<p>Hi
I'm an Asian American applying ED for CoE from Germany</p>
<p>Does applying for financial aid hurt your chances of getting in?
I heard that it does indeed have an impact if your an international applicant
but for domestic applicants??? Does it make a difference??</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>No it doesn’t. The official stance of the Office of Financial Aid is that Cornell is need-blind to American, Canadian, and (I believe) Mexican students. The OFA and the Admissions Committees are also separate so you’re financial need is not evaluated when the AdCom is looking at your application.</p>
<p>Hi goddessxx, I heard that Cornell offers very limited financial aid for international students, does that include Canadians? and is this for Cornell only or for all schools? Thank you!</p>
<p>yeah they can’t discriminate based on financial needs. don’t know about the canadian thing.</p>
<p>austrianpog, the office of financial aid treats Canadian and Mexican students exactly like American students. They see how much you need and give it to you.</p>
<p>they merged the fund (like 5million) reserved for cannadian and mexican students with fund (2million) for other international students. So I guess canadian and mexican are no different from chinese and indian.
<a href=“http://www.finaid.cornell.edu/finaid/announcements.cfm[/url]”>http://www.finaid.cornell.edu/finaid/announcements.cfm</a></p>
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<p>They absolutely can “discriminate” based on financial needs. College is a business, even if it’s a non profit. If you can’t afford to go, then you can’t go, just like any other business. You are not entitled to FA. Every year Cornell admits about same % of students that are full pay, how is it possible if they are not financially aware. There is also a box one checks off if applying for FA. </p>
<p>If you need FA, it’s best not to apply ED, especially if your family’s income is high enough to include a loan component. It’s best to do RD so you could compare all of your FA before making a decision.</p>
<p>okay, but cornell is “need-blind” meaning they don’t discriminate based on financial needs.</p>
<p>=]</p>
<p>There is no true “need-blind,” only “need-aware.” The difference is need-blind schools have larger budget than need-aware schools, but not unlimited. Discrimination only applies to race, sex, religion. If a movie theater has budgeted to subsidize 50 of movie goers, and there are 200 movie goes who require subsidy, by not allowing those 150 people in is not discrimination. When the economy was good and the school’s investment portfolio was going up 10-20% each other, by taking in extra FA students wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but in today’s climate I don’t believe the FA office has unlimited fund.</p>
<p>It is something to consider when applying for FA, if you would only be eligible for a few thousand $ of aid, would it be worth your while to not check off the FA box.</p>
<p>Cornell is not using the financial aid box/question on the common app this year, as they did a couple of years ago when my older daughter applied. But I do agree with oldfort, and I’m sure there is some level of awareness as to the number of students who are requesting aid. Even if they no longer require applicants to respond to the financial aid question, they will know which students are requesting aid through the financial aid office.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering my question!<br>
I have another one if you guys don’t mind: does the adcom that’s reviewing your application see your financial aid application or like does he know whether you’re applying for financial aid or not? or are they dealt by two completely different offices? thanks!</p>
<p>two separate and mutually uninformed offices.</p>
<p>Applying for fin aid only work for students who are academic superstar and comes from a really poor family. If you are middle class have good grade and ECs but not academic superstar but need fin aid it will definitely work against you. Trust me I know.</p>
<p>That is absolutely false.</p>
<p>Trust me, he doesn’t know jack sh**</p>
<p>In today’s environment every university needs to make decision on FA very wisely. </p>
<p>They are 2 separate offices, but it’s not hard for adcoms to figure out who needs FA. I don’t believe there is exactly a Chinese Wall between the admission office and FA office.</p>
<p>I used to think like oldfort, that there is no true need-blind FA.
But I questioned FA officer, Cornell alumni, and admission officer at Cornell.
