NYU student with 100K loan

[joel_b]

Indeed most are accomodating when it comes down to it. I didn't pursue it further as I found a better solution with rates below prime, but that's specific to my situation.

 

[makaveli]

Do they have rich daddy who got several hundred thousands to spend?

Sadly I fall under this category, although I did manage to also obtain 2 fellowships from Cornell's ORIE department and the engineering department in general, totaling $30k.

I feel slightly guilty accepting them (though not really, they'll make a nice addition to the CV) when my dad was prepared to pay the whole thing (he was an managing director and head of an Asia-Pacific division at Deutsche).

 

[tylor]

to whoever posted it -- sorry i didn't fully read baruch's web site about the bonuses.



side note...... anyone here find it interesting that the government recently changed legislation that all student loans will be through the government now rather than through private banks? 99% sure this passed with the health care bill.

 

[atreides]

is it at all worth mentioning that CMU also states that their average signing bonus is $30k? baruch doesn't mention anything about that. when considering CMU i always felt like you could put that directly toward the loan and it's down to ~40k and it's not so bad...

Employers probably know how much it costs to attend the program and thus the high average signing bonus figure. I am guessing Baruch' s average signing bonus is less than 30k

---------- Post added at 05:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------

Actually there is no other school that is in the same tuition range as Baruch that can provide all the job opportunities and career services that CMU,NYU,Columbia MFE, and Princeton are providing and some. The employment stats of Baruch are not only comparable but exceed in transparency to all these schools if compared.

University of connecticut 11767
Baruch 20700
University of dayton 21870

I don't think the first one and the last one can be taken seriously.

University of Toronto is $35K I think with basically 100% placement, but it basically isolates you to jobs in Canada/Toronto making it very hard to move to 'wall-street'.

Baruch MFE has a huge value proposition; great location, great program and it has the lowest tuition costs out of all the top tier MFE's.

If you look at the admission numbers, they suggest that it's probably more difficult to get into Baruch than say CMU, UCB, UCLA, etc. These program have large cohorts ( CMU > 50, UCB tries to stay around 65, UCLA following the same model)

Can Baruch handle a larger class (> = 50 )? I refuse to believe that out of all those 400+ applications they received for the last admission circle, only a handful of folks were qualified to be admitted

---------- Post added at 05:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:01 PM ----------

t
is it at all worth mentioning that CMU also states that their average signing bonus is $30k? baruch doesn't mention anything about that. when considering CMU i always felt like you could put that directly toward the loan and it's down to ~40k and it's not so bad...

Depending on how it is paid out (lump sum, two payments, etc).the signing bonuses can taxed at about 50% or more ...Guess all that glitters is not gold...gotta love Uncle Sam

 

[Eugene Krel]

Baruch can handle a larger class size, but why devalue the degree? Since Baruch is part of CUNY they are allowed to charge a particular amount in tuition. Taking a larger class only allow less qualified people to devalue the degree for everyone else.

Being smaller and selective is not a bad thing...

 

[Joy Pathak]

Can Baruch handle a larger class (> = 50 )? I refuse to believe that out of all those 400+ applications they received for the last admission circle, only a handful of folks were qualified to be admitted

Did you see Princeton's admission statistics? 5% (31/605) Baruch's is 7% (30/467) (35 were offered admission) .

It is quite possible that the vision that the admission committees at both schools had were fulfilled only by the handful. I really cannot comment on the low numbers as I did not make the decisions, but just an assumption.

 

[kbharadwaj]

Few students I have talked to usually take out a second mortgage on the house. Well the parents do, and finance their children that way. There are restrictions on how much loan you can get in India, so a part of the tuition has to be financed out of their own pockets, which is why many international students look for part-time jobs extensively to fund their day to day expenses.

In India there is a loan limit. One can borrow only 0.2 million rupees (~42,000$) from a single bank. The rest has to be bore by the student/parent. However, they also have the option to take loan from two banks if their tuition is humongous, say 75k. But mostly students in India who plan to go to the elite (high tuition) ones either have rich dads or sell out their property and go for graduate studies.

