Financial Aid Not Sufficient

<p>My question still stands…
edit: not really I guess, but what’s with the 30k loan if the cap’s at 7500?</p>

<p>They do put a cap on loans, but those are student loans, not parental loans.</p>

<p>my parents dont make too much over the 120k limit , yet the loans jump from 3k to the limit of 7.5k</p>

<p>@csdad, vanderbilt and rice didnt give me any merit, this is all need based, plus i was mistaken my efc at rice is 38, even less</p>

<p>I got into Williams and Amherst which would cost me about 10k a year less than Cornell. These are competitive schools, but Cornell says they don’t match these particular schools. Any way I can convince them to?</p>

<p>@country20. I believe Cornell will only look at comps from other IVYs or Duke.</p>

<p>^Stanford and MIT too</p>

<p>We received no aid from Cornell and attempted to appeal unsuccessfully. They were also not interested in matching an aid package to WUSTL. Best of luck to those out there still trying! Every family has unique circumstances and student unique needs and options - we all just need to find our own way…</p>

<p>We haven’t received our award yet, but this thread makes me feel even stronger that we won’t get the aid needed for may daughter to attend. We have a very weird situation that I hoped would be understood by Cornell. My daughter is visiting now to see how she likes the school.</p>

<p>Best of Luck to all you trying to figure it all out - it isn’t easy.</p>

<p>They wouldn’t even match or even give a small concession for Vanderbilt or Rice fa, which were 11k better</p>

<p>Idk
UT honors at 27k or Cornell for 50k?
Cornell just seems like a poor school now, only hanging on with it’s ivy name</p>

<p>Vandy is a NO LOAN school. All aid is in grant form. So your 11K better at vandy is actually 18.5K better as your cornell package will include 7.5 in loans.</p>

<p>Wow F/A really stinks! My son recieved research grant 4K and work study- 2.5K and we would foot the rest??? We need to appeal, we have another in college at 25K per year. We can not afford 65K each year. I guess we will appeal. 25K x 2 per year is truly our max. Full tuition at St Johns is looking more and more enticing. How do parents in the middle class foot more than 50K per year for 2 students???</p>

<p>@maxdad
I know, I factored that in
Thanks though</p>

<p>Wonder where vandys getting all that money from, endowment doesnt seem to be too big</p>

<p>I am somewhat worried about fin aid too.</p>

<p>Can anyone who has used the online calculator chime in on whether its accurate?</p>

<p>I’ve heard that it is, but I want to make sure.</p>

<p>My older daughter was offered full ride at a very good LAC, but none at Cornell because we didn’t qualify for FA. Did it mean the LAC had more endowment? I don’t think so.</p>

<p>@SMRSMR The calculator is fairly accurate. Remember, however, that Cornell takes your AGI and adds back in any deductions from business losses, etc. (calculator does not ask for the amount of these deductions from what I remember). They essentially use box 12 of both parents’ W2s to figure out your gross income.</p>

<p>@yolie3000 wow, Cornell expects you to pay 60k/year? Using the calculator, that would mean your family is making at least 200k/year (for one child going to college) which puts you in the top 5% of America… hardly middle class. With two kids going to college, you must be making almost 350k-400k/year for Cornell to charge full price.</p>

<p>Then again, you might have a lot of equity on your house or a lot of savings? When there are two kids going to college, Cornell factors that in their financial aid package. Maybe you may have entered information on your CSS profile inaccurately? Try using the online calculator and see if the numbers match up. If you found an error, Cornell will fix that right up.</p>

<p>Couple points to reiterate re: Cornell FA for others investigating for the future.</p>

<p>It is not a no-loan school unlike Vandy or H & P. It does not give merit aid like WashU, Vandy or Rice or UChicago. It does look at home equity and to some degree retirement savings and monies saved in household for other children’s college costs, i.e., overall family financial strength and resources to fund the Cornell education.</p>

<p>Cornell FA at this point does consider offers received by applicants from peer institutions (though practice seems to focus on other Ivies and not so much any other peers). </p>

<p>Cornell is an amazing school with absolutely a breathtaking campus, diversity in student body that is reflected by economic variances as well as others. The size of the campus means your student can find just about any group similar to them (or not). Facilities are impressive. Education is top-notch.</p>

<p>Good luck to everyone figuring out the best options for their families!</p>

<p>@ apple56- no actually 65K is combined for 2 kids
40k for Cornell. 25k for my 3rd year college D.</p>

<p>It is downright disgusting to see colleges charging this much money for the tuition. There are like 5000 colleges in this nation. The rule of supply vs demand dictates that the college tuition shouldn’t be at the level they are at now. And, each year, un(der)employment rate for new fresh college grads keep going up. The Bachelor’s degree is so common nowadays that is no guarantee of anything, unless your degree is very specialized - engineering, stats, comp science, etc. </p>

<p>In Germany, you actually get paid to go to school. Things just aren’t right here.</p>

<p>I’d like to add to that. Cornell somehow insists that we’re still getting a bargain for our education. I find this appalling. On top of that they nickel and dime us for anything. Is it any wonder why the endowment is the lowest of all the other Ivies? When the annual fund calls me up when I’m some multi-millionaire fund manager someday I know exactly what I’ll be saying “Where was Cornell when I needed money?” Way I see it, I paid my dues, and already paid a premium for the quality of education I consider to be getting.</p>

<p>We are paying 60K per kid and still very happy for the education they received.</p>