COVER STORY: New financial aid is opening doors
Joe Caccio '12 sits with his sisters Alexis, 12 (left), and Olivia, 10, and holds up his Cornell orientation materials moments after they arrived at his home in the mail. See larger image
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.
"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.
'Momentous' choice
The magnitude of Cornell's commitment to this new policy -- some might even call it a philosophy -- is visible in the estimated impact it will have on Cornell's finances. University officials say the new plan will require about a $14 million increase in annual spending; some of it will come from the university endowment, which at last count was $5.4 billion. It will also mean officials will have to prioritize financial aid spending over other projects that might now be put on the back burner.
But this decision was made in light of Cornell's dedication to its original mission, according to President David Skorton.
Abraham Saldivar, on campus with his family during Move-In Weekend. See larger image
"Cornell is committed to providing a superb liberal education across the full ranges of disciplines to the best and brightest students from all walks of life, regardless of their resources," he said when the initiative was announced in January. "This new initiative is momentous, extending Cornell's land-grant mandate established in 1865."
Cornell's financial aid policies extend to students from the United States, Canada and Mexico. Abraham Saldivar, of central Mexico, illustrates again how many of the brightest students are not always the most affluent.
The youngest of three brothers in a Mexican middle-class family that makes less than $30,000 per year, Saldivar is also a freshman this year. He loves physics and chemistry so much that he wants to major in both. Those disciplines, he says, are his way of understanding the world.
"A part of it is because you get to understand how things really work," Saldivar said.