So after getting accepted to Cornell, I’ve had absolutely the worst time with their financial aid office and I need some advice. Basically, I turned everything in on time through FAFSA and CSS, but I got a message from Cornell saying I was missing something. Confused, as I had turned in everything required, even specific school information, I found out this had to do with my non-custodial parent and the fact that they wanted me to complete several more forms. Keep in mind I was accepted to 6 other schools at this point, none of which had any trouble computing my financial aid. In either FAFSA or CSS (I can’t recall which - it may have even been both) I indicated that I don’t know my non-custodial parent, and in fact I don’t even have a name so I can’t report any information on him. However, Cornell wanted two more forms mailed to them. So I mailed them those forms. Now about a week ago I got another message saying that apparently my mother’s income isn’t enough to support two people. Well, for the last few years we’ve been living off savings since her business has been doing so badly. They sent me a “survey” (which is VERY extensive - just from looking at it, it seems to be about 100 detailed questions) to complete before I even get an idea of my aid. I’d image that after all this they’re not going to give me a very good deal since they’re apparently so desperate not to pay that they’re trying to find every possible source of income imaginable, even going back and asking for number I’ve already provided them through the forms I’ve already submitted. It feels like I’m being audited.
In any case, my questions is, if I more detailed information, and they decide not to give me a good package, can that hurt my offers from other schools? Duke, Williams, and various other schools offered me good deals, and I’m worried Cornell is going to go back and change my FAFSA or write a letter to the other schools or something. I don’t have anything to hide, and I didn’t lie on my forms, but I’m worried that Cornell will interpret the numbers in a way that would hurt my package elsewhere
My other question is whether or not it’s worth it to go through tons of receipts and calculate all the new numbers Cornell wants such as average monthly food expenses for the past few years. It’s going to take quite a bit of time, and I’m worried they’re just going to keep throwing forms at me or if not that, that they won’t offer me any decent aid. Is anyone else who has gone through this mess able to tell me a little bit about their experiences with Cornell fin aid? At this point, Cornell is about third on my list of schools, so I’m not totally sure it’s worth pursuing.
Cornell’s calculation of financial aid will have no impact whatsoever on the other schools to which you have been accepted. They are certainly not going to write a letter to those schools. If for some reason you had to amend your FASFA, that would be relevant to the other schools, but just because Cornell wants additional information, that has no bearing on financial aid awards at other schools. So you can relax about that. Every school determines “need” according to their own formula.
If your parent is self-employed or has a business it is always more complicated, and some schools also take your non-custodial parent’s income into consideration. Cornell is not asking for additional information to try not give your aid. If it’s the case, they could have just said no or give you very little.
If you have a good financial package from Duke, ask Cornell to match the financial package. Cornell will match financial package from other Ivies, Duke, Stanford, and MIT as they stated in the Cornell financial aid website.
Honestly, even though Cornell cannot impact your FA at the other schools, why bother? if they are 3rd on your preference list, and #1 and 2 gave adequate FA, I would just tell them you will not be enrolling. You have enough going on with the end of senior year!
In business, we would call their request “not urgent-not important” and toss it out! Unless you need their answer, don’t make work for yourself!
Presuming Duke and Williams are running 1 and 2? Congrats to you, and good luck!!!
Only you can change your FAFSA with your FAID. Cornell, or any other school, is not going to hack it and change the numbers. That’s just not going to happen.
@TiggyB62 any school listed on your FAFSA can change it. We made a mistake not listing something (out of ignorance) but listed it on our CSS, one of the schools, I am not even sure which, amended our FAFSA for us!
You can delete any school from your FAFSA. We had to do that because we applied to more than 10 so after the first 10 process your paperwork, you delete some and add new schools. Once deleted, I think (but am not sure) that school can no longer access your FAFSA paperwork but they already received it from FAFSA when you first applied. No first hand experience with Cornell, just came here to do some research for next K and saw this.
OP, you and your mom need to call the FA counselor or whoever represents the office and really sit down and talk with them if you are serious about Cornell. The school K1 accepted originally limited our FA because they did not understand our paperwork and it turned out to be something very basic. For the most part FA officers are not accountants so they can make mistakes. After it was explained the FA we received was pretty decent. Again, this is not at Cornell.
If your expenses exceed your income and there is no obvious source of funds (eg payout from a settlement), their computer system can sometimes attribute phantom income (for example they think your mom is working off the books and not reporting it). So you may have to clarify to a real person that she is living off of savings.
I also agree about telling them about your other offers. To get more advice I would go on the FA and Scholarship Forum. There are people with a lot of experience about different situations.
@Smythe Cornell is generally more strapped for cash than all the other ivies, Duke, Chicago and top LACs. I think Duke, Williams are a better deal than cornell in many ways for undergrad and if they are offering you a better fa package then why even bother with cornell?
They cannot do it randomly @TiggyB62, the change was a correction and the school was right to do it but I was still shocked. It was after kid was accepted but before we had made a final decision so no idea which school it was.
^ Williams probably has 5 times more money per capita (that might not even be an exaggeration).
Even a comparably sized research university like Duke is twice as wealthy as Cornell is on a per capita basis (more if you include the independent $3 billion Duke Endowment).
Hey guys! Thank you all so much for your help. I really appreciate all of your guidance, and I wanted to update you on what ended up happening.
So I took your advice to not even bother since it was third on my list. However, without telling me, my mother emailed Cornell’s financial aid department to explain our situation in greater detail and to tell them we’re not going to complete the survey due to time constraint. They emailed back asking us to do the survey despite this new information, at which time my mother decided to call it quits as well. However, a few weeks later I received an email from them telling me my financial aid was done! As expected, it was slightly worse than Williams’s and much worse than Duke’s. That being said, I’ve committed to Duke next year!
We had the same runaround with Cornell…we did everything on time and everyone us gave us tentative and then final financial aid awards a month ago and Cornell still hasn’t told us what our package would be and we have one day to choose a school. They are basically out of running. It’s a shame.
Not true. A college FA office can make changes to your FAFSA. And I’ll tell you one step further than what @SeekingPam said: The college can “fudge” your FAFSA if they want to give you more aid. If you ask for “professional judgment” and they agree that your financial numbers on paper don’t adequately reflect your true financial situation, then they can move some numbers around on FAFSA. Not make up numbers, but move some numbers onto different lines. I know this to be true because a college did it on our FAFSA. I thought it was a mistake, so I called the FA guy we had hired to help us with our forms. He said that if we had filled out FAFSA that way, it would be fraud. But the colleges can do whatever they want to get the outcome they want to give. True story.
I’m in a similar situation. My parents finished fafsa and css on time but Cornell keeps asking for more and more documents. They promised to have my aid by May 1st so I have time to decline their offer if the aid isn’t enough. I still haven’t received my financial package but my parents know how much I wanted to go to this school so they let commit anyway. Now I’m extremely anxious and still have no aid offer. Hope I don’t regret not committing to my state school
It’s a shame.