IIRC, I mentioned in your other thread that your business finances likely created the issues at Cornell. It’s very possible that some of those business losses were not counted in the final financial aid calculation.
But it’s April 30. It is what it is.
Your family needs to make a decision here.
Another question…do you have two students starting college this fall?
thank you for taking the time to write. it is so difficult for him. And Spoke with Cornell yesterday and have to decide by tomorrow and if not Cornell, another school.
These pointers are incredibly helpful. I will check asap about health insurance. Do most schools require families to purchase their school insurance even if family still covers child? And DS said Richmond would probably be okay but had heart set on Cornell.
As long as the policy is as good as (or better) than the school’s policy, the student does not have to purchase university health insurance. In that case, the student fills out a health insurance waiver form, provides proof of coverage, and it’s usually approved (again as long as the policy is at least as good as the school’s.) Often, the biggest problems are HMOs because they often don’t provide adequate coverage out of state.
Is there any disadvantage to the student when they need to avail themselves of health services at school? or will personal insurance, like a national PPO plan, cover them. In other words, I am wondering if they have to go off campus. Did you do this for your kids? Because we have to keep health insurance anyway for them. Appreciate the suggestion.
No disadvantage at the schools’ health centers I have experience with. With that said, many schools’ health centers provide minimal services. Both of my kids waived the school insurance and stayed on our plan (also a national PPO.)
If your child wants to go to law school, it does not matter where he goes to undergrad, he can go to a good law school regardless. However, the fact is, if you go to an Ivy or a prestigious undergrad, if you do well, your child can go to a prestigious law school. It will be much easier. From my experience and knowledge, if you go to a good school like Richmond and do well, you can go to a great law school or a very good one. It may be more difficult, to get into a great law school but it can happen. If you go to a great undergrad like Cornell and do well, you may have a better chance to get into a great law school. It’s not guaranteed but there’s a higher probability. I believe this could be due to Richmond still being considered a relatively regional school.
But is it worth the extra cost, that’s a difficult question that can be only answered by your family. I’d probably pay the difference but that’s just me.
The family could pay 50-60k but Cornell revised their estimation and they’re now full pay (96k).
It just doesn’t seem affordable yet Cornell only gave their final answer yesterday so the poor kid has been hoping for Cornell this whole time. Frankly it seems cruel Cornell would take so long and he only has 24H to mourn. And if he goes, the situation sounds like that of kids who have to transfer, typically to their state flagship, because they run out of funds, compounding the pain. (The dollar is down 30% + the domino effects to supplies&disposable income don’t make me optimistic wrt business conjoncture so I’d be really worried if I were stretched financially already but one may be more comfortable taking more risks than I am!)
If it’s just the 5.5k Federal loans to close a funding gap it’s fine but here it sounds like a 35k/year difference that the family doesn’t have - I may be wrong.
In addition to URichmond, OPs son has an IR top 10 admission to American, with Honors. It’s rather strange to me that it’s not a front runner since it’s got prestige+IR connections and is affordable.
I suppose it’s too painful for OPs son to be discussing deposits anywhere beside Cornell at this point. 
Thank you so much. And your kids were able to get to health services if they needed. It reminds me of taking out the extra car insurance when I rent, even though I know my credit card covers it all. Same concept perhaps. thanks again for the tip.
I am getting confused. The older sibling who took the gap year, where will they be enrolling this fall and what is their expected cost of attendance? What state do you live in?
True. The FFV, old money gentry from Richmond don’t send their St. Catherines and St. Christopher children to U of Richmond. Too gauche. More like UVA or W&L. 
Check your medical insurance. Ours has a website where you could put in the zip code and type of provider you were looking for and it would bring up everyone in network within a stated radius. It was easy for my kid because she was in NYC so in addition to the college health facilities, which she did use, there were lots of other providers, urgent care etc around - it really depends where your kid ends up and what your insurance covers.
This is extremely specific to the insurance plans (yours and school’s) and to the school (and perhaps to the states involved). Often, but not always, there is a “plan” you can buy, or that is included in tuition, that allows access to the campus health center. Even for my own family, this varied by child/college how it was covered or not.
OP was asking about healthcare access if they waived this and used their own. As noted, it depends on each plan and school.
So….where is this kid matriculating?
Absolutely incorrect.
Law schools rarely care about an applicant’s undergraduate school.
Law schools do not care if an applicant’s undergraduate school is prestigious or regional.
Law school admissions officers care about an applicant’s undergraduate GPA and about one’s LSAT or, sometimes, one’s GRE score.
Other factors can come into play, but an applicant’s undergraduate school is rarely a factor of any significance.
This is not uncommon with certain types of situations.
Similar occurrence a couple of years ago with respect to another Ivy League school due to a foreign trust.
Hope that you select an affordable option–especially if graduate or professional school is in the student’s future.
Given you are considering Cornell for undergraduate pre law, please consider the following. While virtually no undergraduate school will preclude acceptance to an elite law school, attending certain schools does have a significant positive statistical impact.
As an example, law schools like Harvard and Yale have traditionally populated 50%ish of their law school classes with students from 11 schools (8 ivies + Duke, Stanford, Chicago). Those schools (one of which is Cornell) represent only about 3/10ths of 1% of total undergraduate students.
Once again this statistical significance should not simply be dismissed or ignored.
Cornell law school itself should serve as another example worthy of consideration. From their website 13%, of their highly competitive (sub 6% acceptance rate) class came from Cornellundergraduate. Clearly he would have an advantage at Cornell Law if she attends Cornell undergrad.
From Cornell Law’s website…
“Cornell Law School’s incoming Class of 2027 showcases a wide range of backgrounds and experiences while boasting impressive academic credentials. The latest cohort of 216 students was selected from a competitive pool of 3,746 applicants.
Notable clusters include Cornell University with 28 students.”
The hard part is determining how much of the over representation is selection effect (highly selective colleges have strong students to begin with who are more likely to have good law school admission outcomes) versus treatment effect (attending a highly selective college would help the same student get better law school admission outcomes).
There may also be a selection effect of students applying to the law school at their college in greater numbers.
Students at Ivy League schools and Ivy plus schools test well–which is a significant factor in both undergraduate and in law school admissions.
100%correct.
And quite often Cornell undergraduate applicants to Cornell Law School apply binding ED (early decision).
Additionally, according to Cornell Law School’s website, ED applicants to Cornell Law receive “more favorable consideration” for admission.