<p>From what I understand, the financial aid money comes from people who are paying full tuition. There are limits to that! Many of us paying full tuition have to scrimp and save and make tough family budget choices to make this happen - and we don’t complain. Essentially, every full-pay kid’s tuition is paying for 2+ kids. Do you think that is fair? i think all of you are lucky to get ANY money from this great school. The numbers don’t lie, from what I understand, so oftentimes there’s nothing they can do. Someone’s got to pick up the tab, so stop criticizing the school for the fact that SO MANY people aren’t satisfied with “their financial aid packages”. Our “financial aid package” includes extra work for my husband and me. There are other options, like state schools to get a good education. Things usually turn out for the best.</p>
<p>It is not true that FA comes from people who are paying full tuition. For many schools, full tuition doesn’t cover all costs, a lot of that money comes from endowment.</p>
<p>^ I stand corrected, but I have heard that some of the tuition money goes towards others’ tuitions. However, there are many people out there who need help and I do appreciate that. It’s just bad form for so many to complain so much, when so many people are hurting. They are lucky to get anything at all! There are many ways to go to college. If Cornell doesn’t work for the family budget, go elsewhere.</p>
<p>^umm actually the financial aid comes from former alumni that donate to each Ivy. Each year Ivy’s get millions and millions donated to their institutions from former alumni and that money goes to covering financial aid costs, building new buildings/sports complex etc. The money does NOT come from YOUR child’s tuition. Your child’s tuition money goes to paying for faculty/staff as it should. And just in case you’re wondering how I know all of this, I’m a student athlete and have spoken to all eight cross country coaches from the Ivy’s and each one told me the same exact thing: my tuition would get paid in the form of grant money donated by former alumni or donations in general. </p>
<p>Anyways, from what I’ve heard Cornell has a GREAT financial aid system. However, the students I’ve talked to are athletes there so that might have a lot to do with why they received such a large sum of money.</p>
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<p>No one is forcing those families to pay for Cornell. It is their choice alone to send their kid(s) to Cornell and pay the extremely expensive cost instead of a state school or somewhere they got merit money from.</p>
<p>That is all true and people should stop complaining and criticizing the university if it doesn’t work out for them personally. I’ve just heard over and over full-payers help fund financial aid people. I’m glad they don’t! That helps a lot. My guess is that Cornell has more people admitted and who want to come than they can help. Since we are on the border for getting money or not, people getting any money who are whining and complaining is, well, annoying. Unfortunately, rising tuitions will lead to barbell classes - those who can easily pay and those who cannot. It will not reflect the American public, as the middle class will be less represented.</p>
<p>@sarah515- Did Cornell give you the same amount of grants and the same amount of loans as Columbia, or did they give you the same total amount of aid, but with a different proportion of grant to loans? Just wondering, because I’ve also appealed the financial aid with an offer from Duke, and I was wondering how they match it.</p>
<p>TheVP64-Initially Cornell gave me 5000 grant,2000 campus job,3000 loan. Columbia’s package didn’t have a loan and was 25,000 grant plus 3000 student employment. My new package from Cornell matches it exactly: 25,000 grant plus 3000 campus job.</p>
<p>Awesome, thank you so much!</p>
<p>in general cornell gives a lot lower. had a friend who got 10k from cornell but 45k from harvard. and that goes in line with the above, cornell gives 5k while columbia gives 25k. there should be some general calculation for all ivies. i wonder what happens to the students who get really bad aid and dont have another ivy (or equivalent) offer to get cornell to match it.</p>
<p>They go to a school they could afford. Schools are not obligated to give any aids, and people are not entitled to go to college.</p>
<p>@reptil harvard also has about $32 billion in endowment while Cornell has about $5 billion.</p>
<p>There should NOT be any kind of collective for financial aid - all Ivies should not collaborate on this. They are all so different and are really looking for different kids. They are separate, individual entities. They are PRIVATE and shouldn’t be told what to do! (Except for the endowed colleges at Cornell.) Oldfort is right - college certainly isn’t necessary and going to a college of any status whatsoever isn’t something that should be guaranteed to anyone. Going to an expensive school is a choice. Please don’t tell me that college is becoming a “right”.</p>
<p>Financial aid for the Ivies can be broken done into two buckets - HYP and the other 5 Ivies. HYP have huge endowments, and offer the most generous aid in the country. Cornell’s fin’l aid is similar to the other 4 Ivies, and compares favorably to most other schools in the country. None of the Ivies offer merit aid.</p>
<p>That sounds good and it does seem that Cornell is being “discovered” more and more for all the diverse programs they offer. We are in the south and a lot of people here think it’s got 4000 to 7000 kids and is like the other Ivy League schools. They just haven’t bothered to look into it.</p>
<p>I don’t think groups of schools like SEC, ACC, or 2 groups in the Ivy league should ever collaborate on financial aid. When that type of thing happens, cost just escalates. Competition is key to keep costs down. Look where we are with federal aid being handed out - college costs continue to go up.</p>
<p>@behappy7 Penn also meets 100% of demonstrated need along with the HYP schools.</p>
<p>But just to go along with everybody else on the ‘Cornell finaid sucks’ train, Penn gave me 20000$ while Cornell gave me 3000$. It made me decide not to go to Cornell even though I may have been able to have them match the Penn offer.</p>
<p>^Just be glad you’re going to a school that you’re happy with. Obviously, both schools looked at your profile differently. I’m sure you’ll make the best of it.</p>
<p>Cornell also meets 100% of demonstrated need. I’m not sure if some are just trolling here. Cornell has substantially increased its financial aid budget, and has made fin’l aid a key component of its $4.75 billion capital campaign. And the improved aid appears to be succeeding, as Cornell’s yield of admitted students last year reached a 20-year high.</p>
<p>Cornell meets 100% of demonstrated need AS THEY DEFINE IT. It’s not an outside source that defines it. THe financial aid office determines the need. And so it is with nearly every single school that guarantees to meet all of each student’s need. You can apply to 10 of those schools, as people have done, and get some way off numbers in terms of the highest amount vs the lowest. Some schools will not include self help, so will have WS but no loans, or only subsidized loans or will cap loans or will give out a lot of loans including their own over and above the federal loans. </p>
<p>I have known kids who have gotten their best aid package from Cornell and some who have gotten their best from NYU, a school notorious for gapping as they make no such guarantee to meet need. It’s what YOU get, not the averages or what everyone, for that matter, gets from colleges.</p>
<p>Cornell also has 2 to 3 times the number of undergraduates as the other Ivy League schools. That alone is something to consider.</p>