<p>I'm an accepted student to engineering and I got my aid package in the mail and our family was instantly depressed. Our household income is about 130 thousand per year and aside from loans and work study, Cornell is only giving us about 13,000 a year. My parents have budgeted our maximum college payments at 25,000 a year and Cornell says we have to go about 20,000 over that limit.<br>
I want to go to Cornell more than anything in the world, and we wish we had the ability to appeal with changed financial situations, but that's just not the case. </p>
<p>Is anyone else having this problem? Any advice on getting them to lower our contribution just a bit? We've tried calling but they tell us it is what it is. I wish I could say Cornell was generous but it's turned out to be the opposite and we're getting frustrated that there's nothing we can do to make it affordable.</p>
<p>I'm considering sending them a heartfelt email. I feel as though they'll scoff at it and leave our aid unchanged, but I'm not going down without a fight! Can't hurt if I end up somewhere else, eh?</p>
<p>The best approach is to meet with them in person and bring a list of household expenses, not including credit card payments. You have to be able to prove that your family’s income is just enough to pay the day to day bills. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Cornell will not change the offer unless there has been a serious change in your family’s finanical situation. Im sorry but you should start focusing on your options.</p>
<p>@manjooman colleges dont really care about expenses like credit card payments and bills.</p>
<p>@cortana he said NOT credit card payments. And I agree with manjooman. My dad did the same thing with BU, went to them and showed that we couldn’t afford it and they gave my brother more aid. It’s not a guarantee but it’s worth a shot.</p>
<p>Thanks all. I live in Minnesota so meeting in person is tough for us. We’re sending in an appeal form with our household expenses, along with a letter explaining our situation. Hopefully it works to get it down at least partially, but if not, I guess Cornell’s just not meant for me</p>
<p>Cornell also takes into account your home equity and savings when determining your aid. That may be the case here. There has to be a reason that the aid is so low. They use a pretty regimented calculator to determine aid.</p>
<p>Whatever it is, apparently Cornell thinks it’s not legit enough… They denied our appeal. Goodbye Cornell.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFudge</p>
<p>Well there’s always student loans. I know those are dirty words these days, but you’re an adult now and it’s really your decision to make, not your parents’.</p>
<p>Similar income and my D got $5,000 aid. I think this is why Cornell lose cross-admits and have lower yields. </p>
<p>Once you guys (Cornell students) are graduated and making good fortune, you need to donate more to the school - well, to help admitted students, improve yield rates, lower admit rates, and elevate the rank (both on lower admit rate and higher endowment).</p>
<p>Cornell FA is demonstratively worse than its Ivy peers. The only way certain way to boost your aid is another FA award from another Ivy or Stanford, Duke or MIT. These are the schools listed on the Cornell FA Appeal Form.</p>
<p>Cornell has much lower endowment than some of the other ivy league schools and also has plenty of other students to choose from if one decides not to attend</p>
<p>I don’t know about you guys but I sure am not donating money to Cornell lol. Why should I give money to a school that I didn’t attend or give me anything? I would be much more inclined to donate to my actual alma mater.</p>
<p>Are you guys getting better FA from other schools? Not merit, but FA. I am not sure there are that many schools that offer FA for families with income greater 120K.</p>
<p>My family makes about 150k a year. Northeastern gave me nothing, UVM gave me nothing (I ended up with a free ride with merit scholarships there though), Cornell gave me a 6k grant so I’d say Cornells the best FA out of the schools I applied to…</p>
<p>Very disappointed with the Cornell’s financial aid office and appeals process. They are pushing us out until June 2012 for a response to our appeal! By that time, all the FA money will have run out.</p>
<p>^ Similar issue with me. Because of a mistake on my income tax returns (that no other college bothered to make a big deal about) which I corrected and resubmitted, they said they would take an extra 3-4 weeks to process the aid…which would put it AFTER May 1.</p>
<p>Sorry Cornell, but as much as I love you, I can’t commit without knowing just how much debt I’m getting into.</p>
<p>Cornell offered me a 5000 grant. My family appealed and sent my offer from Columbia which was about 20,000 more and Cornell matched it so now I’m able to attend Cornell. Don’t know if this helps anyone but they really do match the offers from other Ivys.</p>