@MathFudgy, I wish you much luck, and I really hope it works out for you and Cornell offers additional aid… But please don’t let the dream of an Ivy League school cause you to make imprudent financial decisions. If it turns out you can’t afford Cornell, Carnegie Mellon is an excellent school and attending there is quite an achievement also.
@MathFudgy …“Why would they try to dig into my parent’s retirement funds? That’s reserved for their essential living expenses when they are seniors”
It’s not THEY that are focused on impoverishing your parents in their old age. It is you.
Why do you seem to think you can’t save $250 a week over three months? It looks like you want everyone else to pay for you and you don’t want to pitch in a fair amount.
OP- just try to understand a couple of things before you submit your request for a review/professional judgement:
1- this isn’t personal. Nobody is trying to dig into your parents retirement funds. Nobody is trying to deny your dad appropriate medical care. Financial aid is a formula- you provide numbers, they run the numbers through their algorithm, it spits out your package. CMU’s formula is different than Cornell’s (virtually every college has their own formula). You are respectfully asking Cornell to review the numbers and the formula in light of your dad’s illness, inability to work, 3K in uncovered medical expenses. They will likely accept your request to review-- which does not in any way obligate them to revise their aid package to you. You need to let a lot of your resentment go-- this isn’t personal.
2- There are likely 100’s of kids every year who are in some version of the predicament you are in right now- Cornell has been their dream, the numbers don’t add up, make my dream come true. None of this is relevant-- and in fact- undercuts your argument. So don’t try to trot out the “dream come true” argument with a financial aid officer. The only relevant facts are that your home equity (the two family house) is a major source of income to your family right now; your parents cannot borrow against it since without earned income they wouldn’t be able to pay it off; dad can’t work due to illness. So you are asking for professional judgement to exclude the assets from your review.
3- I cannot fathom why you wouldn’t be jumping up and down at the prospect of an affordable CMU education. But good luck sorting this out.
4- If you don’t have a summer job yet, get going. It’s only May- you’ve got plenty of time to amass your war chest!
You know Cornell is a profile school and they have their way of calculating your EFC. Obviously, the equity of your family’s primary home is not good for you. Also, CSS profile would also look the retirement funds too. You may try to appeal but I don’t see why would they make you an exception.
Profile asks for the balance of qualified retirement accounts; that doesn’t meant that those assets make a difference in calculating EFC. It’s hard to believe that with only $200k in qualified retirement assets (as reported by OP) Cornell would use that asset as a reason to increase EFC.
^ Whether the school would consider the retirement fund is up to them. At least it is reported in profile but not FAFSA. The equity should be the biggest problem.
Question: Since the family rents out a floor of the home they live in, is it possible that all 700K of equity is not all considered equity in a primary residence but equity in a business, which will not figure into the aid calculation as favorably?
If they rent a portion of the home to others…THAT portion is considered a rental property. The portion of the house that is the rental property would be an asset I believe…and the rents viewed as income.
It is a 2-family house in NYC, so maybe the “extra” family unit is considered as a rental property by Cornell.
Bring these 2 things to Cornell FA office’s attention - (1) your father’s medical condition; (2) very hard to borrow against the 700K equity with no income.
I am not sure, but that’s what I would think.
Am I really the only person who thinks for CMU as being more prestigious and rigorous than Cornell, for some disciplines?
@chzbrgr - I agree.
No doubt it is, especially for CS and the arts. Maybe even in general.
I also thought it was difficult to get enough aid for CMU, even if you get in.
They are very upfront about the fact that they package aid preferentially - it seems OP is one who CMU really wanted.
The Cornell Guaranteed Transfer is a great option. But in your case OP I fear you would be better off staying put at CMU given how well you’ve done and how incredible affordable they have made it. It is a very, very highly regarded school. Ivy may not mean as much as you are thinking, especially for a non HPY one.
Still, the cost you are looking at for Cornell is still very good. But will your parents be taking out Parent Plus loans for you to attend and are you comfortable with them doing so?
I agree with @mommdc and @twogirls. Carnegie Mellon is a GREAT university. You have a really sweet deal there. 
“40k will most likely deplete my savings from my first year on the job after I graduate.”
As others have discussed, this will take a lot longer than a year. Also, constraining yourself to living at home after graduation in order to save money to pay off debt will very significantly reduce your job options.
No, you’re not the only one. In certain fields I think CMU is better, and IMO impressive regardless of major.
Don’t worry I’m not taking anything personally. I just let my emotions ripple through a bit in this thread. I will obviously request an appeal respectfully, and I know it’s not personal, and I don’t expect anything. It is a business. I get it.
It’s easy to just clack away saying things like it’s easy to save $250 a week. I made under $2,000 for the previous two summers working minimum wage. It’s not that easy just getting jobs left and right and working. Relaxing a bit in the summer with entertainment is essential for recuperating from all the stress. Beside, the bulk is coming from my parent’s contribution.
No. the floor above is part of my primary residence. we could have easily used it for storage, but it is considered part of the only house we have and live in. It is not a secondary real estate asset.
Well I am in business school, so Cornell beats CMU by job placement, recruitment, and broader career possibilities. CMU is equivalent in engineering and CS. But I’m not part of that.
And for loans, I think my parents will get them for me.
If you think it is hard to work and save $250/wk while living at home, don’t you think it is going to be much harder to pay back student loans for 10+ years at maybe $1000/month while you are paying for an apartment, car, and movies to relax?
It is hard to make money and save it over the summer. You have to be determined to do it.