January 28, 2008 - 1:00am
“Any person, any study?” Not so fast. The University that lays claim to being the people’s Ivy is also the stingiest.
Cornell is less generous on financial aid than most of its peers, and hasn’t even tried to match a spate of aid increases at other schools.
42 top universities have made financial aid for the poorest families loan-free. Seven of them have done so for all students. Meanwhile, among its peers, Cornell dispenses the lowest amount of financial aid in grants and the highest in loans. Most alarmingly, only 5.6 percent of the $4 billion capital campaign is slated for undergraduate financial aid — the lowest among the Ivy capital campaigns.
