Does anyone know how Cornell generates its initial aid offer for ED students (our’s came with our son’s ED acceptance and our EFC was 50K. But two weeks later his offer was taken away and EFC doubled. All tax returns were uploaded. Would love some insights on the process…
The only people who can answer your questions are financial staffers at Cornell. Have you asked someone there to explain the changes in your FA package? Did you run Cornell’s net price calculator prior to applying? If so, how does the final offer compare to the NPC estimate?
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What did the NPC say when you used that before applying?
As @Mwfan1921 says, it’s really the FA office you should be asking.
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It was five years ago but I spoke with an aid officer as my daughter wanted to apply. They have no merit and the NPC showed full. So I wanted to see if there was wiggle room.
Their comment to me was if you have $1 million in assets, no one will give you money.
They don’t speak for other schools, of course, but they did in that sentence.
Did the financial statements you submitted vary different from what you entered in the NPC - like you had a stock that went way up in the interim ?
Yes we ran NPC and initial package matched the NPC. Spoke to Cornell. Not clear.
I thought there must be discrepancy so I crosschecked statements and NPC and everything was the same. And I appreciate your sharing that you spoke before you applied ED. We did as well to just doublecheck. Do they check all statements before they generate offer as well? I assumed they did which is why we were so relieved at initial offer.
She did not apply. I set a $50k budget and there would be no aid.
I called to see if I could figure out a how.
She wasn’t interested - just wanted to see if she can get into an Ivy but when I told her since she can’t go, she had to pay the app fee, she was out 
I personally would never ED - for this reason.
What’s your alternative plan ?
I would definitely call the financial aid office and make an appointment to speak with a financial aid officer—not the person who answers the phone.
It is completely reasonable to ask for an explanation as to why it is so far off from the NPC and also why they retracted and then re-awarded a different package.
This must be so stressful. So sorry this happened but hoping it will all come out okay.
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A different school if they don’t budge. nothing else we can do. tysm for your input!
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I spoke with the school. They said they base offer only on CSS. We had everything uploaded and it all matched so trying to find out more … thanks for your supportive words!
This is typical for schools that use the CSS Profile. FAFSA only determines federal financial aid eligibility. Had you filed the CSS Profile before you received the first FA package?
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Was their FA offer with the acceptance still just an estimate? That is not typically how it is done. Strange that it would change two weeks later. Typically after an ED acceptance you only have a few weeks to accept your offer. Did you let the deadline pass and then it changed? I guess I’m also confused at the timing of your question as all of this would have transpired in December or early January. What is the current status?
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Have you been able to attend a zoom appointment with a financial aid counselor? If your info has only been over the phone or via email, I recommend that you schedule a zoom appointment so that they can explain why there is a discrepancy between the NPC and your final offer as well as the discrepancy between the first and second offer.
There is a link for an appointment at the bottom of this page.
They should extend any deadlines etc until after this is resolved, if you ask.
Also paging @kelsmom for her expertise.
Oh, I missed that.
I thought you used the NPC.
Oh, yeah, the FAFSA doesn’t tell you anything in regards to schools that use CSS and IDOC. It gives you access to a loan.
The CSS goes way deeper and finds assets and more that the FAFSA doesn’t utilize.
Try running the NPC - to see what it says. It may show you at the offer you got or if it shows you at the $50K, you can show them and ask where you went off. If it shows you at where you are now, then yes you would have known up front not to apply if it was out of budget.
Maybe this should be a rule before being allowed to ED - you must use the NPC so families don’t get put in this situation.
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Any chance you are self employed, own a business, have real estate other than your primary residence…? And are parents still married?
All of these can affect the accuracy of the net price calculators.
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Perhaps you submitted css business supplement and tax returns, and they didn’t initially review those?
That would explain the award differing from NPC results, as they might have made adjustments you don’t know about based on the business info.
However, if that’s the case they should be able to tell you. It’s worth confirming their info is correct as something like the css business supplement is fairly easy to mess up, and/or they might be misinterpreting something from the tax returns.
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I appreciate your answering. Can you pleaes elaborate on “what is typical of CSS schools?” To give an estimate for ED that changes ? Or not review returns? I had filled out the CSS and sent in time, before the Nov 15 deadline and uploaded first personal returns and then business – we knew we would be asked for our business returns (my DS applied to schools last year), so I sent in personal returns and were asked for business returns which IDOC uploaded and processed by Nov 26. Thank you for your help and insights.
I just meant it’s typical that CSS schools only use the CSS info when calculating what a family can pay (each school has their own formula.) They don’t really use FAFSA, although they do incorporate federal financial aid from FAFSA into the estimated COA that is part of the FA package.
Since you had the CSS Profile in on time, I don’t think any of us will be of help in understanding what happening from the first FA package to the second one…only someone at Cornell can help with that. So, I would have another conversation with a director level or above there. Maybe it has something to do with the business info (which they seemingly had all along, or not.) Good luck.
Perhaps Cornell looked at your business deductions a little more carefully. At some colleges, there are deductions allowed for income tax purposes by the IRS that are added back in as income for college financial aid purposes.
But really, the financial aid office at Cornell should be able to explain this to you.