<p>My daughter is finishing her freshman year at Columbia...she loves it. However, we had her apply at Cornell for 2008-2009 because we heard on the news about their financial aid package (less than $75K annually....no tuition). Now, I can't find that info anywhere....I only see that Cornell has no student loans when income is less than $75K. That's nothing special. Is it correct?? We didn't get any great package from Columbia last year, and we can't keep borrowing so much money. BTW, she got accepted at Cornell, but we haven't heard any finaid info yet.</p>
<p>That's pretty unfortunate that you thought you heard that because knowing Cornell there's no way they would do that :(</p>
<p>they did do it. here's the article from the link above. that 75K income limit is being phased in over the next 2 years it seems. Also, they will look at your assets, not just your income </p>
<p>Cornell drops need-based loans for students from families earning under $75,000</p>
<p>Building on a long history of need-blind admissions and need-based aid, Cornell Provost Carolyn A. Martin announced a sweeping new financial aid initiative, starting next year, to eliminate need-based loans for all undergraduate students from families with income under $75,000, making it possible for new students to graduate debt-free.
David Harris, Biddy Martin and Carolyn Ainslie
Robert Barker/University Photography
From left, Deputy Provost David Harris, Provost Biddy Martin and Vice President for Planning and Budget Carolyn Ainslie share a light moment Jan. 30 as they put the final touches on a statement announcing Cornell's new financial aid program.</p>
<p>Cornell's new financial aid initiative will be implemented over the next two years. In the first year, 2008-09, the university will eliminate need-based loans going forward for undergraduate students from families with incomes under $60,000, and cap them annually at $3,000 for students from families with incomes between $60,000 and $120,000. The following year, 2009-10, the program will take full effect by eliminating need-based loans for students from families with incomes up to $75,000, and capping annual loans at $3,000 for students from families with income between $75,000 and $120,000.</p>
<p>The Cornell Board of Trustees also approved a tuition increase of 4.9 percent for undergraduates in the university's endowed colleges -- but a decrease of 10.1 percent for Graduate School students, excluding the professional schools. Overall, the cost of room and board, tuition and mandatory fees for undergraduate students in the endowed colleges will rise to $48,194 from $46,021.</p>
<p>Commenting on the initiative, which is expected to affect approximately 4,500 students, President David J. Skorton stated: "This is a proud day for Cornell and an important day for our current and future students. The approval by the Board of Trustees, under the able leadership of Peter C. Meinig '61, of this initiative, which was spearheaded by Provost Martin, will strengthen the institution's founding mission to provide a superb liberal education across the full range of disciplines to the best and brightest students from all walks of life, regardless of their resources. This new initiative is momentous, extending Cornell's land-grant mandate from 1865."</p>
<p>In unveiling the initiative, Martin said, "My colleagues and I are delighted to make this announcement, capping a yearlong effort to identify the resources and mechanisms that would provide meaningful relief for a significant number of students, who can continue to excel at their academic work and consider a range of careers without the worry of excessive debt at graduation."</p>
<p>Reflecting on similar efforts, Martin added: "Our goal is to provide support that is consistent with what matters to Cornell as an institution. What matters to us is the social good of providing access to education for deserving students, regardless of their ability to pay, and ensuring that their choices after graduation are not constrained by debt. The entire campus benefits from our ability to enroll the most diverse and talented student body. The challenge we and our peers face is to ensure access without undermining the funding model that has allowed higher education in the U.S. to flourish, the partnership that requires investments from state and federal government, philanthropy, universities, families and students. The point is not to make higher education a free good or to shift the responsibility for funding it disproportionately to universities, few of which can afford to eliminate or cap student loans and all of which are being asked to do more and more for our communities and the larger society."</p>
<p>Meinig said: "The new program is the latest step in Cornell's ongoing effort to calibrate its financial aid programs, first instituted in 1872, to the needs of our diverse student body. We are delighted that the university has found its own way to extend greater financial support to our students, without sacrificing the student and family participation upon which we believe a successful academic career depends. That is the Cornell way."</p>
<p>The university expects to spend $116.8 million of its own resources on undergraduate financial aid in 2007-08, 94 percent of which will be spent on grant aid. More than 60 percent of Cornell's undergraduates receive some form of financial aid. Cornell has a greater number and a higher percentage than most of its peers of Pell grant recipients -- students from families that have annual incomes below $45,000. For fall 2007, Cornell enrolled 1,799 Pell grant recipients, representing 13.3 percent of its undergraduate student body.</p>
<p>Cornell will fund the incremental cost of the initiative from an increase in payout from its endowment, new gifts and reallocations of existing budget resources over the next two years. The annual cost of the initiative is expected to increase the university's total annual financial aid expenditure by an additional $14 million when fully implemented.</p>
<p>About the future evolution of the initiative, Vice President for Planning and Budget Carolyn Ainslie said: "While current federal data show that the U.S. median family income is $58,407, it will rise over time. We will review this program on an annual basis to make sure our actions keep pace with changes in family incomes. We will also evaluate the size of the family contribution we require for students from our neediest families."</p>
<p>Deputy Provost David Harris added: "Because Cornell's financial-aid population is larger than the entire undergraduate student bodies of a number of our fellow institutions, the challenge was especially significant here. This initiative will strengthen the economic diversity of our student body and, most importantly, free our students to pursue studies and careers that match their skills and interests, rather than those that ensure they will be able to repay their loans."</p>
<p>I was referring to the fact that the OP thought that families making under $75K would not have to pay tuition at Cornell. Also, you might want to consider just linking to the article next time.</p>
<p>Certainly Cornell's "me too" announcement this past January (in the wake of much more generous policy adjustments by other Ivies with bigger endowments) will benefit many current and prospective students with comparatively low family income.</p>
<p>However, Cornell bases their finaid packages on a "self help" component of about $12K, which is roughly 2x what other schools calculate. Because work study and Stafford components of "self help" cap out around $6K, Cornell evidently routinely expects students to take on another $6K per year in alternative private loans to make up the difference. (They used to recommend specific private loan originators, but the NYS AG took a dim view of this practice, so they wisely discontinued recommending specific lenders.) Of 7 schools to which my daughter was accepted, big & small, tier 1 & 2, Cornell was the only one with the chutzpah to include private loans as part of their finaid package (our family income is decidedly middle class, so we are outside of the income range covered by the new policy).</p>
<p>I sincerely hope Cornell will eventually discontinue recommending private loans for families at any income level.</p>
<p>columbia also announced similiar financial aid policy changes about a month ago. In fact -- there is even better from what I can tell -- no loans for any student no matter what the income level.</p>
<p>From what I have heard, Columbia has better FA than Cornell -- so I can't imagine that the package Cornell would give a transfer student would be better than what Columbia would give an existing student.</p>
<p>Columbia</a> University Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid and Educational Financing</p>
<p>We haven't heard from Cornell yet, but we got the package from Columbia today. She is staying there, and very happy about it. </p>
<p>I honestly think what I read was supposed to have said Dartmouth, but the reporter wrote Cornell. Figures..</p>
<p>Yeah its Dartmouth that did that.</p>