How does your Cornell financial aid package compare to other offers you have?

<p>I agree with skraylor: I received 34K from Cornell and I am not a "urm." While this is a large figure, about 11K/year is in loans, about 6K of which accrues interest as soon as it is taken out...</p>

<p>hmm wat efc would u say u need to get like 36k grant?</p>

<p>i still havent recived my info yet!</p>

<p>Um it does help since my friend got 36 without having to take any loans. She has basically been awarded 144,000 (for the four years).</p>

<p>paleridden, do u know her family income? or any other extenuating circumstances? is she an orphan? is she diabled in some way? there are a lot of factors, not just ethnic representation.</p>

<p>Skraylor, I don't know her family income exactly. But she's not an orphan, she's not disabled and there are no special circumstances. My friend has a sibling that attends Cornell and the sibling too, was given a nice financial package.
I have visited her house and she has wayyyy better living conditions than I do so it's not like she's in a financial crisis.
We both applied for the same scholarship (only two ppl from each school could have been chosen) and she got it although Cornell has pretty much taken care of everything. So you can see the money is not just based on who really needs it.
To prove my statement: I was rejected at Cornell but I will be attending NYU. Although my stats were much higher than my friend's I will have to take out thousandssss in loans. I know NYU is horrible in aid but it's just like WHATTTTT? I live in a one-bedroom apartment, with my brother, dog and both parents because we can't afford a better place. But being that I'm not a minority, I don't get the aid I should be awarded.
And just to make it clear to everyone: I'm not being racist for saying that because really if it's not the grades, rank, SAT, EC's, essay, or even income, what else could it be? And don't tell me that colleges base financial need on character.</p>

<p>well i dunno what NYU's policy is on fin aid but all ivies say they will help with anything not covered in your EFC (could be loans tho). who knows, her EFC could have been 13k. but if your situation is as bad as you make it sound, appeal it.</p>

<p>I can't do anything about it now but I'll try to apply to a better school as a transfer. I made a couple of mistakes on my applications to two top schools. Well, at least now I know what to fix for next time.</p>

<p>Most top schools only give need-based aid, which means being an URM won't help anyone in terms of getting $ for college.</p>

<p>In fact, minority-based financial aid does not exist!</p>

<p>under represented minority = urm</p>

<p>Oops, missed the urm answer above. Sorry.</p>

<p>No I understand minority based financial aid does not exist but I do know scholarships are based on whether or not the student is a minority so...</p>

<p>what scholarships? ivies dont give scholarships (only grants and cornell has its little fellowship thing)</p>

<p>No I'm speaking in general. I know all Ivy-league school scholarships are need-based...or so they say.
But apart from that, outside scholarships do indeed care for URM status.</p>

<p>um...yea the Hispanic association or the NAACP will definatly cater to their respective groups....</p>

<p>but otherwise...come on. if you lost some scholarships it was because your essays or EC's or whatever werent good enough. scholarships are there for people who have overcome some kind of adversity and i hate to tell you, but there's always someone out there with a better sob story</p>

<p>Lol no I didn't have a sob story. I didn't think it would be the crucial to the scholarship. I thought it was merit-based. I gggggueeeeesss not.</p>

<p>when you have 2 people who are about equal, then the only real way to tell them apart is a sob story. that's life.</p>