<p>I thought i had everything set, done my research, looked up stats, taken the necessary steps to ensure admittance to Cornell. But now I'm getting concerns from my parents over finances, something I thought was a worry of the past at many ivies, after reading about these new aid reforms. I even got a package from Cornell saying that people with incomes of less than $120,000 (that includes me) will have loans capped at $3,000. Can someone explain what this means? </p>
<p>Also, a significant worry of my parents is that our home equity is pretty high i guess, the house is worth about 400k, and they have retirement savings that Cornell may see as money that cuold be spent for tuition. How will this affect my aid package? </p>
<p>I was initially planning on doing ED, but now am unsure because ive heard they give less aid to ED'ers b/c they can, and if u have to turn down an ED acceptance, it kills ur chances at other colleges.</p>
<p>HELP!!</p>
<p>Well,</p>
<p>a) no, applying ED will not affect your Financial Aid. There is a clause in the ED contract that stipulates that if you absolutely cannot pay, you can break the ED contract. </p>
<p>b) the new financial aid policy only stipulates how many loans they will give you as part of your financial aid package.
i.e. Whereas before if your Expected Family Contribution was 20,000, the cost of attendance would be 30,000 broken up into: 2500 student contribution, 6000 loans, and 21,500 grants</p>
<p>Now that loan portion that is a part of your package will be capped at 3,000, and they will make up that extra part of the money through work study or more grants.</p>
<p>c) I am sorry to tell you, but Cornell will view both the retirement funds and your home equity as collateral to borrow against. While this will not affect your Cornell sponsored loans in your financial aid package (because of your income) You WILL have a higher expected family contribution because they expect your family can take out private loans as needed. It is pretty shafty.</p>
<p>Thanks Chendrix, do you know if there is any way to estimate what the approximate Expected Family Contribution would be for X income, Y home equity, Z savings?</p>
<p>The is an EFC calculator on the financial aid website</p>