Students looking to go out in the world, and possibly as far away from New York, may find themselves looking at the southern United States. Located in Houston, Texas, Rice University is a private, urban university that accepts just over 15 percent of its applicants. To put it in perspective, from a group of 100 students, you must be better than 85 of them to be accepted here, making this university very selective. It is tied as the 18th best national university and is located in the center of Houston's Museum District. The university has a surprising student faculty ratio of 6:1, almost guaranteeing close-knit connections with professors and more engaging class time. Out of state students who wish to stay on campus, disregarding scholarships, must be able to spend over 65,000 dollars, a pretty large sum. however, the university provides many grants and scholarships. With almost 100% of students being fully supported for their respective needs.

A different and definitely fun option for someone who is ambitious and adventurous. Located in the Museum District in the biggest United State, this is surely a university to look into.

What is FAFSA?

A multitude of students intend to apply to studious colleges. Surely there are back up colleges, and some colleges that are such insurances that it is expected that students will get a full ride if they attend that college. This is reasonable because most of the students applying to big colleges have the grades and activities to support their admissions, and if they apply to colleges like Kingsborough Community College, they will definitely get a full ride.

Now, lets say students are applying to the big league colleges like Ivy leagues, MIT, Stanford, or even NYU. Many students cant afford the cost of the tuition and other expenses, and rely on financial aid.

Grants vs. Loans

Grants

When applying to colleges, the big decision for financial aid is to either take out loans, or apply for grants. So, what is the difference?

Grants is free money given to you through sponsorship. You wont have to pay any money back. Similar to how a parent can give an allowance, companies can give money to students, as long as they keep up their studious effort. Normally, students are insignificant to companies and organizations, so they wont be offered any money. However, the federal government does offer grants through FAFSA (Free Application For Student Aid). 

Families can apply for FAFSA if they meet the requirements, which generally revolves around proving that your family income falls below a certain amount. Once applied, the government can offer grants.

Loans

Loans are the other option. This is money given to you by companies and organizations, but it must be payed back. To summarize the process, the company gives you X amount of money (lots of money), and you must pay back an amount, Y , of that money given. For simplicity sake, you'd have to pay Y amount of money for a certain amount of years.

HOWEVER, nothing is simple and for the companies to make money, they make you pay slightly extra. Companies enforce interest, which means that the Y amount of money increases annually. So you'd have to pay, in the end, more than X amount of money. 

It is easy to find companies because they scavenge students to take their money by advertising huge amounts of loans. However, this is highly dangerous, as you will be in a lot of debt and undergo the historic event of the great depression because you'll be in so much debt and you'll get more loans to pay off those debts, and then those debts snowball, and then you end up consuming your own life.

Fortunately, through FAFSA, the government offers loans with no interest rate. This means you simply pay back the same amount. These loans are called federal loans.

So, to simplify, when applying to colleges, first seek grants. They are similar to scholarships and you can only get them if you qualify and there is nothing more you can do except be a better student. Then, seek loans, and preferably federal loans. Stay away from loans with high interest, or loans that offer more money than you need, because those big numbers means you'll have to pay them back in even more bigger numbers. Think about it, lets say you'll have to pay 150% back to someone who gave you money. If they give you $1, then you pay $1.50. thats not bad, you only lose 50 cents. However, if they give you $50, now you must pay back 75$, which also is not too bad, but $25 vs. 50 cents. Now ultimately, if you are given $5,000 you must pay back $7,500! So you went from cents to $25, to $2500. the more they give you, the more extra money you  must pay back.

