Financial aid for net HHI of $150K - $200K?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone with a net household income of $150K - $200K receive financial aid at a private/independent elementary or middle school? How many kids are you paying tuition for and what kind of financial aid package have you received?

[Anonymous]

You'll definitely get aid even with one kid. The question is if it will be enough for you to afford it. With more than one kid you'll almost need full aid for kids 2 and up and I really doubt a school would do that. So you'll still be stuck with a giant tuition bill relative to your income.

[Anonymous]

Previous poster again--at 150-200k you should get 50% off kid #1 or something like $20k off tuition of $50k. I had several friends enter this year and those are the aid packages they got.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone with a net household income of $150K - $200K receive financial aid at a private/independent elementary or middle school? How many kids are you paying tuition for and what kind of financial aid package have you received?

We are in this bracket and received no aid. We’re paying for one child to attend a lower school.

[Anonymous]

At $150 HHI we had an estimated family contribution of about $20K for one child. When we had a job change and bumped up to $200 HHI we decided that we would not apply for aid anymore, and are paying a little over $30K. It’s fine and we’re happy to do it, but if it were more than 30k I don’t think we could swing it very well. I would guess that your EFC would be somewhere in that neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At $150 HHI we had an estimated family contribution of about $20K for one child. When we had a job change and bumped up to $200 HHI we decided that we would not apply for aid anymore, and are paying a little over $30K. It’s fine and we’re happy to do it, but if it were more than 30k I don’t think we could swing it very well. I would guess that your EFC would be somewhere in that neighborhood.

Lol. Hang on, I just realized that you’re talking “net”. FA officers don’t care about net, they care about gross, because what you choose to contribute to retirement etc is your personal choice, not your actual financial circumstance.

So if your net is 150, my guess is that your EFC’s probably closer to 30k, and if your net is 200, you ain’t getting aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At $150 HHI we had an estimated family contribution of about $20K for one child. When we had a job change and bumped up to $200 HHI we decided that we would not apply for aid anymore, and are paying a little over $30K. It’s fine and we’re happy to do it, but if it were more than 30k I don’t think we could swing it very well. I would guess that your EFC would be somewhere in that neighborhood.

Lol. Hang on, I just realized that you’re talking “net”. FA officers don’t care about net, they care about gross, because what you choose to contribute to retirement etc is your personal choice, not your actual financial circumstance.

So if your net is 150, my guess is that your EFC’s probably closer to 30k, and if your net is 200, you ain’t getting aid.

Not true. I know kids who got aid this past season with incomes over $400K. I do not say this to stir the pot but to encourage everyone to apply. If they want your kid badly enough they will find the aid.
The morale is: APPLY!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At $150 HHI we had an estimated family contribution of about $20K for one child. When we had a job change and bumped up to $200 HHI we decided that we would not apply for aid anymore, and are paying a little over $30K. It’s fine and we’re happy to do it, but if it were more than 30k I don’t think we could swing it very well. I would guess that your EFC would be somewhere in that neighborhood.

Lol. Hang on, I just realized that you’re talking “net”. FA officers don’t care about net, they care about gross, because what you choose to contribute to retirement etc is your personal choice, not your actual financial circumstance.

So if your net is 150, my guess is that your EFC’s probably closer to 30k, and if your net is 200, you ain’t getting aid.

Not true. I know kids who got aid this past season with incomes over $400K. I do not say this to stir the pot but to encourage everyone to apply. If they want your kid badly enough they will find the aid.
The morale is: APPLY!!

If indeed that is true — and you don’t know the whole story unless you’ve personally seen the paperwork — there is some extremely unusual circumstance going on there. It is true that it does not hurt to apply, but OP certainly shouldn’t get her hopes up, because that is way, way over the threshold for most schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At $150 HHI we had an estimated family contribution of about $20K for one child. When we had a job change and bumped up to $200 HHI we decided that we would not apply for aid anymore, and are paying a little over $30K. It’s fine and we’re happy to do it, but if it were more than 30k I don’t think we could swing it very well. I would guess that your EFC would be somewhere in that neighborhood.

