<p>I was accepted through ED, and have just recently received my financial aid package. </p>
<p>Cornell expects the EFC to be 40k. We got 12k in financial aid, but 9k of it is in loans. Well, the point is, in the end, WE dish out 50k. </p>
<p>My father's income is about 100k, and my mother's income varies, usually between 15k-20k. My father, however, did not begin working until a late age (being an immigrant student and all, so his 401k is rather diminished), so we have extra saved for his retirement, and he doesn't have a pension. My mother doesn't even have a 401k, so part of those savings are for her too. I think those savings/assets(?) hurt our financial package..? </p>
<p>We also still owe a large amount of mortgage, and my grandparents conveniently chose this time to fall sick, so we are sending large sums of money back to China.</p>
<p>My family feels that we simply cannot afford this. </p>
<p>Is this normal for people in our income bracket? How do people normally appeal their financial aid packages?</p>
<p>At any rate, my parents are almost dead set on sending me to a public in-state university instead (very good chance of graduating debt free ^_^). So, how do I "prove" to Cornell that we cannot afford them? Just write them a soppy letter? Or do we need to send copies of my dad's paycheck, or what?</p>
<p>The three components of the new financial aid initiative are:</p>
<pre><code>* Eliminate the parental contribution for students from families with incomes below $60,000 and assets below $100,000;
* Cap need-based student loans at $7,500 annually for students who have financial need and whose families have annual incomes above $120,000; and
* Reduce the parental contribution for selected students who have financial need and whose families have annual incomes above $60,000.
</code></pre>
<p>Cornell already eliminates need-based student loans for family incomes below $60,000 (the income level will rise to $75,000 in fall 2009), and annually caps need-based student loans at $3,000 for family incomes between $60,000 and $120,000.</p>
<p>If your family's income is under $120,000 - which it looks like it is, you should be capped at $3,000 in loans. Even if it's not, you should be capped at $7,500 in loans max. So what's with the $9,000? I'd call them</p>
<p>It sounds like your family income was over $120k last year, which means that your family makes more than 90 percent of all American families. It probably doesn't feel like it though. </p>
<p>Cornell probably won't take the money you send to China into consideration. They might though, if you ask.</p>
<p>And non-retirement assets are seen as good as cash for paying for college, but they can't touch retirement accounts, so without knowing about your situation, I can't really say what is going on there. </p>
<p>If you honestly can't afford to pay, you can get out of your ED contract. A lot of families sacrifice a lot to send their children to college. You need to sit down with your parents and figure out how much you can pay and whether or not it is worth it.</p>
<p>As much as I love Cornell, I don't want to put my parents into debt until the day they die.</p>
<p>I was really only asking about appealing out of curiosity. </p>
<p>At this point, I just want to get out of the contract and into public university. So could someone please explain how I would go about doing this? What do I send them? Is there an official form for doing so? Because I certainly didn't find one online. Or do I write my own letters? (There goes my enrollment deposit, lol.)</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>Oh! Some really random question. How competitive is getting into CAS? How would Cornell know if I got a job over the winter? I wish it would snow in Texas :(</p>
<p>Well, the nice thing about loans is that they don't have to be paid back until after you graduate, and your parents wouldn't necessarily have to pay them back -- you would.</p>
<p>I think it's definitely worth an appeal. If Cornell could offer 5-8k more in grant aid it might change the calculus a bit.</p>
<p>But yes, definitely start applying to UT and College Station if you haven't done so already. You don't have to retract your place at Cornell until early summer.</p>
<p>I already got accepted to UT. Never thought I'd actually be going!</p>
<p>I would prefer to go to A&M, though. Don't they give more money? Merit-based scholarships and such? And anywhoo, isn't their deadline already passed?</p>
<p>I would definitely appeal, though, just to see what happens. You already put your deposit down, so it's really just the cost of a postage stamp.</p>
<p>Wait, what do colleges count as assets? Like, what if my families total income was around $40-$50 thousand a year, but our house is worth like $1.5 million (rich grandparents)? I don't think my parents have any other significant assets other than the house, so what else do they take into account when calculating how much aid to give you?</p>
<p>A&M may have extended the deadline. Check their website.
Some people say that the big scholarships at A&M are reserved for NMS--but I'm not sure about this. If you are NM, then I think it's definitely worth checking out.</p>
<p>Just write Cornell an email to let them know your situation. They wouldn't care you are sending money to China, personal problem. The fact you are going to a cheaper school is fine. If you are hoping to get into a better ranked school then you are treading on a very dangerous ground. Again, people that need FA should not apply ED.</p>
<p>assets thing screws me over too. i live in an expensive area so cost of living is so high- the value of our house makes it look like we can pay a lot more than we can</p>
<p>Definitely write to financial aid. This past year my father has been in Iraq, so most of his earnings are tax free and he is making more money than at his regular job, but financial aid told me to write them about it and they would take it into consideration.</p>