Getting into Cornell?

Question

Ok, I'm a sophomore in high school and recently have started planning getting into college. I looked up Cornell and fell in love with the school. But because it's an Ivy there's no way my family can pay for it. We aren't poor poor, but my parents are about $120K in deb because of credit cards and stuff. They just refinanced the house to help with that, but point is we have no money to send me to an Ivy League. So what I'm asking is how can I financially go to Cornell and what it actually takes to get in.

Thanks

Answer 1

Any top 15 school (Ivy or Stanford/Duke/MIT) will be very difficult to get in.  Applicants with 2400 on the SAT can be, and frequently are, rejected.

To get to a top 15 school, look at US News and evaluate your SAT's with respect to the middle 50.  If you are over the top 75 percentile you are off to a good start.  The bad news is: so are thousands others.  

What the top 15 are looking for is stars, not well rounded kids.  If you are in band, captain of your tennis team and on the debate team you have done nothing to help yourself.  Are you the number one tennis player in your state?  Now we are talking about something you can use.

So, graduate in the top five in your class (not top 5%), get a state ranking in something (or start your own successful business), kill on the SAT's and distinguish yourself so they want you, not the other way around.

Good luck.

Answer 2

You are in a difficult position because colleges do not consider consumer debt in granting financial aid. Parents are expected to have saved for college, to pay a portion out of current income and to borrow. If your parents have a good income it will be considered their choice to have taken on consumer debt. Do one of the online calculators, the Cornell web site probably has one and see what they expect your family to pay. If it's not affordable, you need to look at your lower cost options such as state schools and those that give merit aid which Cornell does not.