COVER STORY: New financial aid is opening doors
Schmidt's parents, an engineer and a teacher, make more than Parris' mother, but because they still fall below the $120,000 threshold, his loans are capped at $3,000 a year. Would Schmidt be at Cornell now without the new aid?
"I would have to say yes, but it would've been a hardship," Barb Schmidt said of her son's choice.
The new policy has also allowed some students to come to Cornell who might never have considered it in the past because of its high costs.
The Caccio family, for example, had fallen into rocky financial waters, and the timing could not have been worse. Readying to send their eldest son to college, Joseph Caccio was laid off from his middle-level office job at a financial services firm. His wife, Cathy, took part-time work at a book warehouse to help pay bills, while juggling responsibilities with their four children.
Meanwhile, Joe Caccio Jr., an honors student and salutatorian of his Monroe Township, N.J., high school class, was admitted to Cornell's College of Engineering. With his family's income level falling under $60,000 per year, Caccio Jr. is on track to graduate debt free, thanks to the new aid parameters.
Caccio Sr. likes to think he could have given his son a Cornell education no matter what. But he isn't sure if it would have been possible without the generous financial aid -- and he's grateful.
Tom Schmidt '12 with his father, Greg Schmidt. See larger image
"Parents always want to give the best opportunity to their kids, but it would've been tough," he said. "We have three more after him, and they are closely bunched in ages. The financial aid made it a lot easier, and a lot less worrisome of a decision."
When the new financial aid policy is fully implemented in 2009-10, students from families that make $75,000 or less per year will qualify for aid packages with no loans, and students from families making $75,001 to $120,000 will have their loans capped at $3,000 per year.
To reduce student loan debt, Cornell will balance the equation by spending more for grant aid, or scholarship aid -- money that students do not have to pay back after graduation. In 2007-08, Cornell spent $116.8 million on financial aid, 94 percent of which was spent on grant aid. Of that 94 percent, about 25 percent is endowed scholarship money that has been donated to the university.