NYU Transfer Students: This Is Our Moment to Be Heard and Recognized

Transfer students at NYU deserve the same opportunity to be considered for substantial, potentially full need-based scholarships as students admitted directly from high school.

Many transfer students come from low-income backgrounds and have already demonstrated their academic ability at another institution or within another NYU school. Yet they can face financial-aid gaps that force them to take on private debt, work excessive hours, postpone enrollment, or leave NYU altogether. Financial need does not become less serious simply because a student transferred.

NYU’s Prison Education Program demonstrates that the university understands how education can transform lives and create opportunities for students whose paths do not follow the traditional route. That commitment is important and should continue. Eligible formerly incarcerated students who complete the program may receive full-tuition scholarships and living support while continuing their education at three NYU schools: the College of Arts & Science, the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, or the School of Professional Studies.

The issue is not that these students receive this support—they deserve the opportunity to continue their education. The issue is that low-income transfer students who have not been incarcerated may enter the same NYU schools, attend the same classes, demonstrate the same academic potential, and experience the same financial hardship without access to a comparable full-tuition pathway.

Students should not have to qualify through one narrowly defined program for NYU to recognize that they cannot afford tuition. If NYU can provide full financial support across multiple schools for one group of nontraditional students, it can build a comparable need-based opportunity for other low-income transfer students. Transfer students are not asking NYU to remove or redirect funding from the Prison Education Program or any other deserving group. We are asking the university to expand that same commitment to access, opportunity, and second chances.

This petition asks NYU to:

Allow eligible transfer students to compete for full need-based institutional scholarships.
Establish a dedicated scholarship fund for low-income internal and external transfer students.
Reevaluate institutional aid when students transfer between NYU schools.
Clearly disclose scholarship limitations before students accept transfer admission.
Expand emergency and retention grants for transfers at risk of leaving due to unpaid balances.
Include transfer-student representatives in discussions about financial aid and educational access.
Admission without adequate financial support is not genuine access. Transfer students contribute academically, professionally, and personally to NYU. Our route to the university should not determine whether they can afford to remain here.