Financial Aid Comparison

[Anonymous]

Now that the dust has settled for most of us, I’m wondering what financial aid looked like from various schools and if you found that you were offered comparable amounts from different places or if the packages varied widely. What schools were comparatively generous/stingy?

We were offered $8-9K at 2 schools (with tuition around $36K for one and $54K for the other). The slightly smaller offer was a much greater percentage of tuition. And then $0 at Sandy Spring Friends School (with tuition around $45K).

[Anonymous]

Do you own your home? I think this is the reason why ours varied wildly. Everything from $20K FA award to nothing. Our HS placement inquired as to why we weren't given any to our first choice school that offered us no FA and their reasoning was that we owned our home.

[Anonymous]

Interesting! We do own our (modest) home. Maybe that explains the SSFS anomaly. I had assumed the lack of an aid offer was a sign that the school was in financial straits.

[Anonymous]

You aren’t looking at the other half of the equation.

Schools have a finite pot of money they distribute. Your “need” is just one of the things that is considered.

[Anonymous]

Sure, schools have different levels of resources, take different aspects of the applicant’s finances into consideration, and probably have differing levels of interest in adding any one particular student/family to their community. Still, I’d imagine that if more people shared their own anecdotal experiences, there might be interesting trends to discern. I’ve heard, for instance, that some schools are more generous with financial aid than others. One family I know reported that Maret blew Sidwell and GDS out of the water with respect to their aid offer, but that was years ago, so I was wondering if anyone was willing to share more recent info.

[Anonymous]

Three boarding schools offered aid:
$25k at $78k school
$35k at $72k school
$58k at $78k school

We did not request an appeal at school 1, as it was not our top choice and we felt the difference was too great to overcome. We did let school 2 (felt the aid offer was a little low, but almost doable) know that we needed to consider finances when making a choice. They then allowed appeal and created a new offer so that schools 2 and 3 would cost our family the same amount. This created a very difficult choice for our child who loved them both equally.

Our family’s former urban day school offers about $10k off $65k tuition to families with our profile. Cost to attend boarding school? $20k. Day school? $55k. Some of the boarding schools have extraordinary endowment per student ratios. They are very generous. And the offer in some cases will reflect how much they want your child on their campus. We received the upper end of the range we were hoping for. It was a great relief.

The same percentage of tuition discount is also applied to school-related add ons such as international service trips. So the $6000 trip will cost us about $1500. Obviously, they feed your child, and there is a ton of on campus weekend programming and entertainment included as well. Not a lot to spend on outside of occasional restaurant outings. All students receive a computer. And there is no supplemental fee for child’s very expensive sport.

In the end, we chose school 3, for non-financial reasons. It was a very tough choice.

I know many here have economic worries, and I wanted to share this occasionally overlooked option. I am surprised more families from the DC area don’t pursue it.

[Anonymous]

I am 16:37 just above. We do own our home.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations! That’s likely to be a life changing experience for your kid. And shockingly affordable with aid, compared to what most of us are spending for day schools around here. I wouldn’t want to be separated from my kid for the high school years, but this is impressive.

[Anonymous]

We explored the option because our child asked for it. They wanted more from their high school experience.

It will definitely be difficult for us as parents. But our child is soooo excited. While we may miss some things, they will miss nothing. I want that for them. You are correct to point out that the whole family must be on board for this to make sense.

[Anonymous]

We applied for and received aid at 3 schools. The two most expensive schools came back with packages that gave us enough aid to get to the number we told them we could afford. Approximately $29k at the most expensive and $20k at the second most expensive. The third school came in at about $3000 more than our we can afford number, which was about $15k in aid.

[Anonymous]

We're renters and have had financial setbacks this year with no zero guarantee of making them up. (In any economy, it would be hard. But in this economy, chances are likely 0%.)

The offered aid could not get us to where our kid can continue this Fall at their private for high school. Waiting to hear back on appeal.

They're not "stingy," as you'd asked in your OP. There are many, many factors that go into these calculations. And I certainly wouldn't cast judgment on anyone for not giving us free cash. I've heard that many at are school are likely appealing due to the Fed and contractor situation, so outlook seems bleak.

Kicking myself over & over again for not having kid apply to other privates for H.S. So, its looking like public which we'll likely to move for given our current IB school situation. That's one benefit of renting, I suppose.

My kid knows and is heartbroken.

It really sucks to not have the money needed for a better education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're renters and have had financial setbacks this year with no zero guarantee of making them up. (In any economy, it would be hard. But in this economy, chances are likely 0%.)

The offered aid could not get us to where our kid can continue this Fall at their private for high school. Waiting to hear back on appeal.

They're not "stingy," as you'd asked in your OP. There are many, many factors that go into these calculations. And I certainly wouldn't cast judgment on anyone for not giving us free cash. I've heard that many at are school are likely appealing due to the Fed and contractor situation, so outlook seems bleak.

Kicking myself over & over again for not having kid apply to other privates for H.S. So, its looking like public which we'll likely to move for given our current IB school situation. That's one benefit of renting, I suppose.

My kid knows and is heartbroken.

It really sucks to not have the money needed for a better education.

That’s truly awful. I’m so sorry to hear it.

[Anonymous]

Not in the DMV, but the financial aid award is slightly more than 60% of the total cost. It's a K-8, incoming third grader. We own our very small, very modest house that on the open market wouldn't even go for $400k (in a city with plenty high housing costs, but we live in the "wrong" neighborhood). DH lost his job at the start of January. It will be tight, but we're determined to make it work.

[Anonymous]

Key School in Annapolis was very generous.