For Most Income Brackets, Paying for Cornell Tuition Has Gotten ... Easier?

Every year, Cornell University announces tuition increases to a predictable chorus of media handwringing. The problem is that simply highlighting the bottom-line tuition number — now a whopping $48,880, for those keeping score at home — dramatically oversimplifies the underlying complexity in order to get a cheap sensational shock.  More importantly, doing so leads readers astray from the real story: That Cornell — like other elite universities — has followed through on genuine commitments to reducing the cost of tuition for low- and middle-income families.