<p>sybbie- thanks for the recommendation on RAing. My sister is actually doing that next year at her school, and I'll probably do the same.</p>
<p>So there's no way I can negotiate? I just don't understand, because my sister goes to Hopkins, which only required her to take out $2000 in loans each year so far. I mean, we're both judged on the same tax forms and parent income, right?</p>
<p>^^ yes but you have to keep in mind that Cornell has something like 13,000 undergrads to support and a ton more grad students as oppose to hopkins which has about 5,000 undergrads..</p>
<p>While you may both be judged on the same tax forms Cornell does not care how much inistitutional aid your sister is recieving from a school that is not Cornell and how much in loans she is taking out. If your sister was a Cornell student, then it would be a different story and you would have a basis for asking for a financial review.</p>
<p>If you had applied RD and was accepted to both Hopkins and Cornell, and you wanted to choose Cornell but Hopkins was the more financially feasible choice, then Cornell would consider a financial review possibly meeting the FA package that Hopkins is giving.</p>
<p>In their minds they would say that if you only wanted 2000 in loans that you should have gone to Hopkins.</p>
<p>I don't know how this works, but now that you're in Cornell can you decide to attend one of the land-grant NYS schools at Cornell? I think costs are under $25,000 for OOS...I guess you might not like agriculture or labor management or whatever they are but $44,000 in loans is terrible!!!</p>
<p>I am not sure I see how RAing would help. If the cost to attend is 20k, say and you get 10k in aid because your EFC is 10k. And RA'ing makes the cost to attend 15k, won't they just give you 5k in aid vs 10K? Doesn't your EFc remain the same regardless?</p>
<p>ixjunitxi- I assumed your mom would have saved $$ if she was making a high salary before college. I hope your mom helps with paying off the loans afterwards! Tell her I said so! :-)</p>
<p>Unfortunately there is really not much to negotiate. Cornell did give you finaid, it is just a lot of loans.</p>
<p>OP is not a NYS resident.</p>
<p>The tuition and fees for Cornell Land Grant colleges are $19,291- for NYS residents, $33,681 for non-residents. ($32,710 Cost of attendance for NYS residents, 47,100 for non residents). The cost of attendance for the non land grant schools are 48,200.</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://finaid.cornell.edu/Shared/Costs.htm%5DCosts%5B/url">http://finaid.cornell.edu/Shared/Costs.htm]Costs[/url</a>]</p>
<p>IF the OP were able to RA at Cornell later in his college career, it would cover housing ($6,680) and 20% savings on dining ($4,559 * .20 = $911.80)
Cost savings: 7591.80</p>
<p>In addition the student would recieve a stipend for being an RA and can still do college work study.</p>
<p>While yes the EFC would remain the same, the cost of attendance would go down by $7591 to $40,608. If his grant aid (usually applied toward the tuition) remains consistent, this would probably reduce/replace the loans in his package.</p>
<p>Oh darn, SUNY website implies otherwise - they include it as a "university center" and say its the same as other SUNY OOS but I see the Cornell website specifically doesn't give OOS any break! I want the OP to go to Cornell! It does look less complicated to establish NY residency for instate if you live there for a year before college than it is for some other states. Does Cornell have ROTC?</p>
<p>Op also wasn't accepted into one of the land grant colleges. He was accepted to the Hotel School (one of the 48k colleges).</p>
<p>Cornell does have the Army and Air Force ROTC (can't get the link)</p>
<p>What are you majoring in? That is VERY relevant to the amount of debt that is reasonable to take.</p>
<p>My brother-in-law graduated from college 6 years ago with $75,000 in debt. His outstanding debt is down to under $10,000, and while he has a very good job, he is by no means rich. He does this largely through living frugally and making smart investment decisions. I believe his APR is 2.5% on his consolidated student loans, which isn't much at all.</p>
<p>I'll likely be graduating with around $60-$70,000 in debt, because my parents can't afford to pay most of my EFC (Which means I have to borrow it, in addition to any gap that a financial aid package might leave me). The career path I'm pursuing is a financially lucrative one, however, so it does make quite a difference. The alternative was me attending a mediocre state school which is only known regionally (I want to live elsewhere). Bottom line, college is the best investment you can make in your life and is the type of loan with the best interest rates. College debt is the best debt you can have, in my opinion.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'll likely be graduating with around $60-$70,000 in debt, because my parents can't afford to pay most of my EFC (Which means I have to borrow it, in addition to any gap that a financial aid package might leave me). The career path I'm pursuing is a financially lucrative one, however, so it does make quite a difference. The alternative was me attending a mediocre state school which is only known regionally (I want to live elsewhere). Bottom line, college is the best investment you can make in your life and is the type of loan with the best interest rates. College debt is the best debt you can have, in my opinion.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree and am in a similar situation. If I successfully transfer, I will incur about 90K debt after graduating.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input everyone.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm not gonna be able to get the in-state college prices, since I'm majoring in Hotel Administration.</p>
<p>I was reading a few books on the matter today, and I saw tons of suggestions about the military and ROTC, community college, and 2 year delays, and I got kinda scared. My mom is going to talk to the financial aid office tomorrow and I'll see how it goes. I'll update you guys what happens.</p>
<p>If you are extremely confident that you will be making a lot of $$$ after graduation, college loans are not a bad thing. I went to an Ivy and the first year and a half after graduation I had pretty much minimum wage jobs. Ate a lot of ramen noodles...Just have a realistic plan for paying the loans off.</p>
<p>okay, sorry I haven't updated you guys like I promised.</p>
<p>Anyways, Cornell did not give me more money after I appealled.</p>
<p>However, Cornell announced it's new financial aid initiative last week. It turns out that $44,000 debt I thought I would graduate with is gone! Grants will replace all of it!!</p>
<p>Sweet! That's nice! I have a question-would 100k in debt be a good idea if you're going to enter a very financially lucrative field, such as ibanking? The advice won't change my view on whether or not I'll take the loans necessary (because I'll go to this school regardless of the loans and it's highly unlikely it'll be up to 100k) but I guess it'll just make me feel better about the decision.</p>