<p>So I'm wondering how you guys here that attend Cornell pay for the costs, which is about $57,000 a year. I was informed yesterday that my family would receive $0 in financial aid because the income is too high, which is $200,000. However, my parents know they CANNOT afford cornell because of extraneuos costs such as utilities, bills, mortgages etc unless we receive some sort of aid.</p>
<p>My question is: How do you guys with family income's around $200000 pay for cornell without any financial aid? Even incomes around 150000-130000 receive little financial aid. I am perplexed on how middle-class families these days pay for college that cost up tp 570000 a year.</p>
<p>Loans, you take out loans. That way you can slowly pay off the cost of tuition.
TBH, I have no idea how there is not enough money left over after having a $200K pre-taxed flow of earnings.
If you don’t like the idea of loans, then find something your family can cut back on.</p>
<p>“Worth it” depends on your perception of how much being at Cornell matters to you, doesn’t it? Is it worth getting into + $88k debt?</p>
<p>You could go to an in-state public for “free” (your parents could cover everything, plus more), still have a satisfying undergrad experience and be competitive for careers or grad school. Your parents would probably have enough money left to pay for your grad school too.</p>
<p>Well the actual problem here right now is that the Cornell Financial Aid calculator gave my family an estimated 25,000 in tuition, which, according to my friend who attends Cornell and from the person I spoke to when i called the cornell financial aid office, is extremely accurate. So i’m trying to figure out why the calculator gave me aid and the person my father spoke to didnt. The same person i spoke to at the office said the woman my dad talked to had no business giving financial aid estimations and wasnt qualified to. I’ll hope for the best</p>
<p>The income you mention is NOT middle class. It sounds like your in state college may be your option if Cornell is unaffordable.</p>
<p>I would not advice most students to take more than $25,000 in loans. Are your parents willing to take loans so you could attend? Is the income of $200,000 something new or have your parents been earning this type of salary for a while? Most parents save for college long befor their children are in senior year to avoid the shock of the sticker price.</p>
<p>Instate tuition for New Paltz is less than $6k/year. FAFSA would cover 75% of that. Have your parents saved anything for your college costs? How much can YOU contribute?
My D is full pay at Cornell and S just graduated from college. Our family salary is comparable to yours and we received nothing from Cornell. D pays for her food and personal expenses from her summer jobs and has a govt loan. We pick up the rent and tuition. We haven’t taken a vacation in years and no improvements on our home. And we saved since the kids were little. She does not work during the school year but I know many students do. That’s how we do it.</p>
<p>We made approx. $165,000 last year & got no aid for our D from Cornell ( we do get the instate contract college break which lowers costs to approx. $40,000 per year). However, we have been planning since her & her sister were young to allow them to attend college & come out debt free & will be able to do so. It takes starting when kids are young & making it your number one finnacial planning goal. We always told them that if they were accepted & wanted to go to a top college, we would find a way.</p>
<p>For me, I think the problem is I never did well at school in middle school and considered SUNY’s as my best choice for college as well as my parents. Cornell never seemed likely until my GPA shot way up starting freshman year and I got a 35 on the ACT.</p>
<p>Playhacker…It is not up to the OP to “figure out what his family could cut back on.” It is up to the family to decide what they are willing to spend. </p>
<p>OP…You are not entitled to this education unless you yourself can afford it. I don’t really understand your parents finances so I can’t comment on what I don’t know, however a salary of $200,000 a year with savings for many years could have afforded a high tuition bill. Again, this may not have been their salary all along and it is possible things just recently changed for them. If you have a very high GPA and excellent board scores along with many other factors you could apply to not only Cornell but to many merit based privates and see what happens. There are colleges for everyone and they all require some level of giving up the extras we all enjoy.</p>
<p>How is it fair that someone who comes from a family with a low income can go to Cornell and come out without any debt. While this kid has to choose not to go to Cornell or to graduate with huge debt? Believe me, if a family has a combined income of $200,000 and lives in a nice house etc. there is not enough money leftover to be able to fork over $57,000/year for any college. I cannot be the only person to see how unfair financial aid can be!</p>
<p>" Believe me, if a family has a combined income of $200,000 and lives in a nice house etc. there is not enough money leftover to be able to fork over $57,000/year for any college. I cannot be the only person to see how unfair financial aid can be!"</p>
<p>…well if you begin planning when your children are born, it can be done! I frequently see parents who state “I told my kid that if they wanted to go to _______ . they’d have to pay for it all with loans”, but then have a summer cottage on the lake, a boat, all kinds of toys, season tickets to the local pro sports teams, eat out three times per week, take golf trips to Ireland, etc. … it is all about priorities.</p>
<p>I certainly would never tell anyone how they should spend their money. We are in a similar situation. We have saved for many years so that our three children can go to college. Not that it is anyone’s business, but we have a home but do not travel often and don’t have a summer house. We live in a very expensive state. We have saved enough so that we can afford $30,000/year for college. My point is that we did scrape and save so we would not have debt. So if my child, who has worked as hard as the child that comes from a low income house, wants to go to say Cornell he will have to accumulate $100,000/debt while the other child graduates owing nothing. Can you not see that is unfair? In a perfect world they would all graduate debt-free or ALL owe just a little. What about the families that choose not to work full-time and make little money Their kid goes to college for almost nothing?</p>
<p>…I’ve just always taken the attitude, or at least tried to, that what happens with others has absolutely no effect on the quaility of my life. I never begrudge anyone what opportunities or rewards they may receive that at face value, they may not deserve anymore than myself or my children. Someone else not paying as much as we do for college has no effect on my quaility of life…unless I let it.</p>
<p>NJmom, it’s great that you were able to save so much money for your kids to go to college. but some people can barely afford to pay their rent, so how are they ever going to save so much?</p>
<p>I don’t expect anyone to do anything. I suppose I am not expressing myself well. The only point I meant to get across was that it feels very unfair to me that a child from an upper middle class home would miss an opportunity to go to a school like Cornell - or accumulate $100,000 in dept. So after graduation a child from a low income household would start his/her life with no debt at all while my child would be inundated with debt.</p>
<p>I understand what you’re saying. It’s just that whereas an upper middle class child might have help from their parents in paying off that debt, a lower class child might not get any help at all if it wasn’t for generous financial aid policies</p>
<p>At the risk of sounding like a bleeding heart liberal…You just don’t have a clue what some kids are up against. Full pay kids have advantages that full need kids could only dream about…and don’t even get me started on the prep classes, tutoring, enrichment, vacations, car to get to ECs, able to participate in EC’s instead of work. The list goes on and on. </p>
<p>We make a great living but we had at least three kids in college at the same time and at one point we had four in school. Thank God that Cornell made it possible and I have no doubt my sons will pay it forward. Just so you know…my kids are not underprivilaged but we could never have handled $150,000 a year to $200,000 a year. There are all kinds of circumstances that may not be clear to others. However a kid with parental income of $200,000 and only one kid in school does not seem like a case for financial aid.</p>