<p>There has been a lot of debate as to whether Cornell's Financial Aid is need-blind or need-aware towards non-Canadian, non-Mexican Internationals.</p>
<p>Well it is neither. Cornell's International Financial Aid is merit-based, much like a scholarship. </p>
<p>Here is my e-mail and reply from Cornell's Financial Aid Office:</p>
<p>Suffice to say that I am not an American, Canadian or Mexican citizen.</p>
<p>that actually doesn’t prove anything.</p>
<p>that is not proof, do you have any clue about cornell’s heavy endowment losses? </p>
<p>the state of our economy…?</p>
<p>how do you know that those not offered finAID are not more meritorious than those offered aid?</p>
<p>Then how exactly would they choose those 20 students ResurgamBell?</p>
<p>Geographic coverage? Academic interests? Money earmarked for those types of students?</p>
<p>This is no where near proof of that! I would assume based on their website that they take merit into account, but like cayuga said, interests, geography, and also how the student can contribute to the cornell community is also taken into account. Need is probably taken into account too. Anyway, this is not proof that financial aid for international students is entirely merit based like a scholarship. All this proves is that many international students don’t receive aid. She probably didn’t respond to the rest of your email because the way the finaid office chooses to award aid to international student is complicated.</p>
<p>No, what this means is that Cornell is not need-blind to Internationals; indeed, there are only a handful of US colleges that are need-blind for internationals. Instead, like many colleges, Cornell is need-aware for internationals. A easy way to understand need-aware…a college has a budget of finaid, and when that budget is exhausted for the year, acceptances go to kids who are full or near-full pay. However, that is also true for colleges that are need-aware for US citizens, such as Colgate. If accepted, Cornell/Colgate promises to meet full need. </p>
<p>btw: based on your logic, by definition, EVERYONE who is accepted is recieving “merit” need-based aid. Obviously, every student accepted to Cornell has great stats, i.e., merit. Accepting the top thousand applicants in the US is no different than accepting the top xx internationals, and then full pays.</p>
<p>Dude, you got in?</p>
<p>No Coup D’etat</p>
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<p>No, it means that cornell is need blind to internationals but that the probably will not meet the need of the students that they accept. If Cornell was need aware, then they would only accept the 20 or so intl students each year they have the cash for and reject the rest but as shown by the email, they do not do that (IE they accept many intl students that have need but they do not provide them with financial aid).</p>
<p>oops, I read too hastily. tboone is correct.</p>
<p>I’m hoping to be one of those 20 :D</p>
<p>Sorry for the double post, but how do internationals know if their financial aid application is received? I have nothing on my ‘to do list’ on the cornell portal.</p>
