Simple — there are a lot of people who have a lot of money. The vast majority of people don’t. But 1-3% of the U.S. population can afford to pay full freight. In a country of 320 million people, that means that there are literally millions of people (3-6 million, roughly) who can easily write a check for the full tuition/room/board and not bat an eyelash. The cost of attending a prestigious college like Cornell is not a factor for these folks; it’s only about getting admitted. BTW, $240k is low. Tuition room and board is now running about $42k/semester. So a four-year Bachelors degree now costs about $336k. More on reddit.com

Approx 54% receive financial aid of any type at Cornell. More on reddit.com

Your parents make $200K-$300K per year /and/ own property. Even assuming the low-ish end of that range, say $225K, and assuming that's their pre-tax salary, it means your parents keep a little over $150K per year after taxes. While colleges like Cornell are ridiculously expensive, it would also be ridiculous to argue that your parents would struggle to afford Cornell in any way. Your parents could pay 70K/year for your tuition, housing in Ithaca, food, healthcare, and more, while still having over 80K/year left over to cover all of their other expenses... which is more than some people's families make pre-tax in a year. You also mention your parents own property, so they likely don't even need to pay rent. They almost certainly pay property taxes, sure, but that's like 1.1% of value in the Bay Area, and might still come out to less than many families are paying in rent on an annual basis. The only situation in which your parents would struggle to pay for Cornell would be if they're also putting one or two other children through college at the exact same time. Then that would genuinely make a dent in their income and would be valid reason for requesting some financial aid. But you haven't mentioned having siblings who are also attending college so I assume this isn't the case. my parents will not fund my education at Cornell for anything over $26,000 This honestly sucks, and it's a shitty situation to be in. But unfortunately, that's between you and your parents. It's not like they "can't pay". If "not willing to pay" was a valid reason to get financial aid, then why would anyone's family, regardless of how many millions of dollars they're worth, ever "be willing" to pay for their child's tuition at Cornell? All they'd have to say is "no" and they'd get it for free. It's unfortunate, but the alternative isn't practical for a private institution like Cornell at this point in time. More on reddit.com

It’s the same as the rest of Cornell unless you have NY state residence More on reddit.com