 Since the 1970s , tuition at Cornell and other Ivy League schools has grown much faster than inflation . This trend coincided with the creation of Federally guaranteed student loan programs . At the same time , the endowments of these schools continue to grow due to gifts and successful investments . Critics called for universities to keep their tuition at affordable levels and to not hoard endowment earnings . As a result , in 2008 , Cornell and other Ivy Schools decided to increase the spending of endowment earnings in order to subsidize tuition for low and middle income families , reducing the amount of debt that Cornell students will incur . Cornell also placed a priority to soliciting endowed scholarships for undergraduates . In fall 2007 , Cornell had 1 @,@ 863 undergraduates ( 14 % of all undergraduates ) receiving federal Pell Grants . Cornell 's Pell Grant students roughly totals the combined Pell Grant recipients studying at Harvard , Princeton and Yale . 
