Cost for Undergraduate at Cornell?

<p>So if one parent makes ~ $250,000 a year (before taxes), then I can't apply for financial aid right?
So without financial aid (out of state) the cost they said for 2010-11 is $39,450 + $12,650 for room/board. So do they expect me to pay $52,000 a year? (52k*4= 208,000)? That is around all of my college fund.. What merit scholarships does Cornell offer, and what would I be paying actually? What would NMSF do... God, this sucks I really want to go to Cornell, if I do really good like 3.8 or something what scholarships could I get to a good graduate school. Should I just go to UC Berkeley or ASU/U of A (state) schools for undergrad and then graduate from elite (isnt it a lot easier to get in for Grad/PhD?). Is undergrad at top schools overpriced, or should I go to small university?</p>

<p>Cornell doesn’t offer merit scholarships and doesn’t accept the money awarded by National Merit (I know, it sucks). Personally, I was able to get a couple of other outside scholarships that helped (and they didn’t reduce my grant!), so I’d suggest looking into those.</p>

<p>If you have one parent making $250,000, why would you think you could/should apply for financial aid? Financial aid is for students whose parents do not make close to that ammount.</p>