Financial Plan - Cornell University Division of Budget & Planning

Tuition, Financial Aid & EndowmentPercent of the Average Undergraduate Tuition and Mandatory Fee ChargeCovered by Cornell Grant Aid on a Per-Student Basis *30%25%RestrictedUnrestrictedGrant Aidas aPercentofTuitionandMandatoryFeeRates20%15%10%5%0%28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 00 03 06Fiscal Year* The average undergraduate’s tuition and mandatory fee charge for each year has been weighted for differences in enrollmentsand tuition rates among endowed Ithaca, contract college resident, and contract college nonresident students.• Second, the family contribution is determined. Thefamily contribution is composed of the parentalcontribution—the amount that the student’sparents should be able to afford to pay based onan assessment of income and family assets—anda student contribution that is based on student assetsand how much the student should be able toearn from summer employment. The differencebetween the cost of attendance and the familycontribution becomes the student’s financial need.• Third, if the student is eligible for governmentfunding such as federal Pell grants or New YorkState Tuition Assistance Program awards, theseexternal grant sources are applied to meet thedefined financial need.• Fourth, financial need is then adjusted for studentself-help, which represents the portion that thestudent should cover through loans and academicyearwork. 14 The federal government subsidizesboth components of loan and work-study.14 Students sometimes elect to underutilize the loan andwork-study components of their financial-aid packages.• Finally, the cost of attendance not met by familycontribution, external sources, and studentself-help is covered by university grant aid, whichcomes from endowments and gifts as well as theinstitution’s general unrestricted operating budget.The graph above shows the amount of Cornell-fundedgrant aid that the university has provided per studentas a percentage of the average tuition and fee ratescharged in each year from 1927-28 through 2007-08.Restricted grant aid comes primarily from endowmentsdonated for that purpose. The 2008-09 sourcesof support for financial aid can be seen in AppendixG (page 66), which shows that Cornell will commit$138.9 million of its own resources for that purpose.Of this total, unrestricted grant aid will increase 25percent, from $80.7 million to $101 million, andrestricted grant aid will expand 15 percent, from $29million to $33.4 million, as the university institutes itsnew financial-aid policy for low-income students.As can be seen in the graph at the top of page 19,Cornell grant aid can cover up to 88 percent of thecost of attendance for students who receive such as-18