<p>oldfort’s last statement, “They are 2 separate offices, but it’s not hard for adcoms to figure out who needs FA. I don’t believe there is exactly a Chinese Wall between the admission office and FA office,” is not supported by any concrete evidence…</p>
<p>At this point, I think applicants who apply for FA are not disadvantaged at any rate.</p>
<p>howan92, I don’t doubt that’s the answer you have received. By saying acceptance letter and FA grant letter arrive at different times really doesn’t say anything. It just means they have different schedule in sending information out.</p>
<p>My sister, an alum of Dartmouth, asked an admission officer if her son needed to apply ED to get a special consideration as a legacy. The admission officer told her it didn’t matter and he should only apply ED if it’s his first choice. Well, it was a very PC answer he gave her. It was her mistake that she believed him.</p>
<p>Unless you are a personal friend with a FA or admission officer, they are not going to give you an answer other than what’s in the handbook. My response is based on my 'common sense" and what our kid’s private school counselors are telling the applicants. “Your hook is going to be your ability to pay.” They are telling the parents not to apply for any aid. This is not particular to Cornell, but to all schools in general.</p>
<p>oldfort, if that were the case, why don’t they just accept only people who don’t apply for financial aid?</p>
<p>Your private school counselors are trying to feed you the same line of garbage that they gave you when you enrolled your children in it in the first place, that you need to pay full price to get an education.</p>
<p>If you have an income of 200k+ and you know you won’t be getting any financial aid at all, yes it’s a dumb idea to check off that you are applying for financial aid.
But all this talk about “need aware” does is scare middle income families who really can’t afford full price in to not checking that box in the dumb hopes that it will raise their child’s chances of getting in.
Then when the bills start coming in, they can’t keep up. </p>
<p>Maybe when your child has had all of the resources in the world available to them, and a private school education that costs as much as Cornell does, the only thing differentiating him from his peers is his ability to pay.
But the rest of us are differentiated by our academic merits, tyvm, and no “need aware” exists.</p>
<p>Chendrix - My kids received very good education at their private school. We didn’t send them there to give them a leg up in the college process. Just because you don’t agree with something doesn’t mean it’s garbage. </p>
<p>
Schools like diversity, and they also believe they should educate the best and brightest, but only up to a point where they could afford to.</p>
<p>I don’t think OP is asking if one should apply for FA, he is asking if there is any impact on admission. Nothing I have posted should be scaring any “middle class” students from applying. No more than the fact my kids are half Asians and it is a strike against them when it comes to college process. You can’t do anything about a situation unless you are aware of what’s going on.</p>
<p>I have advised some parents not to fill out FA application unless they are absolutely certain they are qualified for aid. If they are barely able to pay and are willing to pay there is no reason to disclose it to the school. They would be disadvantaged relative to other qualified candidates who have more resource (biggest headache to a school is when a current student comes to tell them he is no longer able to afford the tuition). On the other hand, if you couldn’t afford the tuition without aid then there is only one option. </p>
<p>If you look at schools like Cornell(only need based aid), what is missing is a large population of kids who are not eligible for aid and also not able to afford full pay. That would be a sector of families whose income is 150-250,000, but are living in a high cost area, or have a large family. The only options they have is to go to public schools or lower tier private schools where merit scholarship is available. Those are usually solid students who could probably add a lot to schools like Cornell. I do think Cornell could use a lot more economic diversity among its student population.</p>
<p>At many of the select colleges applying for FA does not have any impact on admissions. Indeed, many of the top/wealthy schools now offer very generous FA packages. HYP and a few others offer FA to admits with family incomes of $180K. Overall, the wealthy schools have seen a net increase in applicants partly due to the generous FA programs. I have heard rumors that this year rich privates are targeting the California market. Of course these schools are the exception to the ‘OldFart’ rule. However, the OP concerned a campus that is fortunate enough to have the resources to be not only need blind but to offer a substantial level of assistance to middle class families. Of course, you only have access to the FA if you among the lucky few (<20%) offered admission.</p>
<p>[Tuition</a> Assistance for the Middle Class](<a href=“Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Businessweek - Bloomberg)</p>