Is your school “too generous”

[Anonymous]

I’ve started to notice that at my kids’ school, the number of students receiving financial aid and the total amount awarded have increased significantly, by about 50 percent over that last 5 years. At the same time, building maintenance seems to be falling behind, the quality of faculty appears to be declining, the quality of the food in the cafeteria is low, and the after-school offerings are not very strong. This is a school with a tuition of $60,000.

Has generous financial aid caused similar issues at your children’s school?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a poor fit and you should leave for someplace you like better.

[Anonymous]

How would you know who is receiving financial aid?

[Anonymous]

OP sounds like a read crazy unicorn needing toast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would you know who is receiving financial aid?

I don’t know who is receiving financial aid, I am talking to to overall numbers that are published. That has increased by 50 percent. Schools publish that number.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps it's the economy that's the issue and not the "generosity" of an institution that finds itself facing rising costs and fewer families able to pay full tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP sounds like a read crazy unicorn needing toast.

Not sure what that means, but I’m just sharing some genuine observations about how school priorities seem to be shifting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps it's the economy that's the issue and not the "generosity" of an institution that finds itself facing rising costs and fewer families able to pay full tuition.

This has been going on for a few years. Also they have control on the amount of financial aid they give.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a poor fit and you should leave for someplace you like better.

Indeed. I pay full tuition and feel that things could be better.

[Anonymous]

Not sure how you know award amounts, but once the percent receiving financial aid goes too high (over 40%?), the school becomes unsustainable and it’s a death spiral.

[Anonymous]

You have no idea if the financial aid pool is causing the issues you named. If you're unhappy with the teachers, the food, the after school offerings, etc., say something to the Division Head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps it's the economy that's the issue and not the "generosity" of an institution that finds itself facing rising costs and fewer families able to pay full tuition.

This has been going on for a few years. Also they have control on the amount of financial aid they give.

At some point it has to break, and it seems many schools are reaching it. When my senior started school, tuition was $37k. It's now $65k.

[Anonymous]

Our school's mission includes a strong program of aid, but not fancy facilities, so what you post would be expected.

All nonproifit orgs have mission statements. What is the school's mission, and is your observation aligned with it or not?

[Anonymous]

You have no idea if the school could even enroll more full pay students, and too high a concentration of full pay students may make the school less elite and selective. If you want an elite school, you have to fill it with elite students, and there are only so many rich ones to go around. Plus the rich ones don’t want to go to school with exclusively rich kids.

There are a lot of good reasons to want a diverse student body but if you want a crass one, which seems to be the OP’s vibe, you can’t sell a story of merit based, selective admissions in a K12 if you only admit full pay students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure how you know award amounts, but once the percent receiving financial aid goes too high (over 40%?), the school becomes unsustainable and it’s a death spiral.

That depends on the endowment. Successful schools like Regis have 100% free tuition due to an amazing, ancient endowment.