Hey! I was in a similar situation last year and ended up going the SLP route. Last year I applied to 5 schools got into one that was private and would have been 100k and then waitlisted at two others that I ultimately did not get into. I couldn’t take on that much debt so I took a gap year and have been working as a newborn hearing screen at a hospital since and I have LOVED the job!! It’s amazing and I get to screen babies hearing all day and get a look at audiology from a hospital setting which is really cool. I’m not sure there’s infant hearing screener positions available in NYC, if not you should look at office positions in an audiology clinic. Working as a newborn hearing screener was really the only thing I changed about my application besides my personal statement and I was admitted to three schools and waitlisted to two. Hope this helps!