Our Two Cents

As twenty-somethings attending an expensive university in New York City, money is constantly on our minds.

Everything has a price tag, and our education, closet-sized apartments, and even those raucous, silly, crazy, unfortunate nights out with friends, cost beaucoup bucks.

The New School Free Press decided that as we head into warm, summer days (and probably into sad, emptier wallets as well), it was worth discussing the green stuff, a topic that you, our readers, suggest we tackle nearly every semester.

While the idea is expansive (after all, everyone’s financial situation and attitude about spending and saving differs) and really could extend into an endless page of hundreds of articles, we decided the information was too valuable to not provide. NSFP researched, reported, and worked to produce the stories that as a team, we felt would address many of the unanswered financial questions here at The New School.

We talked to President David Van Zandt on the financial plan of The New School for the next five years. We examined the reasons behind the lofty prices of the cafeteria food in the University Center. Reporters met with students struggling to pay for school after tuition increased, but their scholarships did not.

A few of us even went on camera to guess the price of local “cheap eats,” and provide you with our most professional opinion on the quality and taste of said food. We visited fashion studios to talk to students about the financial inequality that results from who can or can’t afford outsourcing their senior thesis collections. Perhaps most surprisingly, in investigating what happens to the $238 or however much dollars we all have left in print credit at the end of the school year, we discovered that print credit is not actually money, it’s free.

Lastly, for those of you donning a cap and gown in Queens next week, we’re sending you off with five financial tips every grad should know.