<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I just got my financial aid letter today and was surprised at how low it was compared to JHU and others. I applied to CALS so I was even more surprised at how low the grant was and how big the loan was. Is this the case with others? I will probably call them up to confirm whether there was any errors.</p>
<p>In case there are no errors, is there any way I can tell them in a humble way what hopkins is offering me and hope that they will give me better aid?</p>
<p>yeah go ahead and play hardball with them. say you really like cornell and would love to attend but that you're having justifying it with yourself and your parents when a high quality peer institution like JHU gave you such a better deal FA-wise and is there anything they can do?</p>
<p>I believe that Cornell is known for loading up "financial aid" with loans. But I guess it doesn't hurt to try for more money.</p>
<p>could you tell me whether 10k in loans is reasonable for a 2000 EFC?</p>
<p>Cornell places little weight on the fasfa efc. Call your counselor and fax him or her the offer from jhu. Tell them you really want to come but you are going to need a comparable package. Doing that worked for me and several of my friends.</p>
<p>We have a 6300 EFC and one school had us(as a family contribution) having paying $18,000 and having my son take out $4625 in federal loans and $1800 for a work study. They only gave us 20,000 in grant $$. Two other schools had the same in federal loans but the family contribution was around $8500. I don't know how the schools look at EFC but none have been close to the EFC. Why bother knowing what your EFC is??? I guess you can always try to negotiate and get more money. As soon as we get one more package we are going to the table. If one school gives you more thatn another lay it all out and tell the school you want to go to you have better offers. What do you have to loose?? We can't even afford the $6300. We are in debt up to our eyeballs-they don't consider debt when calulating the EFC . Good luck-keep us posted! :)</p>
<p>Cornell was my first choice. But now the excitement I was feeling about being accepted is being overshadowed by the fact that I can't afford it with the aid package they gave me. I mean, I'm the daughter of a single-parent teacher and they expext me to be able to pay $11,120 w/out including loans? (it's over $20,000 with the loans and only ~3000 of that is subsidized). I feel horrible. If they don't change my package I won't be able to afford Cornell. I don't understand why Vanderbilt could offer me over $10,000 more in grant money.... This is ridiculous, just when all that work finally pays off, you can't. Oh well...</p>
<p>I got $23,000 from Princeton and $0 from Cornell. Odd huh?</p>
<p>Pton is loaded. they could not charge the entire incoming freshman class and have more to spare w/o touching their reserves...scary, huh??</p>
<p>yea i got a bad offer from them too...in fact its $10,000 lower (grant-wise) than what JHU and Carnegie Mellon gave me. I'm quite surprised because their FA stats seemed pretty good...</p>
<p>question - should i call or should my parents call (i dont know much about finances etc)</p>
<p>princetons gives grants not loans</p>
<p>Do you have to wait for the fin. aid letter, or is it posted online somewhere?</p>
<p>And just to make sure, your fina aid DOESN'T come w/ the acceptance package, right?</p>
<p>So to recap, all of you think Cornell's grant money is the worst compared to your other colleges? ...yikes!</p>
<p>Have your parents call. If they don't like what one person tells them, hang up and call again. You might be asked to send in documents such as another schools offer (especially if its another ivy) or other papers that show a change is your family's circumstances since you filled out the form. The conselors will lie to you, its their job. But if you hammer them enough they will help you. Good luck!</p>
<p>I also got zero from Cornell :(</p>
<p>I only got $22,907, yet my EFC is around $2000. They're expecting me to pay $11,000 in loans and $12,000 of my own cash! This is unacceptable. I'm gonna keep pestering them until they respond.</p>
<br>
<p>Do you have to wait for the fin. aid letter, or is it posted online somewhere? And just to make sure, your fina aid DOESN'T come w/ the acceptance package, right? So to recap, all of you think Cornell's grant money is the worst compared to your other colleges? ...yikes!</p>
<br>
<p>In my acceptance package, it said that the financial aid letter will come one or two days after that package? Argh. I haven't gotten mine yet.</p>
<p>mine hasn't come yet either</p>
<p>No, financial aid is not online to the best of my knowledge.
Yes, it came separately in the mail.
Yes, it has been the worst.</p>
<p>You guys are frightening me. I've not received my envelope yet. But I hope it will be manageable. Looks like cornell is stingy with the grants.</p>