Cornell RD Class of 2023 Discussion Thread

@Collegeboundstudent232323
https://admit.cornell.edu/cornell-days

@isxxco you can contact them to go over your package. Our experience is that to get a bigger grant, they would need to see a change in your finances from when you submitted documentation or some other compelling reason, otherwise they will offer further loans instead.
Keep in mind that while the costs for tuition, room and board increase each year, grants will increase as well unless your parents income increases more. Also, keep in mind that your student contribution (in the top right hand corner IIRC) will also increase each year. They expect you to work more each summer to contribute to your own education.

im asking though would they give more grants and aid on the basis that you want to really go tot the school but money is tight and my second best option is $4.5k less per year? or is the CoA in the financial award letter the end all be all?

They state that they will reconsider (I can’t remember if they specify match offers) their package if you have a better one from another comparable institution. Say MIT or Princeton or another highly ranked school. So it depends on which offer you are comparing it to. They aren’t going to match the offer from an instate public though. They aren’t going to beg you to choose them either, because they could fill your spot with someone from the waitlist.
The money is going to be tight for everyone but the very wealthy. It just shouldn’t be bankrupting anyone.

Ok this is basically the policy I remember them mentioning. They will match need based offers from comparable institutions. Not merit though. http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/12/cornell-matches-financial-aid-offered-peer-schools

Accepted to Engineering but must complete the Prefreshman Summer Program. Anyone else get this?

My daughter is accepting spring admit to SHA she started a facebook page please join!!!

Thank you so much! @CornENgCS

Guys (and ladies), what’s the sequence of clicks to get to the financial aid package when you log in? Or should it come in the mail? Thanks in advance.

@ElenaParent

  • Use this link:
    https://finaid.cornell.edu/view-financial-aid-decision-0
  • then click on:
    Log in here with your ApplicantID and PIN
  • After logged in, you should see a Screen that says:
    CUWEBLOGIN. Login ok
  • It takes a few second before it changes to:
    Select the aid year you wish to view
  • Click on 2020, it should take you to:
    Select Financial Aid Summary
  • click on the DATE of the award letter and you are there.

Son got accepted to Cornell Engineering, and received good financial aid package, but still left us with about 13k/year out of pocket. Son also received scholarships/financial aids that amount to full ride from several state universitys. While we can afford it, is a Cornell education worth extra 13k/year over University of Wisconsin or University of Texas etc.? BTW, we’re in Texas, son is not into big school sports and we’d like for him to experience being “away for college”.

Congratulations on your son’s acceptance.

CoE is highly ranked. They usually do very well after graduation. I have hired many CoE graduates and I have found them to be excellent employees - hard working, practical and good problem solvers (do what it takes to get the job done). CoE is a hard school, but the students tend to have a lot of fun too.

Both of my kids went to Cornell and they enjoyed their time there. One of my kids married a CoE graduate. He had 60K student loans. He was able to pay it back pretty quickly, between his salary and bonus.
We were full pay, but my kids were able to get jobs on campus. As an engineering student he should be able to make 10-15K a summer, if not more.

@mbuchanan1 - If that $13K/year is going to be hardship, I don’t think it’s worth it, especially for engineering. UT and UWisc have fantastic programs. For some disciplines, even ranked higher than Cornell.

On my financial aid award letter and the budgeting plan for Cornell, there seems to be a discrepancy. On the financial aid award letter, it says that the estimated CoA is about $77k/yr but on the budgeting plan it says about $73k/yr. Which one is more accurate? I was just wondering.

@isxxco. The lower number in the College Financing Plan does not include Health costs and Personal/Miscellaneous. Cornell automatically enroll all students in their health plan. If you are covered under your parents health insurance that meet Cornell’s requirements, then you can ask for a waiver. As for Personnal/Miscellaneous expenses, it depends on how frugal you are.

Is there a deposit deadline for housing? Is it randomly selected or do we have a choice? Any advice? Thanks.

the deposit is only for attending, not housing. After accept your spot for the classnof 2023, you will soon get a NetID and be able to create an account. Then you can use that to go on the housing portal and select some options. You can choose between on campus or off campus. For on campus freshmen, you can choose among Balch (women), a number of program houses, residential dorms, townhouses. Basically, you rank them from what you most to least prefer. Then there are some questions about whether you prefer single gender or mixed gender rooms, whether you go to bed/wake up early or late, if you are messy or neat, etc. You can submit it by sometime in May, I forget the date listed. It says they will give you your assigned housing by mid June. Cornell doesn’t assign housing by first come first serve, as long as everything is completed by the date they give you in May. You can also make changes to your selections until that date, even if it was already submitted.

The amount of aid in the financial aid letter and the budgeting plan are also different for me. Which one should i go with, and since the CoA in both aid and the budget plan are different, which aid amount should i subtract from which CoA to get my net cost of attendance?

@isxxco The College Financial Planning does not include Work Study while the Award Letter does, otherwise the financial amounts are the same. The reason being, work study money is not available to you right away, you have to earn it as you go. So don’t count on it when you have to pay the bills at the beginning of the semesters.
As explained in post #734, the Health costs and Personal/ Miscellaneous expenses depend on your personal situation. The COA Cornell came up is for an average student. You can estimate your own COA.

@mom2twogirls Thank you! That’s very helpful!