Skramata

When my brother went to Columbia (six years ago), tuition was about $40K. It's $52K now D:

Thank you for the tips. I shall make sure to utilize them if I matriculate (and if I don't, I'll hand them over to my friend, who got in ED).

nuitsansetoiles

I have to pay EVERYTHING. My family's household income is approximately $160,000 before taxes and everything.

My parents are married but live in two different places because of job requirements, so we have to pay double of everything (i.e. living expenses and such). But I guess Cornell doesn't care. It's gonna be pretty hard to cough up over $200,000 for 4 years of college.

dewdrop87

If your parents own those two different homes and have 2 or more cars...Cornell saw them as assets and it was factored in to your EFC.

Living expenses (bills and such) are a factor in FA. Are you the only child in your family in college? This also raises your EFC.

I hope you are able to work everything out.

cjmdjm

My FA letter said I was missing forms (I sent them in like a month ago), so I called them and they said they were 3+ weeks behind on their mail, so I faxed them the forms and they said I would have an award within a week or 2. I don't know if that will allow me time to decide if I want to visit or not though.

Lyr

I haven't gotten my FA offer yet. It seems to be the same for about everyone else, correct?

tmk39

I haven't gotten mine yet either.

dewdrop87

The FA is office is pretty behind on their work but they are working very hard to get FA packages out fast....I'm sure you'll hear something by next week.

avelez89

International Student Here
I never plugged my data into an EFC Calculator so I can't give you guys a relative number. I was expecting to pay around 25K a year though.

Aid:
Scholarship - $10,600
Loan - $10,900
Employment - $1,800
TOTAL - $23,3000

Final family contribution: 30k

Sounds like a very good deal to me considering only 10-15 international students are awarded aid (I have no freaking clue how I qualified, I thought I had barely made it in to Cornell in the first place)

barron123

Did those who received their notifications already receive an email when financial aid awards were sent out?

somedumbnoob

Cornell offered ZERO in grants vs. Chicago's 9k, Brandeis' 9k, and Grinnell's 10k.

Way to be Cornell. Looks like I wasted my time applying.

tmk39

if you submitted a correction FAFSA, did they take that into account?

tmk39

and why does the letter say to file FAFSA when I already did? does anyone know?

dontcha

Letter to me today:

Dear XXXX

....Our records indicate that your financial aid materials are complete. We are currently processing your application and a financial aid notification will be sent to you as quickly as possible...

bagpiper

*Sigh*

Cornell grant aid: $2,000/year

Princeton grant: $32,000/year

Harvard grant: $35,000/year

...The sad thing is, I totally would've gone to Cornell over H and P if the financial aid was in any way decent. But with this kind of difference, it's goodbye Cornell.

Anyone know if it'd be at all useful to call and explain the much better offers other schools gave me, and that if my Cornell aid improves I'd absolutely go? Cornell also gave me the Presidential Research thing.

CayugaRed2005

I would definitely recommend calling the financial aid office. Explain your situation and your unending desire to attend Cornell.

Cornell just may be able to budge. Perhaps meet you half way. They will probably ask you to fax in copies of the Harvard and Princeton offers to prove that you are legitimate. And it would probably help if you had a really compelling hook. For instance, you could be a world class soloist in the viola. Or you could be the top rated wrestler in your state.

The lower-tier Ivies (e.g. non-HYP) take their ability to land common admits with HYP very seriously. Probably too seriously, in fact. But it's a fact of life. Recently, a bunch of alums are riled up over the fact that Harvard's lacrosse team seems to have more connections to Cornell than Harvard:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=522826

I know of a few common admits with HYP that ended up matriculating at Cornell. Some were Cornell legacies, but most of them were athletes who were partial to the coach and the team at Cornell. There's also a cadre of MIT cross-admits who don't want to be dorked out and want a real party scene. A friend of mine was accepted to Yale, but he was from working-class Upstate New York and felt he would be much more comfortable at Cornell. I can't say I blame him.

But, gosh, Harvard and Princeton are pretty decent schools too. Princeton even had a halfway decent hockey team this year. It's a shame that their students and alums failed to notice.

The really frustrating thing about the current financial aid arms race is that Cornell is doing much more than its Ivy peers just to try to keep up. But it's really a lose-lose situation for Cornell, as not only is the school increasingly losing the common admit battles, but in spending more money on financial aid for the upper-middle class, resources are being diverted from faculty hiring and important things like cancer research. Here's a good overview of the issue:

http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2008...nerous_i.shtml

Out of curiosity, what attracts you to Cornell?