Thank you all for replying to this thread!
I forgot to add that we had to decline the financial aid offer as it was calculated using the wrong pieces of information. As an international student, we weren’t familiar with the CSS profile, so there were some major errors. We could not make an appeal to the decision, as Cornell is a need-aware institution.
However, for the schools that I am applying for RD, I am going to send additional information regarding the changes that must be made.
Either way, I do agree with Groundwork2022 that:
HOWEVER, if these schools are HYP, I believe that it’s another story. HYP are need-blind AND SCEA NON BINDING which means that it REALLY shows that they weren’t your #1 choice since you can compare aid offers as an EA admitted student. What do you guys think?