Sidwell tuition increase

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2017-18

STA 44,144
NCS 41,975
Sidwell 40,840
GDS, 40,000 (no lunch program)
Potomac 39,770
Maret 37,700

Yay Maret! For years, they have kept tuition increases to 2-2.5% per year, right around the annual Cost of Living increase. The spread in the above chart will only continue to grow.

[Anonymous]

I went to a friends school in PA and I'm hoping that we can send our kids to one for high school, and maybe even middle school. Even though I would love them to go to Sidwell, we will probably end up at Sandy Spring. The thing is that it's not just the tuition, but students at these schools, especially a school like Sidwell, have tutors and do expensive summer activities. The 10k we would save in tuition could go to these things. But I'm not sure if our family is the norm as we are more interested in the Quaker component rather than the status.

[Anonymous]

Some students have tutors, not all. Some students do expensive summer activitiies, not all.

And that will be the case whether it is Sidwell, Wilson or Sandy Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hostility directed at those who dare question the tuition increase is silly. I want other sidwell parents to know that the majority of us are sympathetic and understanding of the different financial positions and sacrifices most of us have to make and that these increases have a very real effect on many. It’s an awful predicament of higher education. That merits attention and productive discussion. Please ignore the blowhards.

+1. Even if a family can 'afford' the increase, it sucks because you are stuck with whatever the Board decides -- once your kids are there, you have very limited choice in the price of a very hefty purchase. It's just an unpleasant position to be in. On top of that, Boards of these schools are mostly made up of large donors who have a hard time appreciating why a couple thousand dollars matters.

[Anonymous]

F the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hostility directed at those who dare question the tuition increase is silly. I want other sidwell parents to know that the majority of us are sympathetic and understanding of the different financial positions and sacrifices most of us have to make and that these increases have a very real effect on many. It’s an awful predicament of higher education. That merits attention and productive discussion. Please ignore the blowhards.

I don't think people are being blowhards, they are just pointing out that complaining about a reality is silly and uninformed. Where is the productive discussion you suggest? 18 pages and the only real suggestion anyone made about how to put the brakes on increases is to cut financial aid. I'm not knocking that idea, just saying it was the only one.

Board members and the administration are well aware of how these increases impact the families. Really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a friends school in PA and I'm hoping that we can send our kids to one for high school, and maybe even middle school. Even though I would love them to go to Sidwell, we will probably end up at Sandy Spring. The thing is that it's not just the tuition, but students at these schools, especially a school like Sidwell, have tutors and do expensive summer activities. The 10k we would save in tuition could go to these things. But I'm not sure if our family is the norm as we are more interested in the Quaker component rather than the status.

Don't settle on SSFS. It's a great school and you'd be lucky if they admitted your DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hostility directed at those who dare question the tuition increase is silly. I want other sidwell parents to know that the majority of us are sympathetic and understanding of the different financial positions and sacrifices most of us have to make and that these increases have a very real effect on many. It’s an awful predicament of higher education. That merits attention and productive discussion. Please ignore the blowhards.

I don't think people are being blowhards, they are just pointing out that complaining about a reality is silly and uninformed. Where is the productive discussion you suggest? 18 pages and the only real suggestion anyone made about how to put the brakes on increases is to cut financial aid. I'm not knocking that idea, just saying it was the only one.

Board members and the administration are well aware of how these increases impact the families. Really.

A second idea is to be more resistant to increasing expenditures on facilities, administrative costs, and auxiliary programs.

[Anonymous]

one of my kids is in 10th grade at SFS, been there since 3rd grade.

My husband read this thread and he bought up this idea to me last night. We have three more kids that are currently in 6th, 4th and 3rd grade. Instead of spending 125k/year to send them to SFS, why not keep them in Fairfax County Public School (e.g. Churchill ES, Cooper MS and Langley HS)? We can use that 125k to hire the best private tutor in all subjects. I mean literary pay someone to come to our house and help them with their school work. That is a much better ROI in the long run, right?

suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Board is out of touch with the impact, or it doesn’t care or it is perfectly willing to have a bimodal student population with no “middle class”.
F them and their limousines. I expect more from a place with Sidwells values but that was too idealistic.

[Anonymous]

They’re no different than sta, ncs and the like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:one of my kids is in 10th grade at SFS, been there since 3rd grade.

My husband read this thread and he bought up this idea to me last night. We have three more kids that are currently in 6th, 4th and 3rd grade. Instead of spending 125k/year to send them to SFS, why not keep them in Fairfax County Public School (e.g. Churchill ES, Cooper MS and Langley HS)? We can use that 125k to hire the best private tutor in all subjects. I mean literary pay someone to come to our house and help them with their school work. That is a much better ROI in the long run, right?

suggestions?

Of course it is. You could instead spend 20-30k on tutors and save 90-100k into your private brokerage account. Besides the fact with a decent public school you shouldn’t require many tutors if at all. I went to a solid public school and my parents only had to hire a tutor for me for calculus. Because my parents didn’t choose private they have an extra $1 million invested to use for medical care or for me to inherit. You really should only send your kids to private if money is no object.

[Anonymous]

So I was doing a rough calculation just for fun.
Let's assume scenario 1 where your child enters 1st grade (7yo) and you pay $40K in tuition that increases 3.75% annually. By the time s/he graduates, you would have paid about $592K in tuition.

Let's assume scenario 2 where you don't send your child to private school and invest each year's tuition in the stock market. Let's assume the market returns 8% each year. By the time s/he graduates high school, you would have $906K. Now, let's assume you continue to invest that $906K with a return of 8% so that you have a retirement fund saved for your child. By the time your child is 65yo, s/he would have $33M. That's a lot of money. If the return on investment is a 10%, the amount at 65yo is a whopping $89M!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I was doing a rough calculation just for fun.
Let's assume scenario 1 where your child enters 1st grade (7yo) and you pay $40K in tuition that increases 3.75% annually. By the time s/he graduates, you would have paid about $592K in tuition.

Let's assume scenario 2 where you don't send your child to private school and invest each year's tuition in the stock market. Let's assume the market returns 8% each year. By the time s/he graduates high school, you would have $906K. Now, let's assume you continue to invest that $906K with a return of 8% so that you have a retirement fund saved for your child. By the time your child is 65yo, s/he would have $33M. That's a lot of money. If the return on investment is a 10%, the amount at 65yo is a whopping $89M!

The kid would have to pay gift or estate taxes on most of that. My kids each get get max tax free gift allowed ($28k) per year. They should also have several million at retirement and a great education, neither of which they have to pay inheritance tax on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:one of my kids is in 10th grade at SFS, been there since 3rd grade.

My husband read this thread and he bought up this idea to me last night. We have three more kids that are currently in 6th, 4th and 3rd grade. Instead of spending 125k/year to send them to SFS, why not keep them in Fairfax County Public School (e.g. Churchill ES, Cooper MS and Langley HS)? We can use that 125k to hire the best private tutor in all subjects. I mean literary pay someone to come to our house and help them with their school work. That is a much better ROI in the long run, right?

suggestions?

If you think other options are better for your kids, then you should take advantage of them. No one is forcing you to send your kid to a private school.