Cornell says it meets “full displayed financial need.” Can someone translate this in to lay man’s terms? Also, if my EFC is ~10,000, how much would it seem I would pay to attend Cornell? Thanks!
Financial aid at Cornell is given based on the following premise:
Cost of attendance - EFC = demonstrated need.
If the cost of attendance is $65,000 and you have an EFC of 10,000, you need $55,000
a school that meets 100% demonstrated need will give you a financial aid package that covers this $55,000. It may be a combination of grants, scholarships, work study and loans.
Cornell uses both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile to determine your financial need. Is the 10,000 your FAFSA ?
EFC? How did you come up with this number?
your best bet would be to use the the net price calculator on cornell’s financial aid page
however it may not be accurate if you have the following:
divorced parents /step parents/live in a single parent house hold (Cornell ask for financial aid info from everyone, both of your parents, step parents)
If your family are self employed or business owners
If your family owns real estate outside of their primary home
Cornell will decide what they think you can afford to pay based on the fafsa and profile. This amount may be different than another school that also meets full need. My daughter got into several schools that meet full financial need and each school calculated her need differently. There are a lot of different variables that are involved.
Total cost of attendance means tuition + room/board + extras such as books, transportation, etc.
If a school’s total COA is $65,000 and your EFC (as they - not you- calculate it to be) is $10,000, then your need is $55,000. The school will provide you with a FA package that meets this $55,000 need. It will consist of grants, loans, and work study. Some schools will meet need without loans. How did you come up with your EFC of $10,000?
The displayed financial need is what will be on your award letter. It will be based on the information from the CSS Profile for institutional aid purposes. The FAFSA will only be used to determine if you are eligible for federally funded need based grants. With a $10,000 FAFSA EFC, you would not be!
How do you know your EFC for the upcoming year per FAFSA? Did you work the formula by hand?
Also, the info on the Profile is far more in depth. You may find that Cornell determines your family contribution is higher than $10,000.
Thanks everyone @sybbie719 @twogirls I found a EFC calculator online and used that, but like @sybbie719 said, my family owns overseas land which is being saved to pay for my brother and my education. However, it isn’t nearly mature enough to cover both of us, and could probably pay for 2 years for one of us.
@thumper1 does fafsa re-evaluate the EFC each year? I’m not sure I understand…
The overseas land must go on your financial aid forms (what they pay and the value of the land)
You must apply for aid every year and you must file the fafsa every year.
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Be sure to use the one on Cornell’s web site, not one from another site.
@neophyte did you factor in the overseas land on the EFC calculator? You will need to do this on the real financial aid forms.
So, let’s say year 1 EFC = $10K, COA = $65K. So need is $55K, package is for $55K (maybe some loans and work study in there). Year 2, the tuition goes up to $70K. If the financial situation of the student has not changed, meaning EFC still equals $10K, then rise in tuition should not really matter. The package will be for $60K in year 2 and, even if there are loans and work study in the package, for such a large need, the extra $5K should all be in the form of a grants. Correct?
@privateID, no because the student can borrow $1,000 more in loans sophomore year.
Also the overseas land can appreciate in value, raising the institutional and FAFSA EFC.
@privateID @twogirls @mommdc @Mom22039 @sybbie719 thanks for all your help, my parents try not to tell me too much, but from what I found out through my grandma, our EFC is around 25k, not 10k. Sigh, college really is expensive lol
@privateID the school can increase the amount of loans and does not have to increase the grant. If the maximum amount of loans and work study have been offered, then they would increase the grant. Some schools, however, may automatically increase the grant regardless. It depends on the school.
@neophite did your family use the NPC for the schools that you are interested in? Although they may not be totally accurate depending upon your family situation, they would likely be more accurate than a generic one found online.
This page gives some financial aid examples for Cornell:
http://finaid.cornell.edu/types-aid/financial-aid-examples
You should still run their net price calculator as well with your parents to get all the correct income/asset figures from them.
@twogirls @mommdc I convinced my mom that we HAD to go through it, and used the Cornell NPC. Let’s just say my grandma’s estimates that I used in the calculator before were WAAAYYY off. EFC jumped up to ~50k when my mom did it, but I know we are by no means rich by salary. My grandmother just had a lot of property which she gave to my mom, and ALL of it will probably need to be sold to for me to go to cornell. Time to start looking to apply somewhere else!
@neophite are you a resident of NYS?
@twogirls Nope, NJ
Assets are assessed at 5.6% of value towards your EFC. To get to $50,000, you would need $900,000 or so of assets.
How much is this land worth?
Also, keep in mind that colleges do not award need based aid so that families can retain almost a million dollars in assets.
The good news is that if you are considering Cornell, you may have the ability to get merit money elsewhere.
If your family wants you to go to Cornell, they will have to sell some of their land. Many families do not have this option.
Run the NPC on Vassar and Dartmouth to see if this could be different with other colleges.
Also…here is your previous thread about aid at Cornell.