Lol. Hang on, I just realized that you’re talking “net”. FA officers don’t care about net, they care about gross, because what you choose to contribute to retirement etc is your personal choice, not your actual financial circumstance.

So if your net is 150, my guess is that your EFC’s probably closer to 30k, and if your net is 200, you ain’t getting aid.

Not true. I know kids who got aid this past season with incomes over $400K. I do not say this to stir the pot but to encourage everyone to apply. If they want your kid badly enough they will find the aid.
The morale is: APPLY!!

If indeed that is true — and you don’t know the whole story unless you’ve personally seen the paperwork — there is some extremely unusual circumstance going on there. It is true that it does not hurt to apply, but OP certainly shouldn’t get her hopes up, because that is way, way over the threshold for most schools.

It is 100% true and I was surprised by it. However, I think schools are trying to create a middle ground: they don't want all kids from HHI over $750K (which seems to be increasingly what the average full pay family makes) and under $150K (the traditional aid bar).
People making $200-450K are effectively shut out from being able to afford school (at $50K/kid) if they have more than one kid but the schools want these families as they're the children of professionals in lower paying careers. So they're giving them aid. No school wants a balance of only law partners/CEOS and "poor" kids but this is what they'll get with tuition of $50K+ they raise the financial aid bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At $150 HHI we had an estimated family contribution of about $20K for one child. When we had a job change and bumped up to $200 HHI we decided that we would not apply for aid anymore, and are paying a little over $30K. It’s fine and we’re happy to do it, but if it were more than 30k I don’t think we could swing it very well. I would guess that your EFC would be somewhere in that neighborhood.

Lol. Hang on, I just realized that you’re talking “net”. FA officers don’t care about net, they care about gross, because what you choose to contribute to retirement etc is your personal choice, not your actual financial circumstance.

So if your net is 150, my guess is that your EFC’s probably closer to 30k, and if your net is 200, you ain’t getting aid.

Not true. I know kids who got aid this past season with incomes over $400K. I do not say this to stir the pot but to encourage everyone to apply. If they want your kid badly enough they will find the aid.
The morale is: APPLY!!

If indeed that is true — and you don’t know the whole story unless you’ve personally seen the paperwork — there is some extremely unusual circumstance going on there. It is true that it does not hurt to apply, but OP certainly shouldn’t get her hopes up, because that is way, way over the threshold for most schools.

It is 100% true and I was surprised by it. However, I think schools are trying to create a middle ground: they don't want all kids from HHI over $750K (which seems to be increasingly what the average full pay family makes) and under $150K (the traditional aid bar).
People making $200-450K are effectively shut out from being able to afford school (at $50K/kid) if they have more than one kid but the schools want these families as they're the children of professionals in lower paying careers. So they're giving them aid. No school wants a balance of only law partners/CEOS and "poor" kids but this is what they'll get with tuition of $50K+ they raise the financial aid bar.

I’m afraid you have an incorrect view of the school’s reason for giving FA. They are just like the airlines trying to fill the plane before take off. They exhaust the supply of full pay applicants that want. And then offer discount the price to others to reach capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At $150 HHI we had an estimated family contribution of about $20K for one child. When we had a job change and bumped up to $200 HHI we decided that we would not apply for aid anymore, and are paying a little over $30K. It’s fine and we’re happy to do it, but if it were more than 30k I don’t think we could swing it very well. I would guess that your EFC would be somewhere in that neighborhood.

Lol. Hang on, I just realized that you’re talking “net”. FA officers don’t care about net, they care about gross, because what you choose to contribute to retirement etc is your personal choice, not your actual financial circumstance.

So if your net is 150, my guess is that your EFC’s probably closer to 30k, and if your net is 200, you ain’t getting aid.

Not true. I know kids who got aid this past season with incomes over $400K. I do not say this to stir the pot but to encourage everyone to apply. If they want your kid badly enough they will find the aid.
The morale is: APPLY!!

If indeed that is true — and you don’t know the whole story unless you’ve personally seen the paperwork — there is some extremely unusual circumstance going on there. It is true that it does not hurt to apply, but OP certainly shouldn’t get her hopes up, because that is way, way over the threshold for most schools.

