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JUNE 3, 1999 B-SCHOOL Q&A: FINANCIAL AID Meet Stern's Financial Aid Director A Conversation with Julia Min, Associate Director of MBA Admissions and Student Services at NYU's Stern School of Business
Julia, there are a smorgasbord of terms used when talking about financial aid. Why don't we begin by defining some of them. Okay. We have scholarships and fellowships for our incoming first-year students, terms that we use interchangeably here. And basically those are scholarships given based on merit or the strength of the student's admissions application. We do not offer need-based scholarships or grants, but we do administer need-based financial aid in terms of federal and private loans. Does Stern make "assistantship" and "work-study" available to needy students? Usually the graduate students do not participate in work-study. But we do have what's called graduate assistantships and teaching fellowships for qualified second-year, full-time students, who work for assistantship reimbursements. (A student essentially works for X number of hours with the salary amount being deducted from tuition.) These positions are open to all second-year international and domestic students who meet certain eligibility criteria. They are not awarded on merit. How many assistantships tend to circulate each year? We probably have in the range of about 150 per year. Those are purely based on whether you meet certain eligibility criteria. So international students are able to secure the positions, as well as domestic students. And certainly the people who need tuition reimbursement will be the ones [most likely to vie for a work-study position], but there are people who genuinely would like to work for a certain professor or for a certain office. For example, our admissions office usually has about six graduate students who work with us. Does the school frown upon students who take on work-study or assistantship positions during their first year? We do not encourage that. And the assistantships are earmarked only for second-year, full-time students. What percentage of a class typically receives scholarships, federal aid, and assistantships each year? About 37% usually receive scholarships. Eighty-five percent get federal aid, and about 53% take on assistantships. Of the 37% who receive scholarship, I would say that the average award probably would be around $7,500 to $10,000 per student. Tuition fees have been surging skyward across the board. In fact, according to our records, Stern's $27,248 price tag is the second-highest in Business Week's Top 25 (only Columbia's tuition is higher). Has the amount of merit aid awarded increased in line with the climb in fees? It has. And we offer full-tuition scholarships. With those, yes, it would have to increase with the increase of our tuition figures. How many people actually benefit from full-tuition scholarships? We have both the Dean's Scholarship recipients, as well as the Consortium Fellowship. The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management is comprised of a group of eleven schools that recruit underrepresented minorities and offer full tuition and fee scholarship. In a given year, we probably have about 10 to 15 in each category. We are offering those to all domestic and international students. What is the size of Stern's scholarship budget? That really depends because we also look at corporate donors as well as alumni. It is quite generous, and it is adequate for what we would like in terms of giving merit-based scholarships, but it really varies from year to year. I don't think I can give you the most accurate figure because of the fluctuating amounts that come in. It really depends on the needs of different constituents and the monies that are coming in from alums and corporations. What should Stern applicants do to avail themselves of financial assistance? Apply as early as possible, because we do have our priority deadline that we post.[Editor's note: Stern has a priority deadline of Dec 15 to be eligible for scholarship consideration.] And if an applicant wants to be considered for maximum consideration, that would probably be the best way -- to apply as soon as possible, or definitely by the early deadline that we post. We really look at the strength of the application within the pool that we get each year. But we also have a very exciting Dean's Scholarship competition that we administer every year, usually during March. And everyone who is a Dean's Scholar has to go through the competition. It's a weekend event where a pool of top admitted students visit the school for the two-day event and meet former and current Dean's Scholars and faculty members, attend a class, and do a mini consulting assignment. At the conclusion of the two days, faculty and administrators confer about who will be offered Dean Scholarships. But there's no quota, it just depends on the pool each year. Does a prospective student have to go out of his or her way to announce that they are interested in a Dean's Scholarship or in financial aid in general? No. We look at the admissions application for that, so there's no special box you have to check off, or anything like that. There's no special application that you have to submit. We consider everyone for Dean's Scholarships and all of the other scholarships that we offer. What types of factors does Stern's aid committee evaluate when disseminating scholarships? Again, we look at the strength of the application: The academic factors, recommendations, essays, leadership and management potential... We also have an interview as part of our admissions selection process. So we really look at the entire picture of the student and reward them for their management potential and for what they will bring to Stern. Who comprises Stern's aid committee -- mostly faculty and administrators? Members of the administration and some faculty. There are no corporate professionals who sit on the committee. Stern's fellowships are not restricted to its domestic students. That's pretty important I would think, given Stern's large international student constituency -- among the highest in Business Week's Top 25 (Editor's note: 34% of Stern's total MBA enrollment is comprised of foreigners). Loans, however are much more challenging for international students. How does NYU handle that? We actually have been very lucky. NYU in general has a large international student population, and at the beginning of this year, we instituted a joint loan program for internationals with Citibank. Called the CitiAssist Global Loan, it was created for the entire university, based on our large number of international students. Unlike other private loans, you're able to secure a loan without a U.S. citizen or permanent resident as a co-borrower. You may need a co-borrower, but you can use someone from your own country as a cosigner. We started using this loan in fall '98, and it's been very popular. It's gaining more popularity as people are finding that the rates are comparable and competitive. One caveat: It can't be used to get your visa. (To get an F-1 visa, foreigners have to show their