Recent Admits to Schools - Receive FA?

[Anonymous]

We went through the application process for middle school and my DC was waitlisted or rejected by the schools she applied to. On paper, she seemed to be a strong candidate, but we asked for financial aid. I'm wondering if this worked against us, given the increase in applications over the last 2 years. We may apply again next year, but wonder if it's a non-starter if we need FA (not 100 percent, but probably about 50 percent).

If you were accepted to middle school for the fall, were you offered financial aid and if so, did it cover what you need? If you've been through this process in the past, is it easier or harder to get FA in high school since it's only a 4-year commitment versus 6 or 7 years for a middle schooler?

[Anonymous]

How many schools did you apply to? What sorts of schools?

[Anonymous]

Applied to 5, all co-ed, most of the big names/usual suspects.

[Anonymous]

50% is a lot of aid to need. For the big name schools, that’s asking for $25,000 a year. Schools are unlikely to have that kind of money left for next year.

[Anonymous]

We were admitted, but told no FA, which to be honest we were expecting. Applications were coming out of their ears, and we're DCUM poor, not actual poor.

[Anonymous]

Asked for aid. We were admitted (big 3) but with no aid.

[Anonymous]

Curious about OPs HHI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went through the application process for middle school and my DC was waitlisted or rejected by the schools she applied to. On paper, she seemed to be a strong candidate, but we asked for financial aid. I'm wondering if this worked against us, given the increase in applications over the last 2 years. We may apply again next year, but wonder if it's a non-starter if we need FA (not 100 percent, but probably about 50 percent).

If you were accepted to middle school for the fall, were you offered financial aid and if so, did it cover what you need? If you've been through this process in the past, is it easier or harder to get FA in high school since it's only a 4-year commitment versus 6 or 7 years for a middle schooler?

The 50% need could be the problem. They could take two 25% kids or three kids with lower percentage FA needs.

[Anonymous]

We applied to 3 schools for 5th and got 40-45% FA for all 3. Also have a high schooler paying full price for in private so that helped us.

[Anonymous]

Waitlisted some places, received 50-75% aid elsewhere. No rejections. Cast a wide net. Lower school.

I suspect that you were either deserving of aid but didn't make the cut for admission with aid, or were asking for aid that wasn't truly needed.

[Anonymous]

FA available for “recent admits” depends on what happened with the bulk of offers of admission.

Schools have FA budget. They anticipate that a percentage of the class will need FA. (25% is a common percentage). And they have budgeted assuming that the average FA award will be a certain percentage. (50% is often used)

If when extending additional offers of admission they think that there is some room left in the FA budget based on what they know is happening with the first group, they might not consider financial need quite so strongly.

But it doesn’t make a lot of sense to offer admittance to families that need significant FA if there won’t be much of it left in the budget.

[Anonymous]

50% off tuition is a lot. I would move to a better school district.

[Anonymous]

Yes, offered approx 75% at 2 schools. Good student, busy with extra curriculars, URM.

[Anonymous]

Yes, received offers from 3 schools offering 75% aid
And one offering about 30%. This was for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, received offers from 3 schools offering 75% aid
And one offering about 30%. This was for high school.

Wow, why do you think the 4th one was so out of sync with the other three??