 

A great university for local Midwood students is the State University of New York at Binghamton. Regarded as one of the best SUNYs, Binghamton is located in upstate New York in Vestol, and is located in a suburban area. It admits 42% of its applicants and has a campus size of 930 acres. In state tuitions is 9,000 while out of state tuition is 22,000, providing a great and relatively cheap college experience for New York students. It is  ranked as the 89th best national university. Binghamton undergraduates live on campus and get to do their laundry for free. FREE LAUNDRY! It is also the destination of many top student athletes, as it plays in the NCAA Division 1 in the East Conference. Binghamton has a student teacher ratio of 20:1, providing closer relationships between students and teachers which can greatly improve class time and information given.
     The top five majors pursued at this SUNY school are:

Business Administration and Management, General	13%
Psychology, General	12%
Engineering, General	10%
Biology/Biological Sciences, General	8%
English Language and Literature, General	7%

but many more majors are offered. With a  total undergraduate enrollment of 13,412, this school is great for students who want a large and diverse university without getting lost or never finding that friend you made after class. Just under 50% of all students receive financial aid and rooming and board fees are just over 13,000$. Go out and visit the campus and see if this school is right for you!

Stanford University (Admission)

This post will review the admission process of Stanford University, in Stanford, California. Stanford is a private university that is one of the top schools in academics and sports. If we were to draw comparison, Stanford University in the realm of colleges is analogous to Stuyvesant High School in the realm of high schools.

Review Process
Unlike NYU, Stanford reviews admissions heavily on grades and talents. Stanford has a 5% acceptance rate, with an average GPA acceptance of 3.95. This converts to a transcript average required above 98. This is pretty high, so all of you scholars out there, this may be your school.

Grades is the main focus, and they value talent and skills as well. If you have plenty of extracurricular activities and achievements, then their grade acceptance shifts by 3%. This, in simple terms means that they can accept students with grades above 96% if they have notable accomplishments.

SAT Score Review
Stanford University has a competitive review for SAT scores. For math, they accept students within the range of 700-800 points. For English, they accept students with scores of 690-800 points. The ACT score acceptance is 31-35. STUDY STUDY STUDY!

Using our rating formula, we rate the admission of the blog as a 98.

StonyBrook University

Many of you may not have heard of StonyBrook University. This is a school primarily focused around the scientific and arithmetic courses, along with other minors as well. This school is part of the National Merit Institution, and is widely recognized as being one of the top 100 universities across the nation. Yeah, top 100.

Lets examine the statistics behind how many applied and were accepted during the 2015-16 school year.

Freshman Class 2015-2016*
Applications: 34,110
Accepted: 13,981
Enrolled: 2,800
*projected


So overall, the approximated estimate for those who were accepted of those who applied was 41%. This is a very large number in terms of acceptance, as some colleges have less than 10% acceptance rates. Lets investigate what is expected of students who apply for the university.


Academic Profile of Enrolled Freshmen
GPA: mid-50% range 90-96
SAT: mid-50% range for Math: 600-720;
Critical Reading: 540-660; Writing: 540-660
ACT: mid-50% range 26-31



As we can see, there is a fairly well-balanced average for the scores and grades required to enter StonyBrook. We will investigate the social aspect of the university in the next update, so please come back soon!

*Information taken directly from the StonyBrook university official website*

NYU (Academics and Campus Life)

Previously, we analyzed the admission process as an easy summary. Now, let's assume you feel confident you can get in and you've invented something (referring to last post). Your next focus is most likely on "what does this school offer me" and "how is the campus life?"

Academic Services

Schools on this blog will be rated out of 100. Through extensive research and conversions, we are able to generate a relative "grade" on a school based on student's views, other reviews, and graduation and success rate.

NYU has an average score of 86. This is relatively high. Not too high, but high enough.

In addition, as discussed in a previous blog, there are different success rates and potential profits based on how long they stayed in college. Generally, 72% of the people were successful for a 4 year under graduate stay in NYU. 80% for 5 and 82% for 6 years.

To put these numbers in simpler terms, its best to go to NYU for 4 years, maybe 5. Do not go for 6 years if you have a choice, because 6 years barely makes a difference for those attending for 5.

