Affordability
Cornell University has an array of initiatives that increase access and affordability. Cornell meets 100 percent of demonstrated financial need for all eligible undergraduates with annual aid offers that include Cornell grants and endowed scholarships, Pell grants and New York State grants (when eligible), work-study, and zero or a low student loans. Cornell also considers aid offers students receive from a peer institution and strives to make a comparable evaluation of a family’s demonstrated financial need, as well as re-evaluate initial offers of grant aid, loans, and work-study.
Cornell University
Cornell University's response combines substantial institutional investment with measurable outcomes in affordability, career preparation, student well-being, community dialogue, and organizational modernization. The submission emphasizes both broad access and a highly supported student experience, backed by expanded staffing, philanthropy, technology, and structural change.
Joined September 2026
cornell.edu
Affordability
That means full transparency about college costs; policies welcoming transfer students and credits they have already earned; and financial aid and other support for those in need.
The programs below are the ones the institution put forward against this commitment, with the outcomes it reports against each.
Dialogue & Community
Dialogue & CommunityThat means we support student well-being. We also protect free speech while showing students how to engage across differences, so they can be caring and responsible citizens.
The programs below are the ones the institution put forward against this commitment, with the outcomes it reports against each.
Turning “Disagreement” into a Class
Cornell University has a class named, in straightforward fashion, Disagreement (GOVT 1109), that brings speakers together each week for a discussion about one of today’s most contentious issues, from immigration and family size to the merits of democracy, capitalism and progressivism: immigration and family size, for example; or the merits of democracy, capitalism and progressivism. The class is designed to help students confront and move through disagreements at work, at home, in their communities and in society.