Cheap and Free Colleges in New York City: Pace, Macaulay, Cooper Union

It's a well-known fact that New York City is one of the most expensive cities to live in nationwide and worldwide. However, that doesn't mean that a college in New York City has to be so expensive.

Schools such as Barnard College, and Columbia University can "free" or "cheap" as well if you qualify for financial aid, or have received scholarships. However, the following colleges discussed are the prominent ones known for affordable education that is more merit-based than need-based.

Pace University is a private university in downtown Manhattan. It is known for business and is considered the cheaper and less attractive alternative to New York University. Most of the students at Pace at commuters (the stereotypes hold true in this case). However, although Pace University is a private university, it can still be considered affordable for even the poorest students.

Pace University offers generous financial aid and scholarships. Students can apply for financial aid by filling out FAFSA every year. Pace also offers scholarships that can even cover all the costs of attending the school. Students who are accepted into its Pforzheimer Honors College can the most benefits. As an honors student, you receive priority in advising selecting classes in addition to scholarships. When you apply, you don't need to state interest; you will automatically be nominated if you qualify. In order to be nominated, you must meet the following criteria:

• Be a high school senior applying for first-year enrollment;
• Have a GPA of 90 or higher
• Have an SAT verbal and math score of 550 or higher
• Have a combined SAT score of 1200

However, the admissions committee is usually not strict with these criteria, and you may be eligible if you meet two out of the last three criteria.

Current and transfer students are also eligible to take part in the honors program as long as there is space. To apply, you must have completed about 32 credits and have at least a 3.5 GPA.

Once you are enrolled at the Honors College, you must maintain a GPA of 3.3 or higher to keep your privileges (such as scholarships) as an Honors student.

What is CUNY?

I get asked a lot of questions about CUNYs and Macaulay so let me first try to clarify this: The CUNY system is New York City's public system of higher education institutions, consisting of 11 senior colleges (City College, Hunter College, Baruch College, Brooklyn College, Queens College, Medgar Evers College, New York City College of Technology, College of Staten Island, York College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Lehman College, York College), six community colleges (Hostos Community College, borough of Manhattan Community College, LaGuardia Community College, Bronx Community College, Queensborough Community College, Kingsborough Community College), the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the City University of New York School of Law, the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, the doctorate-granting Graduate School and University Center, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Since CUNYs are public schools, they're relatively cheap to go to. Honors students don't have to pay tuition. Usually, my friends pay around $2,000 a year if they're a "regular" student. In fact, some of my friends were literally paid to go to college.

What is Macaulay?

So we're going going to talk about undergraduate education so we'll look at CUNY's senior colleges, community colleges, and Macaualay Honors College. Macaulay Honors College is like an honors program (and was originally called the CUNY Honors Program) at CUNY's participating colleges (Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Baruch, City, and Lehman).

Benefits of Macaulay

Macaulay students receive many benefits such as being eligible for a grant up to $7,500 for internships, studying abroad, or doing community service. In addition, they do not have to pay tuition. They receive mentoring and career preparation, a cultural passport into museums, and other arts and cultural exhibits for free, and a MacBook. With the exception of Hunter College, you still have to pay for dorm. However, the dorms for Hunter College are about 40 blocks from the academic building so that's something for you to keep in mind.

Click here to read more about Macaulay Honors College, including statistics on average GPA and test scores, quick facts about each campus, general acceptance rates and rates by campus.

Cooper Union consists of three schools: Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, School of Art, and Albert Nerken School of Engineering. However, during the first two years all students are required to take classes in the humanities and social sciences (which I heard were pretty easy). After the first two years, students can take electives in these fields to earn credit toward their degree.

All students admitted do not have to pay tuition, but they do have to pay for housing. However, housing is only provided for the first year unless you become a Room Adviser (RA). Students who attend the same school (engineering, art, or architecture) are usually placed together for housing. The housing is pretty decent: 4 students are assigned to a suite. There are 2 bedrooms so 2 people share a room. There's a decent-sized kitchen/dining room, and bathroom. The residential building is located just a few blocks from the academic buildings. Unfortunately, there's no meal plan but there is a kitchen, and plenty of food vendors, supermarkets, free food events, and restaurants around.

The academics at Cooper are intense, and Cooper students are known for have relatively low averages. But on the bright side, most Cooper students are known to be intelligent and capable so it's worth it. There are a lot of stereotypes about weird art students, quiet architecture students, and geeky engineering students. However, I have many friends from Cooper and none of them have fulfilled these stereotypes. They all seemed to love Cooper, and appreciate the education they received for the low price they paid.

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