It is 100% true and I was surprised by it. However, I think schools are trying to create a middle ground: they don't want all kids from HHI over $750K (which seems to be increasingly what the average full pay family makes) and under $150K (the traditional aid bar).
People making $200-450K are effectively shut out from being able to afford school (at $50K/kid) if they have more than one kid but the schools want these families as they're the children of professionals in lower paying careers. So they're giving them aid. No school wants a balance of only law partners/CEOS and "poor" kids but this is what they'll get with tuition of $50K+ they raise the financial aid bar.

I’m afraid you have an incorrect view of the school’s reason for giving FA. They are just like the airlines trying to fill the plane before take off. They exhaust the supply of full pay applicants that want. And then offer discount the price to others to reach capacity.

This is incorrect. Many schools could easily fill their seats with all full pay applicants, but they do not because they are committed to paying x dollars on FA per cycle.

OP, with that net I would expect your FA to be about 20-30% discount on tuition, but be aware that FA varies widely between schools, often with little rhyme or reason to the applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At $150 HHI we had an estimated family contribution of about $20K for one child. When we had a job change and bumped up to $200 HHI we decided that we would not apply for aid anymore, and are paying a little over $30K. It’s fine and we’re happy to do it, but if it were more than 30k I don’t think we could swing it very well. I would guess that your EFC would be somewhere in that neighborhood.

Lol. Hang on, I just realized that you’re talking “net”. FA officers don’t care about net, they care about gross, because what you choose to contribute to retirement etc is your personal choice, not your actual financial circumstance.

So if your net is 150, my guess is that your EFC’s probably closer to 30k, and if your net is 200, you ain’t getting aid.

Not true. I know kids who got aid this past season with incomes over $400K. I do not say this to stir the pot but to encourage everyone to apply. If they want your kid badly enough they will find the aid.
The morale is: APPLY!!

If indeed that is true — and you don’t know the whole story unless you’ve personally seen the paperwork — there is some extremely unusual circumstance going on there. It is true that it does not hurt to apply, but OP certainly shouldn’t get her hopes up, because that is way, way over the threshold for most schools.

It is 100% true and I was surprised by it. However, I think schools are trying to create a middle ground: they don't want all kids from HHI over $750K (which seems to be increasingly what the average full pay family makes) and under $150K (the traditional aid bar).
People making $200-450K are effectively shut out from being able to afford school (at $50K/kid) if they have more than one kid but the schools want these families as they're the children of professionals in lower paying careers. So they're giving them aid. No school wants a balance of only law partners/CEOS and "poor" kids but this is what they'll get with tuition of $50K+ they raise the financial aid bar.

I’m afraid you have an incorrect view of the school’s reason for giving FA. They are just like the airlines trying to fill the plane before take off. They exhaust the supply of full pay applicants that want. And then offer discount the price to others to reach capacity.

Nope. You are completely incorrect regarding the most exclusive ("Big3") schools. They do not want a plane full of full-pay applicants and they have money to ensure that they don't have to take a plane full of full-pay applicants. They are building community.
They want (at get) the kids they want, irrespective of ability to pay in full.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this information. Yes, our net income after taxes only is about $200K. Other deductions like retirement contributions, health insurance, etc. account for about $50,000, so our net take-home income is about $150,000.

Do schools adjust the parent contribution amount differently than what is shown on the Family Contribution Report that we see to account for cost of living in high-cost areas, etc.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for this information. Yes, our net income after taxes only is about $200K. Other deductions like retirement contributions, health insurance, etc. account for about $50,000, so our net take-home income is about $150,000.

Do schools adjust the parent contribution amount differently than what is shown on the Family Contribution Report that we see to account for cost of living in high-cost areas, etc.?

When I inquired I was told that the TADS/SSS Estimated Family Contribution already takes high cost of living into account in its calculations. However, there will be still be a range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for this information. Yes, our net income after taxes only is about $200K. Other deductions like retirement contributions, health insurance, etc. account for about $50,000, so our net take-home income is about $150,000.

Do schools adjust the parent contribution amount differently than what is shown on the Family Contribution Report that we see to account for cost of living in high-cost areas, etc.?

If you're maxing out 410ks, schools (and colleges when the kids get older) view that as money you can use for tuition.