What kind of income receives financial aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We earn 145k and were denied financial aid at all schools. I think it was the equity in our house that did it. When my husband attended the financial aid workshop last Fall, he specifically asked that question - does your equity count against you when applying for financial aid? He was told, absolutely not, you are not expected to sell your home to send your child to school. Well, we were denied and now have our house on the market to downsize and pull some equity out as it's the only way we can afford to send our child to a school that costs a little over 28k with after-care. I have absolutely no idea how financial aid works and why some people are granted aid and others not.

You sound just like us! We just got our SSS back and it said we can afford $ 24,000 and we have a combined income of $ 150,000. We bought a home this year so it has no equity yet BUT I believe they held against us the fact that we had $ 40,000 in savings for closing costs, etc. That was TRULY are like savings though. I'm really bummed because it is very doubtful we will get any aid and we cannot afford the $ 30k in tuition (included after care) if we get in somewhere. I'm just curious how does one qualify for aid in DC. I mean a couple making $ 150,000 is NOT alot for this area. The SSS said we have negative net worth yet we can somehow afford to pay
$ 24,000?! Crazy!

Do you have more than one child?

Down payment for a home can not be counted as income.

Most schools give more FA than the PFS says is warranted, just apply and see. My PFS said full tuition too, but we got FA from the school that accepted DD.

[Anonymous]

Camps give FA, provided it is also a school during the year..even if you DC doesn't attend there during year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We make 110,000 and recieve aid.

This is so interesting ... particularly the follow-up note that this poster receives aid equivalent to 60 percent or so of tuition. I make $110K as a single parent ... I just submitted my parental financial statement and the SSS calculates that I can pay roughly 90 percent of tuition at the more expensive schools. Perhaps its my home equity -- I bought my two-bedroom rowhouse in the late 90s -- but given that we're already in a small two-bedroom, downsizing to pull out equity doesn't hold much appeal (or feasibility). Or could it be my retirement savings? Anyway, if my child gets in to any of the schools she's applying to, it will be interesting to see if we get aid at all, much less aid on the scale of this poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:<quote>I might add that I am on the faculty of an Ivy League Univ and we see very little difference between private and public school students in academic performance.</quote>

I couldn't let this one pass. Look, I basically agree that a smart and motivated child with solid parental support can do fine in either setting. I went to public school and a fancy college, and I'm sending my kid to private school for reasons mostly unrelated to academics. But surely as a faculty member at an "Ivy League Univ" you understand sampling bias. You are looking at the kids who got to your college and saying, they seem comparable. Well, yeah. If the school is Dartmouth I bet they disproportionately like to ski, too. But we can't take a group like this and then draw conclusions from it about whether all their HS classmates (not at Ivy League U) received roughly equal educations, and we certainly can't make claims about the education of all the kids whose high schools are not represented at all at your Univ.

As an alum of a "big 3" private school and an Ivy League univ, I can honestly say that I don't see much difference in the success and happiness of friends/colleagues who attended public secondary schools vs those who attended private. And though I see the PP's point, I'm not only using my Ivy classmates as examples. I'm not at the point where I need to think about private v public yet, but I'm not at all sold on the idea that private is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make 110,000 and recieve aid.

This is so interesting ... particularly the follow-up note that this poster receives aid equivalent to 60 percent or so of tuition. I make $110K as a single parent ... I just submitted my parental financial statement and the SSS calculates that I can pay roughly 90 percent of tuition at the more expensive schools. Perhaps its my home equity -- I bought my two-bedroom rowhouse in the late 90s -- but given that we're already in a small two-bedroom, downsizing to pull out equity doesn't hold much appeal (or feasibility). Or could it be my retirement savings? Anyway, if my child gets in to any of the schools she's applying to, it will be interesting to see if we get aid at all, much less aid on the scale of this poster.

If they calculated that you should get 10% aid you are in good shape as when I applied w/ about 120K they said I could pay full as a single parent.Don't sweat it :the SSS people never think anyone deserves aid( well maybe if you have 3 kids and make 45K) , but the schools know that SSS hasn't adjusted their housing costs for inflation since 1972 and that their assessment of your "living modestly" is based as if you lived in Iowa, or maybe North Dakota and adjust their aid awards accordingly. Problem is if you are single because you are divorced and dear ex-DH didn't die in debt and in-testate they will want to see his income and expect him to pay, I believe above and beyond child support. Also if you remarry step -Dad's income counts towards ability to pay. If you 110K is IT total and your child is accepted at a school that is well endowed you should get something. And great that you have home equity to draw on if you come up short . You are better off than many. Good luck

[Anonymous]

Oh ,and the follow up note is from another poster, not the one who wrote "we make 110K and get aid." Don't assume that they get 60%.

[Anonymous]

Last year we got 50% tuition assistance for our oldest child at a top school. This year we inherited some money and put it all into a house in an area with good public schools for our younger kids who probably won't go to private school until middle school, if at all. We have only a small mortgage. We thought this was a wise decision for all the kids but this year the school denied us financial aid. I assume the decision was because of the house because combined HHI is $90,000 with 3 children. Now my oldest child will have to leave her school. SSS recommended that we receive almost 50% tuition again but apparently the school did not agree. We are devastated, not because public school isn't fine, but because our child has been forced to switch school so many times already due to moves, etc.

