Hi,
Our son applied ED to Cornell. He receive an email stating that all of his materials were successfully submitted. He checked his Cornell Portal last night and there is a message dated from November 1st to submit our tax returns. Does anyone know if this will affect his acceptance? We are scanning the returns today and sending them in. We did complete the CSS profile by the November 1st deadline. Any thoughts/assistance would be appreciated. Thank you!
Cornell is need-blind (but doesn’t meet full need). The admissions process and financial aid application process are entirely separate. You can submit financial information with zero worry that it will affect admissions’ decision.
Thank you! I appreciate you responding.
Not true from what I know. Cornell is need blind for admissions and meets full need for all accepted students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The school does include Direct Loans in the financial aid package, and expects a student contribution as well.
@compmom could you please show where you found that Cornell does not meet full need? Because sometimes schools do change policies…
But as noted…the school is need blind for admissions for U.S. citizens and permanent residents. So admissions will not see your financial aid information…ever.
I think that the inclusion of loans in the package may be what was meant. I’ll send you links if I can find them again (I looked at 3). At least one was 2012 so yes, things may have changed.
In any case, the important thing is that financial aid application and application to the university are entirely separate. There is no question that Cornell is need-blind 
These are various links I found again- might have missed some. There was a financial aid initiative for fall 2013 that improved aid so any info from before that is outdated, yes. But a later table (admittedly Wikipedia link) that indicates it is need-blind but does not meet full need. All the Cornell financial aid links referring to the initiative mention being “need blind” but do not say it meets “full need.” Instead it says their financial aid is “robust” and they have now capped loans for families with certain incomes. If it is important for a family to know if Cornell meets full need, I would call 
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2012/07/cornell-affirms-need-blind-admissions-aid-policies
Adjustments to the financial aid programs will take effect starting with undergraduate students matriculating in the fall of 2013. There will be no change to the financial aid programs for students with family incomes below $60,000. These students will continue to have no loan obligation in their financial aid packages; need-based aid will be provided through Cornell grants and federal, state, and other external awards. Students with family incomes between $60,000 to $75,000 will receive financial aid packages that include need-based loans capped at $2,500 per year. For families with incomes ranging from $75,000 to $120,000, need-based loans in the financial aid package will be capped at $5,000 annually. (See chart at end of story.) Expectation for academic year earnings from work, which have not been raised for two decades, will increase from $2,000 to $2,500 per year
http://finaid.cornell.edu/cost-attend/financial-aid-initiatives
http://admissions.cornell.edu/costs-and-aid
Apply for Aid
Applying for financial aid is separate process from the admissions application. This means you will submit your financial information before you are aware of your admissions decision. Applying for aid by the financial aid request dates will insure that your financial aid award is available when you receive your admissions decision. We want you to have all the information you need before making the choice to attend Cornell.
This table is from Wikipedia in a very thorough article, but apologies- it IS Wikipedia. But dates at least 2014.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission
U.S. institutions that are need-blind for U.S. applicants and do not meet full demonstrated need[edit]
Some schools have a need-blind admissions policy, but do not guarantee to meet the full demonstrated financial need of the students they admit. The following schools fall under this category:
• Albright College
• Babson College (meets 96% of need)[29]
• Bard College
• Baylor University
• Boston University
• Bucknell University (meets 95% of need)[30][31]
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Cornell University (need-blind for all applicants)[32]
• Cooper Union
• Denison University
• Fordham University
• Ithaca College
• Lehigh University
• New York University
• Saint Louis University
• Santa Clara University
• Southern Methodist University
• St. John’s University
• St. Lawrence University
• Syracuse University
• Texas Christian University
• Tulane University
• University of Miami
• University of San Diego
Cornell has different policies for international students. That is what is referenced on the Wikipedia list.
Cornell DOES meet full need and is need blind for admissions for U.S. citizens and green card holders.
Thank you!
That wiki needs to be updated, Albright does meet 100% of need. It has for two years now.
^^wikipedia is edited by users, you can sign up and do it (they need more female editors too)
Sorrry about the Wikipedia. Really, our kids learn not to use it as a source! I was originally going to suggest the OP look it up and then quickly looked at a bunch of things- sloppy
There were separate links for international students, which didn’t fit the original post.
But… the more recent announcement of the Cornell financial aid initiative does not mention meeting full need, only “robust aid” so I would like know for sure whether it does meet full need .
In any case, not relevant to the original question really.
Straight from Cornell’s web site, my bolding, though you have to slog through some confusing wording to find it:
“Cornell offers need-based financial aid to undergraduate students who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and has a very limited amount of need-based aid for international and undocumented students. Students who qualify are offered a specific aid package designed to fully meet their need with a combination of grants, loans, and employment opportunities.”
The web site also clearly says to submit 2014 tax returns by Nov 1. No, I highly doubt that would affect an admissions decision, since they’re need blind. Frankly, I would doubt it would affect his finaid either, except that it’s now so late. This is a case where I’d sure consider calling. (We had a delay in submitting IDOC for another school and when I called they weren’t concerned. But that was a different circumstance.)
@brownparent I actually did it right after I posted that
Excellent, thank you!
Meets need usually does NOT mean no loans. There are a handful of schools that try to meet need without requiring loans, but most schools that “meet need” do include federal loans.
Also you might try to run the net price calculator to see just how much they estimate your family and student contribution to be.
Focus on direct billed costs like tuition, fees and room &board. Items like travel, books and personal expenses are usually estimated and you can tailor those to your situation.
You have to upload the documents to IDOC.
https://idoc.collegeboard.org/idoc/
@KMC8158 my daughter is a frosh this year at Cornell and we went through all of this last year. We were notified in an email in late November to submit our prior year’s return, so I uploaded them (business and personal). We received our FA package within 5 days of her getting accepted. I’m guessing that if you delay and you are accepted, then your FA package will be late. Best to get all this stuff in asap because the only out you have on ED is for unaffordability.
Do not accept an ED offer without seeing and being okay with the FA package. You can ask for an extension on the ED decision date if necessary. Do not withdraw other apps or stop submitting them by their deadlines if you aren’t sure on the FA package.