How to get closer to NYC in college?

I'm planning out my life because I graduate from high school next year, and I really wanna be in New York City. But I can't be there directly because NYC universities are expensive and I need a school with at least a 60% acceptance rate because I'm not going to have a very good GPA, and I need a school with either an arts administration or music business major (or something similar). So I was looking at the surrounding cities and their colleges and I found that some of my options are Goucher College in Baltimore (from there it would take me 9 to 12 hours to get to NYC using public transit, Point Park University in Pittsburg (9-12 hours), a The University of Hartford in Hartford Connecticut (I skipped over NJ because none of their schools meet those requirements. A major problem is that I have to stay out of Philadelphia because of a "this town ain't big enough for the two of us" kinda situation. I just looked up public transit routes on google maps. If any of you know any ways to get to NYC quicker tell me, and how do you feel about being on public transportation for that long? And another thing, I'm not from the East Coast so do you think that if I'm on there for that long that I'll catch some Eastern illnesses that I'm not yet immune to???