[Anonymous]

PP, how much did you inherit? If you inherited enough to buy a house in our notoriously expensive D.C. area that has "good public schools" and leaves you with "only a small mortgage", it must have been quite a bit! If that's the case, it doesn't surprise me that the school thinks you could have used that money towards tuition.

Anonymous wrote:Last year we got 50% tuition assistance for our oldest child at a top school. This year we inherited some money and put it all into a house in an area with good public schools for our younger kids who probably won't go to private school until middle school, if at all. We have only a small mortgage. We thought this was a wise decision for all the kids but this year the school denied us financial aid. I assume the decision was because of the house because combined HHI is $90,000 with 3 children. Now my oldest child will have to leave her school. SSS recommended that we receive almost 50% tuition again but apparently the school did not agree. We are devastated, not because public school isn't fine, but because our child has been forced to switch school so many times already due to moves, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, how much did you inherit? If you inherited enough to buy a house in our notoriously expensive D.C. area that has "good public schools" and leaves you with "only a small mortgage", it must have been quite a bit! If that's the case, it doesn't surprise me that the school thinks you could have used that money towards tuition.

Anonymous wrote:Last year we got 50% tuition assistance for our oldest child at a top school. This year we inherited some money and put it all into a house in an area with good public schools for our younger kids who probably won't go to private school until middle school, if at all. We have only a small mortgage. We thought this was a wise decision for all the kids but this year the school denied us financial aid. I assume the decision was because of the house because combined HHI is $90,000 with 3 children. Now my oldest child will have to leave her school. SSS recommended that we receive almost 50% tuition again but apparently the school did not agree. We are devastated, not because public school isn't fine, but because our child has been forced to switch school so many times already due to moves, etc.

We already had a house in a less expensive area which we sold for close to $500,000 so we used that money and the inheritance to buy the house. We moved to Montgomery County because the areas in DC with good schools were too expensive for us. I suppose they did think we should put our entire inheritance toward school but that would be a very stupid decision considering that the other kids in our family would not be able to go to good schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I think the PP is very rude to accuse the "ivy league professor" of lying, I do wonder about one thing: the nearest ivy is, I guess, Princeton. It would be an awfully long commute from the DC area to Princeton. So, why are you on DCUM?

Was just wondering this myself. Penn is marginally closer than Princeton, but still a 2+ hour commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We earn 145k and were denied financial aid at all schools. I think it was the equity in our house that did it. When my husband attended the financial aid workshop last Fall, he specifically asked that question - does your equity count against you when applying for financial aid? He was told, absolutely not, you are not expected to sell your home to send your child to school. Well, we were denied and now have our house on the market to downsize and pull some equity out as it's the only way we can afford to send our child to a school that costs a little over 28k with after-care. I have absolutely no idea how financial aid works and why some people are granted aid and others not.

How do they know how much equity you have in your house? Do they ask you when you bought it and how much it's worth now?

Hi. When we filled out the application, it asked for our tax returns, mortgage details, how much money we put down and assessed value of the house. As I said, although my husband was assured during the information session that we were not expected to sell our home or pull out equity to pay for our childs education, apparently, we were. We are both working parents, combined salary of 145k, we have one child, are not "staff" or a minority family, applied to more than 5 schools and were denied financial aid from all. We are seriously scrimping and saving to afford the 28k a year (plus whatever it will cost to put our child in summer camp) and we do have our house on the market to do so. So, we'll downsize, pull some money out, be the "poor" family in the school and re-assess next year as to if we will be forced to go the public route.

With all of that said, we are lucky to have that equity in our house, but we worked hard to get it and have deliberately kept it there to keep our mortgage payments down so we can aford to live in NW DC - and even at a combined salary of 145k (before taxes), with a child and paying for daycare for the past two years, it's not easy.

How much is your house worth and how much equity do you have?Is it enough to put DC through several years of prvate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:21:09 - it depends on the school and how badly the teachers want the supplies. If it's a school on a tight budget and the department doesn't deem a purchase necessary but the teacher really wants it then he/she might spend his/her own money.

Don't forget that teachers and staff are expected to make donations to the annual fund and various other fundraisers at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, I strongly disagree that "teachers' kids" are the problem kids. What a horrible, unfair generalization. It is not supported by my experiences.

Agree. I was a private-school teacher for years (pre-kids) and in my experience, the worst-behaved kids were the wealthiest, entitled ones, definitely not the teachers' kids!

Teacher here - I definitely agree with this. The last couple of years have seen an increase in not-so great candidates from families that can pay full tuition.

[Anonymous]

We discuss the worth of private school education all the time. We have a HHI of 500K and pay three tuitions. We have a house, and contibute to retirement, but we have very little in the way of savings beyond that. I think my children are getting a terrific educaton at a top school, and I am wiling to pay for that. I did take advantage of DC public schools for elementary though, and I would not be willing to make this sacrifice for every school in the city. Some publics are better than some privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We discuss the worth of private school education all the time. We have a HHI of 500K and pay three tuitions. We have a house, and contibute to retirement, but we have very little in the way of savings beyond that. I think my children are getting a terrific educaton at a top school, and I am wiling to pay for that. I did take advantage of DC public schools for elementary though, and I would not be willing to make this sacrifice for every school in the city. Some publics are better than some privates.

If you make 500K and you are not saving at all (other than retirement - which to most people is considered saving), then you are watsing money elsewhere and its not the tuition. Even paying $30K per kid, that still leaves you with $400K - way more than most people make. I'd stop blaming private school and re-examine your spending habits.