybe they aren't the best ways or what you expected, but they aren't fluff about applying for grants that you don't know how to write for or signing up for fake scholarship sites that only register your e-mail address with spammers:
- Cheap food: For goodness sakes, cancel your meal plan. The things the serve here become unpalatable after a time and they are not worth however many thousands you pay for them. Trust me, learn to cook, you can. More variety and way cheaper. Met Food, second only to Trader Joe's is one of the thriftiest grocery stores. Also, taking the train out to Queens to go gorcery shopping where the food is ridiculously cheap is not as scary as you think. Go with a friend.
- Appeal: File an appeal with your school for more tution money. Go to financial aid to find out who it is you need to write to, and do it. I managed to get one thousand extra last year by detailing why exactly I needed it and what I needed it for. Be candid, leave no need undiscussed. The more you talk about hor broke you are, the more likely you will be to earn sympathy.
- Cheap clothing: I have one location for you, other than any Salvation Army near you. Bronx, about 159th and 3rd avenue. Just take the train out there and all along that stip are the cheapest clothes and accessories you will ever see in your life. If you're scared, I'll come with you. We'll take a Saturday afternoon and check out all the shops and get you hooked up.
- Emergency loan: I'm taking a French intensive and I did everything I could to get that dang book before the class started, but I couldn't. I just started working and I was waiting for the refund from cancelling my meal plan to come through, but of course when NYU has to pay you, they drag booty. Three days in, I panicked. You need the course materials for an intensive early on, especially if it's a subject that's entirely new to you. After talking to my friend Briana (above), I found out that financial aid doesn't want you to know that if you ever run out of food or are in dire straits that you can apply for an emergency loan. You fill out a form and if you manage to present a convincing argument and qualify, they give it to you in cashe that day. I have my book now.
- Talk /stand up to your professors: Again, the problem was with French. I e-mailed my prof a while before class started about the book and there was a bit of a miscommunication. He wrote to me that I needed to keep in mind that everyone at NYU was in the same boat. Calmly and cooly (if you need help writing this without getting angry I will help you) I detailed my situation for him a bit more and gently but firmly reminded him that each student is unique in their financial situation personally and in regards to specific school tuition rates--Tisch and Stern being the most expensive. Immediately he e-mailed me back with and apology. The next day, he even talked to me after class holding up a group coming into the room next just to talk to me, apologize several more times, and make sure I was ok. I actually felt bad for him. As messed up as the system here is, the faculty is actually quite human and willing to help. Don't be afraid to ask for it and definitely don't be afraid to correct a teacher if he/she makes a broad and incorrect generalization. They may or may not weild PhDs and tenure, but like I said, they are human.
- Semester off: I know you may not want to take a break, but sometimes it is necessary to do so in order to earn enough money and finish your education. It's rough (so I've heard) but people do come back.
Like I said, not a whole lot, but enough to keep me in school. If you really want to stay bad enough, you can. Never think that you can't. I don't.
Don't be shy, loves. E-mail me if you need someone to help you get through, I'll write back.
Bonne chance (good luck).
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