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GUEST ROOM | Full Aid for Every Admitted Student with Need
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Following last Thursday’s announcement that starting this Fall, Cornell will be need-aware when considering international undergraduate applications, concerns have been raised about the policy change potentially leading to a decrease in the economic diversity of Cornell’s international student population or a decrease in applicants. There are misperceptions that this is a budget-cutting move. In reality, this change in policy will enable admissions committees to act affirmatively based on more complete information to admit truly high-achieving, low-income applicants from around the world. Admissions officers will have more accurate and robust information about which applicants are low-income. This will, therefore, have the ability to act affirmatively with explicit consideration to achieving economic diversity goals for our undergraduate international student population, rather than engaging in practices suggested in Wednesday’s editorial such as inferring “a student’s financial situation from where one was raised or a parent’s level of education” which are questionable indicators of family income status.