Finally, NYU provides a multitude of majors and minors, and have several institutes in New York.
The institutes are:
1. The College of Arts and Science
2. Core Program in Liberal Studies
3. Global Liberal Studies Program
4. Leonard N. Stern School of Business
5. Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.
6. Tisch School of Arts
7. Gallatin School of Individualized Study
8. Silver School of Social Work
9. College of Nursing
10. School of Professional Studies
11. NYU Tandon School of Engineering

As you can see, there are plenty of institutions for several general fields of studies.

Campus Life
The campus environment is considered urban. The campus in New York is unnoticeable and is basically Manhattan itself. HOWEVER, NYU offers amazing oppurtunities to attend campus in BEAUTIFUL LANDS elsewhere.

They offer college education at NYU Shanghai and NYU Abu Dhabi. The only difference between these locations and the one in Manhattan is simply location! The benefits, education, and programs are all the same throughout. The campuses in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi are very safe, and much more grandeur than the non existent one in the city. Here's a small sector in Abu Dhabi.

https://www.nyu.edu/global/global-academic-centers/abu-dhabi/_jcr_content/tripleBox/nyuphotogallery/image15.fit.900x500.png

        Many students underestimate the impact of environment on social and academic achievement. Let your surroundings be a direct reflection of your being. The best way to see if a college will fit you socially is to go out and visit one. Many colleges and universities offer tour dates on their websites. Simply google the college you are interested in and their website will be first. Colleges want you to visit their school, because at the end of the day, students like you make the college what it is.

        Do you prefer an urban city with tons of internship and job opportunities, festivals, and people from all over the world? Or would you prefer a rural college town with serene mornings, hiking trails, and beautiful landscapes of nature? Only you can make these decisions, because only you know what will truly make you happy. College is a sizable chunk of your young adulthood, and it should be a memorable and beneficial adventure. It is important to continue growing not only physically and mentally, but psychologically and spiritually. Start touring!

NYU Review (Admissions)

    Many of high school seniors have an interest in NYU, but don't know much about it. It gained it's prominence simply due to its location and how prestigious is seems in NYC. However, here it is time to evaluate and present the aspects of NYU.

   First, Admission process. How likely are you to get in? What do they look for? How can one stand out?
    
  Something important to know, is that NYU admits people through a holistic review. This means that they don't purely look at grades and scores. NYU reviews people based on an overall background. They look at your extra-curricular, recommendations, achievements, challenging coursework and other similar topics. This is a great benefit for those who expand their horizons by participating in real life activities and achieve valuable goals  that aren't focused on school. Those with GPA's of 85's are admitted if they participate in community activities and have leadership roles.

http://www.princetonreview.com/schools/1022976/college/new-york-university

As you can see, NYU has relatively spread out acceptances based on grades.

Therefore, get out there and go invent something for the fun of it!!!

The Value of Higher Education

When choosing which college a student wants to go to, several aspects are evaluated. Location, architecture, student life, classes provided, graduation rate, and much much more are analyzed. However, arguably the main aspect is financial. The tuition fee, travel fee, financial aid, and anything to do with finances causes strenuous effort. So the big question becomes, how can a student find a college with the best education, yet one that's affordable and worth it?

I personally am very involved with applied mathematics, and this is my specialty. Luckily, a solution paper on the M3 challenge of 2015 presents a solution to this college crisis. Instead of presented complicated calculus and matrices, I will help summarize the conclusions drawn in an easy to understand pattern. 

It is important to note that this system applies to those hoping to pursue colleges within a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education.

First of all, the Associates degree in a two year college vs. a four year university. If you wish to finish off education at the Associates Degree, it is better to go to a two year college. 

How would you fit into the college of your choice by societal standards?

  Different colleges contain different atmospheres of which may or may not appeal to you as an incoming or transferring college student. How should you decide whether this college is for you or not for you? A common question that is often asked when making your decision. Look at the college website. Do some research. Ask people who go to that particular college. Schedule a tour of the campus. These are ways in which you can obtain a better understanding of whether you prefer this college or if you do not. Do you fit in with the students? Does anything appeal to you specifically? Ask these questions should you feel uncomfortable in making a decision.