<p>Cornell is need-blind but may not meet the need of applicants. So how do the Financial Aid officers decide Financial package? Do they see the applications to decide whether to give aid or not? Or they just see the financial status of families to give aid?
Is that true that financial aid is only given to best accepted students and others cant be met the money they need?
Need-blind means how much money you need doesn't affect the admission. But what about the Financial decision? Contributing more means the more likely to get the Financial aid because if so Cornell may have more money to give other students? So contributing less may hurt your chance of getting enough aid?
I am an international students who need huge money from Cornell ( Early Decision)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>right. otherwise they would have to give every single student the maximum of aid needed. cornell puts a lot of money aside for financial aid, but they can’t give everyone full rides who qualify. you may get close though. for example, i came within 3,000 of a full ride. need-blind means your admissions application doesn’t ask you any questions about your ability to pay. you’re admitted based on your scholastic achievements, essays, letters of rec, and legacy (if applicable). </p>
<p>with internationals, it’s a bit different. they are still need-blind, but the amount of aid set aside for international students is far less. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>is this your first time applying for a us college? i just ask because cornell’s process if fairly standard. note the below info is based on domestic students, so this shouldn’t be taken as solid info for internationals b/c im not sure if/how the process varies. i know internationals use additional paperwork. </p>
<p>1.) you have to fill out a FAFSA. this determines your expected family contribution (EFC). this number is what the federal government states your family should be responsible for. colleges can accept this number or use it with their own financial aid processes to either raise or lower it. </p>
<p>2.) cornell builds off of the FAFSA by requesting the CSS Profile. This application asks a lot of questions, most of them extremely in-depth as to you and your family’s financial situation. (again, im not sure if this is the case for internationals). </p>
<p>3.) Cornell’s financial aid department and admissions do not really interact. you submit your application for admissions directly to the college you are applying to and you submit your financial aid paperwork directly to the financial aid department. the deadlines for financial aid paperwork are usually 1-2 weeks (i think) after your application for admissions is due. b/c you’re an international it may take a lot longer for them to process your application</p>
<p>if you’re admitted, someone from your college lets the financial aid office know. then they start processing your award. this can take a few days to several weeks. if you have all of your paperwork in together and on-time (or better yet early), you should receive an award letter fairly quickly. i called and received mine like 2 weeks after admission.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>no. admissions is need blind so cornell’s fa doesn’t know who “the best students” are. if you are an amazing student you are prob up for more private scholarships. i dont think i was am a “best” student and i received pretty much a full ride. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Need-blind means how much money you need doesn’t affect the admission. But what about the Financial decision? </p>
<p>what? im going to assume you mean if you have more need, does cornell’s fa “look down” on your request for aid? no, they don’t. they are extremely generous. but again, that is mainly for domestic students. internationals are given less priority in terms of aid. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>i don’t understand what you are tying to say here…</p>
<p>sorry, i read your response and i want to clarify something. Cornell doesn’t look at your actual application (academic achievements, etc.) when deciding your FA package? like, if you got a 4.0, you wouldn’t necessarily get a better package than if you got a 3.9. is this correct?</p>
<p>@mickjagger: right. cornell’s fa never sees your admissions application. </p>
<p>i do think though that if you are a seriously amazing student, like have won many prestigious awards, your application may be noted as such. i don’t have any proof of this, but i would assume cornell would want to make sure students like that are pushed in cornell’s direction. they would need to get this info from the admissions committee, so it may be noted when they let the fa dept know you were accepted. (this is just a guess as to how this may work).</p>
<p>There is a lot of financial information that the university asks for in the aid application process…The financial aid office wouldn’t know about a student’s academic information; and in the same token, the admissions office wouldn’t know about the financial status of a student and his or her family.</p>
<p>I just wonder how they decide financial aid for international students. If there are a lot of accepted international students, why do some get full ride while some don’t get even a penny although they need money to attend? If financial officers just rely on the CSS or FAFSA or other papers from banks, there are a lot of similar students because they are accepted, need money, and have nearly similar financial status . For example : 2 students: A and B. A need $30,000 to attend and B need 50,000. Both are accepted and need financial aid. How much will they give? Meet the need or reject both or choose one of them to meet the need or…</p>
<p>@THAIDUYBINH: i would call the fa office or see if an international student can give you some insight.</p>
<p>So the admissions office is need-blind for all students, meaning you will be accepted whether or not you can pay.</p>
<p>Financial aid for internationals, however, is not need-based, and is definitely merit-based. As an international, you are competing for a small pool of international financial aid money. The amount of money you get is the amount of money Cornell is willing to spend on you. It is definitely based on academic achievement and probability of success.</p>
<p>so for internationals, the fa office looks are your academic record? but they look at if after you’ve been accepted, right?</p>
<p>But on the website of Cornell :
<a href=“https://www.finaid.cornell.edu/eligibility/[/url]”>https://www.finaid.cornell.edu/eligibility/</a></p>
<p>“There are no scholarships for merit, athletic or other talents”. So I don’t think Cornell’s policy for international student is merit-based</p>
<p>That only applies to domestic students. </p>
<p>And it’s not a scholarship. Cornell will meet your financial need, not go above it. But it will only meet this financial need if you are an academically excellent international student.</p>
<p>Yes, International Aid is much more limited and may be based on merit.</p>
<p>So is financial aid affected by the nationality of applicants because how can I compete with students from other countries because they may have more chances to improve their profile with many competitions and awards? Do they compare students within a country?
One more question. I have 2 friends who applied for Cornell class 2014. One got full need and the other got nearly zero. Does Cornell just consider to give either full or nearly zero aid? There are many applicants from my country who didn’t receive a penny from Cornell. Is that true that applying ED has more chance to get financial aid than applying RD? Or RD is better?</p>
<p>Since none of us work in the financial aid office, I doubt any of us will know those types of specifics. Maybe calling the office would be best in this case.</p>