MA at NYU - help!

[sliberat]

I applied primarily to PhD programs in Art History, which would have awarded me with full tuition remission and generous stipends...unfortunately, I was not accepted to any of these programs. I have, however, received offers of admission from MA programs at Indiana University and NYU. I am leaning toward NYU but am afraid that I may not be able to afford either option due to the lack of funding for Master's programs.

• The cost of tuition per year for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is about $38,000. There is also an almost $5,000 registration/services fee. So, basically, about $43,000 per year in tuition/fees.
• According to my FAFSA, I am only eligible for $20,000 in federal (Stafford) loans per academic year (I already have a substantial amount of loan debt from undergrad).
• I have very, very minimal savings. It will be tapped out by the first year's registration/services fee.
• With regard to funding for MA students, the GSAS website encourages students to contact their department...the academic advisor for the Institute of Fine Arts has already notified me that the Institute does not have funding available for Master's students, but she said once I submit my letter of intent, "NYU's Financial Aid office gets the ball rolling on funding packages." So...does this mean I could still be eligible for need-based grants/scholarships/loans from the University, or not?
• I have a $0 EFC since I will not be receiving any financial support from my parents, but don't know how much more this will help me depending on what NYU actually offers to MA students. I unfortunately didn't know much about applying for external sources of aid during the application process (and stupidly relied on thinking I would get into one of the fully-funded PhD programs and thus wouldn't have to worry about it), and have missed the deadlines for all major fellowships/scholarships in my field. Also, I am more than skeptical of scholarships offered by online scholarship-search websites.

Does anybody have any advice (especially anybody who has dealt with NYU/GSAS/IFA) that could help me make grad school a financial possibility? I would greatly appreciate it. This whole process is stressing me out!

[wtncffts]

I'm sorry, I don't have anything to contribute substantively, but $5,000 for a registration/services fee? Really? That seems wildly exorbitant; I applied to NYU and didn't see that anywhere... glad I didn't get in. I mean, that tuition is ridiculous (the school I'll be going to is about $4,400/year), but I guess that's expected with a private US university. That fee, though, is insane.

Again, I don't have any intimate familiarity with NYU, but I will say that I agree with what seems to be the prevailing view here, that going into that much debt isn't worth it. Better to take time off to improve your application and whatnot and apply again in a year.

[sliberat]

Thanks for your perspective; after reading through some backlogs of what other people have written about IFA on here, I'm seriously reconsidering it (although a lot of people's negative comments related to very cold/impersonal contact with the department during the admissions process and my experience has been very different).

I should follow up on my initial information about IFA with the fact that, having already visited Indiana University, I got a great feeling there from the students I met with there as well as from my POI and the admin assistant. I talked to one student there for about an hour and she gave me some great information on how things work in their department, and said that the department is very supportive of its students and has much more of a "community" feeling than other schools (including a SUNY school where she did her Master's and other schools she considered for her PhD). She said that the competition there is not the glue-pages-of-books-together-so-nobody-else-can-use-the-information cutthroat kind that happens at other universities, and which I worry would be possible at the IFA due to the large size of the program and competitive funding for the PhD candidates. I could see myself being happy at IU for at least the two years required for the Master's...but, they also do not offer any funding to their MA students. I applied for graduate assistantships but was told that, in general, first-year MA students are not awarded these because the department likes for students to "get their feet wet" the first semester and, due to the University's budget cutbacks, there is usually only enough funding for the PhD students. They did tell me to let them know if I received financial offers from any other schools, but that didn't happen. I really don't want to wait another year to start my graduate studies, but I'm starting to feel like it might be the better option knowing what I know now about the application process, applying for external funding, and the general consensus of "never accept an offer that comes without funding" that seems to be floating around these boards.

Ugh.