Cornell's financial aid

<p>How does cornell calculate financial aid?
I have an EFC of 0, yet cornell expects a parent contribution of about $8,200, a summer savings expectation of $2,700, and over $12,000 in loans/work study. The only grants I received were the nys tap and pell grants which total about $9,000.
Is this a mistake? There is no way my family can afford this and I won't be able to attend with this financial aid package. How could the college calculate such numbers? My parents dont have much savings, nor any assets,bonds,businesses, etc at all. I am planning to appeal to the fin aid office. How should I go about this?</p>

<p>Call the office and tell them just what you've mentioned here. Tell them that you'd like to speak with a counselor, not an office assistant. They should tell you that one will call back and then you should write down just exactly what you want to say on a sheet of paper. Use it as a guide. Cornell's financial aid sucks.</p>

<p>I'm guessing your EFC is from your FAFSA and not your Cornell EFC. I guess they just calculated a different figure based off the tax returns you sent them.</p>

<p>i have a feeling if youre a nys resident u still end up paying more for tuition if you're in one of the contract colleges and eligible for fin. aid than you would at one of the endowed colleges.</p>

<p>is that endowed college thing really true? i'm in CAS. it's weird. Even though FAFSA said my EFC was 18,000, my parent contribution is 8000. and i have a huge grant and only 3500 in loans.</p>

<p>That's how much they expect me to contribute from the Summer! I donno wherrrre they got that number from. I heavily doubt that I make that much even if I saved 100% of my Summer earnings...should I appeal that even if the rest of my aid is good? I donno but I just feel kinda screwed over in that catagory...I highly highlllly doubt I even made that much last Summer. Even if I did that would be 100% of my earnings. Now that I see you got the same number it makes me suspicious if they actually used my job from last year or give that number to many people. I'm doing an unpaid internship this Summer along with my job from last Summer so I'm not gonna get 3 jobs...</p>

<p>yea i have to make that much over the summer too!!! that's crazy. i've never worked a day in my life. i spent every summer volunteering since 9th grade. i'm not gonna work this summer. there's no way i'll make that much. so my parents are paying for that.</p>

<p>Ya I haven't gone into it with my parents. I'm hoping I can solve it by mayyybe calling Cornell. I'm not sure though since the rest of my package is good...</p>