College Admission Essay

In today’s world, children are taught from a young age that to be successful, they need to go to college so that they can live a good fulfilling life. But is college really all that worth it and does it fit into everyone’s path the way we are told it should? I knew that NYU is a private university located throughout New York City, with alumni featuring authors I love and writers I admire. It’s probably the most prestigious school in the state, which is why I’ve wanted to attend so badly. I also knew that RISD, Rhode Island School of Design, is the art school of my dreams and that since I've decided I'd like to go to an art school instead of a typical college or university, it has been my goal to get there. I was not aware of the cost of either

An UPI NewsTrack article from April of 2009 reads, “New York University is warning lower income applicants to think twice about attending the $50,000 a year campus, officials said. The New York Post reported Thursday that the private school in Greenwich Village has been urging financially needy students already accepted for the fall semester to reconsider their desire to attend NYU, given the cost.”(UPI NewsTrack) Despite student loans being available to students, many have not been able to cover the full cost of this tuition well enough, even with a part-time job. But, a Washington Post article from October 2016 shows what the school is doing to make the school more affordable to its students. It reads, “NYU is also raising the minimum wage it pays working students, from $12 an hour this school year to $15 an hour by 2018-2019. In addition, the university is seeking to raise money for financial aid and to expand campus job opportunities for students. And it is studying proposals to limit meal and textbook expenses.” (Washington Post) Though becoming aware of the financial strain its students are under, the school has not done much in the past nine years to change their ranking as one of the most expensive colleges in America. RISD on the other hand has a $48 thousand tuition but many of its students are able to cover the cost with

(USNews) Hand in hand with this, the average total indebtedness of the 2016 graduating class was $31210. (USNews) It will be difficult with any job to pay off the debt from financial aid because students are expected to begin paying off their student loans 6 months after graduating from college. Sure it will be gradually paid off, but the cost of living in New York adds onto that and it may take a student decades to pay off the student loans they took out to cover the cost of tuition. The starting salary graduating from RISD is $48,470 and their 2016 graduating class indebtedness was $31,037. (USNews) Being a starving artist is hard. It would be harder to pay for your debt with the starting salary RISD alumnis have, but with as many internships and extracurriculars te school has, job experience will be easy to attain. In turn from that, a good job will also be easy to obtain. Personally, I plan on working at Glossier, a makeup company with its headquarters in New York City, if my art career falls out or if I decide it’s not the way for me to go after all. Both of these schools have majors and minors that could help me to attain my goal of being VP of Design & UX at Glossier and I am willing to work harder to pay off what I have to after attending RISD if that means I will enjoy my life and career choices in my early twenties, doing something I love