ability to pay their two years of education.) We've had other loan programs that we offered to international students who have U.S. citizenship or permanent residents as cosigners. But this CitiAssist program is the best one we've used so far. Does Stern's partnership with Citibank help domestic students with their financing as well? We have the partnership with Citibank in a couple of various ways. We have the international student loan, which is very helpful if you don't have a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident cosigner. We also have a CitiAssist loan that we offer for domestic students. In addition, we have about five other loans that we offer to our students. We don't recommend any particular one to students. These are traditionally the ones that our students in the past have found to be very competitive. Which specific lenders do you recommend? They include Nellie Mae, Sallie Mae, Citibank, MBA LOANS, and THE Loan Program through the NorthStar Corporation. All of these lenders offer competitive rates. And NYU will work with these private lenders directly. For example, we'll work with one private lender who really does give us top service. Last year it was Nellie Mae. This year, the university is going with Sallie Mae. The Stern School Financial Aid Office will provide all of the terms, conditions, fees, prime rate vs. T-bill rates -- all of that information. We really leave it up to the consumer to decide what they feel are the best rates and conditions. Are there any other independent Internet sites or publications that you suggest students take a look at? For international and domestic students, we ask them to consider their civic and national organizations within their geographic regions. They never know what they'll find. For example, in Venezuela, there is a government-sponsored scholarship named Fundayacucho. Turkey has some scholarships available for people who will be studying abroad, such as the Turkish Education Foundation Scholarship. And Colombia has a private foundation named Colfuturo, which offers financial assistance. It's also worthwhile for students to contact their Chamber of Commerce. And if you're an international student, contact your embassy. Church organizations are another resource. Really, you should exploit any of the resources that you can think of. Two other Web sites I recommend include the Foundation Center, which is designed more so for Ph.D. students, but there might be some opportunities there for MBAs. The other is fastWEB. In addition, we send out some financial-aid guidelines to our prospects that describe what we have available. We give them little blurbs on, for example, "What is a federal loan?" We explain what the scholarships are about and what teaching fellowships assistantships are. So we give out a pretty concise information sheet to anyone who's interested. We also list it on our Web page. What's the annual budget that Stern recommends a student have in mind when enrolling? We recommend about $48,000 for the cost of coming in this fall. That includes living expenses, room and board, books, fees, travel expenses, and miscellaneous. Probably all financial-aid offices in all schools recommend a budget. Is that budget for both first and second years? Second year is slightly less, based upon tuition figures. We lock students in to a set tuition figure for their two years here. Room and board is one of the factors used to determine the budget amount. Of course, rent in New York is quite a bit more expensive that most other parts of the U.S. Do most of the MBA students take advantage of school-subsidized rent in college housing? Or do they tend to live off-campus? I would say the majority live off-campus. Has the school bought any property to provide lower-than-market prices for its students? Not yet, but we are always looking into ways to help our students with housing. We also work with the university as they are coming up with new buildings to negotiate spaces for Stern students. Stern students are eligible to be in on-campus housing as well, and a lot of them do that. But the majority chooses to live in off-campus housing. Does your office work closely with students in helping them find housing? We do. We have a housing coordinator, whom the admitted students will be able to work with, and she keeps a Web page. It's kind of a chat room where other admitted students can get on and possibly say, "I'm from Mexico City, and I would be interested in rooming with anyone who is..." It's laid out in that kind of a format so people can converse. First- and second-year students can get on as well [to coordinate their housing]. The Web site is only for admitted students. What should incoming Stern students do to best position themselves financially for their MBA experience? Pay off their [undergraduate] student loans; pay off their credit cards. I think students are not aware that when they come in with a huge credit-card debt, it really does affect whether or not they will be eligible for private loans. As you know, the federal Stafford loan is generous -- $18,500. But that doesn't cover the entire student budget. We help you make up the rest of your budget with private loans, and those are based on either your credit worthiness or credit readiness. That's determined by looking at your credit records. If you have poor credit records, maybe that's something to strengthen. If you have a tremendous credit-card debt, that's something that should be addressed before you come to business school. My final piece of advice is: Apply early. Look at the deadlines. We give priority to those people who apply early for our merit-based scholarships. Federal aid you can apply for as late as December or the following year. Julia, you've been in your position for a couple of years now. The MBA degree has been getting a lot of positive press, especially given how much money students are graduating with these days. But are you finding that it is becoming harder for people to sacrifice two years of their life and shoulder the costs? Our MBA students are very savvy. I've worked with the central financial-aid office for two years, working with all graduate-level students here at NYU. And I have to say that our MBA students know what they're getting into. A lot of them have saved money, and they know the expenses that they will incur. Certainly there are a few who will need some counseling and who will need some help, but they understand that in two years, they will be finished and hopefully have a good job, a lucrative position, where they will be able to pay back their loans. But they're very careful. They look at the MBA as an investment, and they do not want to take on more loans than they have to. I feel like they are very well informed. And if they're not, once you walk them once through the process, they are able to manage very well. Thanks, Julia. You're welcome. My pleasure. To learn more about Stern's financial aid program, you can visit the school's Web site at: www.stern.nyu.edu/viewbook/basic.htm#financial  Nadav Enbar  | | Learn about your online education options |
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