One of my friend went to CMU for a master's in Networking related subject, his tuition was almost the same as their Computational Finance program. He didn't take even a single penny loan, reason.. dad's rich. Other friend of mine went to NYU by selling off property and taking a loan from a bank and his uncle.

Most Indian students go to schools which offer them assistantships or to the schools which give them high probability of landing up with a TA/RA atleast after first semester of study. For instance, a friend of mine was battling between CMU and Georgia State University. He got an admit from CMU with no aid and with GSU he would have 0$ debt because of the assistantship. Even though CMU offers great returns, due to money issues, he could not attend CMU. I feel really sad for this friend of mine, but I believe it was a wise decision.

I also believe that schools who have high tuition should chalk out a plan for atleast the international students. The schools should instead offer loan for the graduate studies and the students should be asked to repay the loan to the school. Although it may sound stupid, but a better plan would be that the schools work out with the banks in a way that the interest is not bore by the students when they are in school. That way, the internationals could go to the elite schools which charge high tuition and also ward off the tension of "where do I get the money from?"

 

[atreides]

That said, I'm curious to see how the MFE students from oversea finance their study. Do they have rich daddy who got several hundred thousands to spend or do they put their entire family's house as collateral for a local loan?

There has been some chatter about the organization accessgroup.org - Graduate Student Loans, Federal Stafford Loans, Federal PLUS Loans, Graduate PLUS Loans, and Private Student Loans on some other sites.

They apparently provide graduate school loans for internationals. Not quite sure if they require US cosigner. There isn't much information about this on their site either. Interested folks might need to call them

 

[Andy Nguyen]

They at least got something right

Yes. We’ll say it again. Borrow as little as you need to attend the school you chooose. Be conservative and only borrow the amount that will get you through school. You’ll thank us when you're in repayment.

side note...... anyone here find it interesting that the government recently changed legislation that all student loans will be through the government now rather than through private banks? 99% sure this passed with the health care bill.

When looking at the application on Access Group website, I got this message

Access Group is no longer accepting applications for federal student loans. The United States Congress recently enacted a law that requires all federal student loans be made by the U.S. Department of Education beginning July 1, 2010.

 

[bigbadwolf]

I also believe that schools who have high tuition should chalk out a plan for at least the international students. The schools should instead offer loan for the graduate studies and the students should be asked to repay the loan to the school. Although it may sound stupid, but a better plan would be that the schools work out with the banks in a way that the interest is not bore by the students when they are in school. That way, the internationals could go to the elite schools which charge high tuition and also ward off the tension of "where do I get the money from?"

What incentive do the better schools have to do this? They are flooded with applicants -- it's not exactly as if they are chasing them. For every applicant they accept they are turning away ten or even twenty others. The professional programs are cash cows, cynically run just to mint money. If they can make that money with the minimum hassle, why voluntarily add to the hassle by unnecessarily getting involved in the finance?

For Ph.D programs that are not "professional" -- for example in math or physics -- where there are not enough applicants, they offer teaching and research assistantships.

The idea behind professional programs -- and the raison d'etre behind the sky-high tuitio rates -- is that students are supposed to walk from the program into well-paying jobs. When the schools welch on this part of the deal -- by citing deceitful figures on salaries and placement rates (as law schools are doing) or lying by omission (just not releasing the figures), then there's a problem for the students.

With regard to India, I'm amazed that financial engineering programs have not been set up there. If ill-equipped American universities can set up programs on shoestring budgets, Indian universities like IIT should be able to do at least as well. A core program with some PDEs, numerical analysis, stochastic calculus, time series, and C#/Matlab programming should be no problem.

 

[kbharadwaj]

With regard to India, I'm amazed that financial engineering programs have not been set up there. If ill-equipped American universities can set up programs on shoestring budgets, Indian universities like IIT should be able to do at least as well. A core program with some PDEs, numerical analysis, stochastic calculus, time series, and C#/Matlab programming should be no problem.

