Hey guys. I just opened an account to ask this question so be gentle, kay?
Cornell Uni now uses a Need-Aware Financial Aid system now for international students. Though I’m sure that my household is able to procure the funds for school I still want to apply for Financial Aid. But at the same time I’m worried about hurting my chances. Is it just better to throw caution to the wind and apply?
Of course it’ll hurt your chances to apply for aid - that’s what need-aware admission means.
The real question is - is it worth it? For example, if you got a loan for the full cost of attendance, you’d be graduating with $300,000 in loans. That’s CRAZY. Your odds of getting a job upon graduation that would allow you to pay that back are slim to none.
Before you make a life-defining decision like that, take inventory of your goals, means and options. For example, be aware that you may not be able to work in the US after graduation. There’s a lottery for H-1B work visas and if you don’t win the lottery, you cannot work no matter how much an employer would want to hire you. (Last year the chances of getting drawn were about 1 in 3.)
Everything considered, do you think you’d be better off attending Cornell at full cost, or a slightly less prestigious university (in the US or elsewhere) a fair bit cheaper? If money is important to you (it is to me and my family!), it makes a tremendous amount of sense to apply for financial aid.
Prestigious universities are overrated anyway. The teaching at my local community college is better than the teaching I saw at Stanford. Not even close.
I agree with the guy above: you SHOULD apply for financial aid if your family needs it. However, if your family is well off enough (maybe 150k+ income), i don’t see the point in applying for financial aid since it’s gonna hurt your chances + u won’t get any aid since ur income’s too high.
BUT since you’re an international, even if you get in after having ticked financial aid, chances are you probably won’t get any aid like what happened to me. I applied for aid got into coe, but received none although i’m low income(hard for international to receive aid), so ended up going to a much less prestigious school.
I sorta went all over the place, but my advice: if your family’s relatively well off, apply without aid. if not, look for other schools. 
what choice do we lower income international student families have?