Hi!

Okay so on Cornell's website to get a css fee waiver it says this:

CSS Profile fee waiver requests must be sent to intl-finaid@cornell.edu by the stated application deadlines

(The deadline was January 2)

I sent one on December 23 but they were closed for winter break so I got an automated reply that included:

Thank you for your message. Cornell University is closed for Winter Break until Tuesday, January 3. It will take several days to respond to your email after that date. Please do not send duplicate messages. To request a CSS profile fee waiver, send an email to finaid@cornell.edu. Please do not send a duplicate request for the waiver. We will allow a grace period around the January 2 deadline and your CSS profile will be accepted through January 20, 2023.

January 20 is getting close so now im getting a little worried that maybe i didnt understand the email right. They mention not to send a duplicate request for the waiver, but the email they give is different to the one I emailed. Am I good or should I email finaid@cornell.edu instead?

"The deadline to apply for international financial aid for fall 2025 first-year admission has passed. We are very sorry, but we will not be able to accept your international financial aid (CSS PROFILE) application at this late date nor will we be able to provide you with a CSS fee waiver code."

This is the first time I’ve been rejected by a financial aid office, NOOO... I mean, why do they even need a CSS Profile? My family's income is $4k a year—I’m so poor.

Does this mean I'm rejected ?!

EDIT: Wtf is January 2nd?!! I applied to Cornell by January 6th... that’s not my fault, of course. Every other college I applied to set the CSS deadline after the application deadline. I’m an international applicant doing everything on my own—no counselor, no other students here applying to the U.S.

Are colleges still businesses or what?? Are you a child? If a school won’t offer aid, they should just say so instead of setting people up to miss the deadline. And Cornell is need-aware

EDIT 2: You really don't consider circumstances, which is why you're immature kids. If someone has never seen the sun before, would they even ask if there is a sun? If someone thought that all the CSS deadlines were after the application deadline, because all the colleges they applied to did that—except this one college—how would they even think about that? Reading every college financial aid website is like watching a movie and hearing the same song at the start every time, just to catch a detail that wasn’t in the opening of other episodes!

EDIT 3: Fine, you’re right, I’m a donkey. No, I’m worse... there’s no word to describe me because the word will be insulted like this.

I read somewhere on this sub that you can get fee waivers for the css profile. Is it true? If yes how do I ask for them ? And can internationals obtain them ?

Also, should you list the colleges you are applying to RD in the css profile, or you can add colleges/refill the Css in December?

Columbia University

UPenn

Cornell University

I emailed all of them in early January and none of them replied, I have recently emailed them again but I'm yet to hear from them.

So basically, I submitted my CSS profile a couple of weeks ago thinking we had to do it every year, but I got an email a week ago that said most students do not have to complete it unless noted in their FinAid todo list. I checked after I submitted and didn’t see anything, but now my todo list is asking for IDOC information. Does anyone know if I should submit it or call the finaid office to see if it’s required? Thanks