Actually there are programs like Financial Engineering in India too. There is the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kolkata which teaches Financial Engineering courses for its MBA students, but does not give the name Financial Engineering to it. These are the guys who get on to the trading floor in India.

Also, there is a Institute of Financial Management and Research which offers a master's degree in Financial Engineering. However, the admission standards are a la Baruch. Their acceptance rate is almost 6-10%. There are individual institutes too which are offering financial modeling courses. So, I believe India is also catching up fast with the Financial Engineering program.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I'm curious if anyone aware of any MFE program in the US has their own tuition fee that is higher than other master degrees offered under the same department/school.

 

[npatel]

I have an undergrad degree in finance from Baruch with no debt. Tuition was only $2180 per semester. Although her major choices are awkward, I read somewhere on these forums that major recruiters would rather pick up kids from "top" schools like NYU for their analyst programs regardless of their major.

 

[Eugene Krel]

"I read somewhere...."

You can't be wrong on the internet.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Apparently, that's a valid reason for people to pay out of their brain?
If you are smart, work hard, a well-known name will only help but if you are using money and brand to compensate for your shortcoming, this story is just an example of the thousand disappointed souls you don't hear about.

How many times have you heard about "top" schools not offering anything special besides the name? We are talking about MFE programs where placement is what differentiates one from another.

 

[npatel]

"I read somewhere...."

You can't be wrong on the internet.

Here's the thing I read...Why Do Harvard Kids Head to Wall Street? - Forum | Quant Network

 

[Stefan Zota]

Here's the thing I read...Why Do Harvard Kids Head to Wall Street? - Forum | Quant Network

It depends on the position you are seeking. This article refers to a certain portion of Investment Banking.

Of course, there are jobs that require little technical background but soft-skills may be decisive etc. By recruiting primarily from a top-school, the employer assumption is that you have a higher chance to find those qualities.
This approach applies much less to engineering/quantitative fields (Andy's reply).

 

[Justin Leung]

That said, I'm curious to see how the MFE students from oversea finance their study. Do they have rich daddy who got several hundred thousands to spend or do they put their entire family's house as collateral for a local loan?

In Taiwan, while majority of people have family support (most w/o putting their family's house as collateral), the most common case is get a oversea education loan from a bank.
Banks offer government-sponsored loan(looser requirements / longer grace period), in which the max you can borrow for a Master Degree is $800k NTD ( $25k USD).
Banks also offer their own oversea education loan in which, depending on banks,the max you can borrow for a Master Degree is $ 2 mil NTD ( $63,000 USD ).
And, with valid I-20 and acceptance letter, it is not hard to at least get some loan if not the max amount.
Another way to finance an oversea education is by obtaining sponsor from the government or a political party. You just have to pass the exam the Taiwanese Government holds. And I am not exactly sure how to get support from political party, but in addition to an exam, you may have to have some connection. However, both cases do not apply to most Taiwanese students.

In Hong Kong, however, from what I understand, banks do not offer any loan for oversea education. 90% of people I know are supported by family, while 10% are by fellowship / scholarship / assistantship.

Moreover, as some friends mention, some oversea students are able to obtain fellowship / scholarship / assistantship, and this can also be a finance source.

 

[alain]

How does the bank know/ensure you are going to pay once you take an "oversea" loan?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Currently, Northeastern alum Kelli Space, 23, is $200,000 in debt because of her student loans. She must pay federal student loan agency Sallie Mae $891 per month -- and by next November, that figure will nearly double. And although she has a full-time job, she doesn't make nearly enough to pay off her massive debt. So she's is turning to the public for help.

Space started a website called Two Hundred Thou, which is devoted to telling her story and asking readers to chip in. On the site's FAQ page, Space explains her situation in earnest:

I was 18 and the first person in my family (including extended family!) to attend college. Therefore, not only was excitement consuming me, but my parents didn't exactly know how college would or wouldn't affect my salary in the future. We applied for scholarships during the summer but they heard -- as much as I did -- that cost of tuition should never keep you from attending a great school. So... we made the mistake of following such romantic advice.

At the moment, she has received $1,245.65 from donation.