Financial aid

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to understand how financial aid at private schools work. People around me are encouraging us to apply to private with the idea of receiving aid. I don't think that's likely and feel that going through the process to be disappointed would be wasteful.

Please be kind but honest. We are a two working parent household with a $350k income and two kids. Our major expense is our nanny for both kids, who would stay on as the nanny of our second child when our first goes to kindergarten. We are a multicultural family. We bought our house shortly before our oldest was born and don't have a significant amount of equity, we have some credit card debt (major emergency), some savings.

Am I right that we are unlikely to receive any aid? My husband and I both went to public schools and are very unfamiliar with this world.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I think it really depends on how badly a school wants your family to attend. If your kid is a bright student (hard to tell when they are younger) and you check a diversity box, then you are more likely to get aid. But that is just my perception. I don't work in the FA office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to understand how financial aid at private schools work. People around me are encouraging us to apply to private with the idea of receiving aid. I don't think that's likely and feel that going through the process to be disappointed would be wasteful.

Please be kind but honest. We are a two working parent household with a $350k income and two kids. Our major expense is our nanny for both kids, who would stay on as the nanny of our second child when our first goes to kindergarten. We are a multicultural family. We bought our house shortly before our oldest was born and don't have a significant amount of equity, we have some credit card debt (major emergency), some savings.

Am I right that we are unlikely to receive any aid? My husband and I both went to public schools and are very unfamiliar with this world.

It probably also depends on how much tuition is. We have about the same HHI and two kids and didn’t bother applying for aid at our kids’ Catholic high school. We knew there was very little chance of getting aid and because we knew that we could pay the tuition even though we knew it would be painful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to understand how financial aid at private schools work. People around me are encouraging us to apply to private with the idea of receiving aid. I don't think that's likely and feel that going through the process to be disappointed would be wasteful.

Please be kind but honest. We are a two working parent household with a $350k income and two kids. Our major expense is our nanny for both kids, who would stay on as the nanny of our second child when our first goes to kindergarten. We are a multicultural family. We bought our house shortly before our oldest was born and don't have a significant amount of equity, we have some credit card debt (major emergency), some savings.

Am I right that we are unlikely to receive any aid? My husband and I both went to public schools and are very unfamiliar with this world.

People on this board can be rude about financial so brace yourself, but we have the exact same profile down to the medical emergency debt and receive just under 50% aid.

My advice is to have a strong application and apply to the schools with higher endowments and therefore better financial aid

[Anonymous]

Is the child already admitted? The only reason not to apply is if you think it will affect admissions.

I will get flamed on here by the usual people, but my gross HHI is $300k and we receive modest FA. The school wanting DC to stay is certainly a factor, but I also believe that our income is relatively low compared to classmates. (I base this on current families donating classrooms and equipment, which we could never do.)

The school is a business and it makes business decisions related to FA: trust them to say no if they need to. But the school can't give you anything if you don't ask.

[Anonymous]

It is shocking to me that people making $300K+ are getting financial aid.

[Anonymous]

It is shocking to me that people with a nanny would get FA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the child already admitted? The only reason not to apply is if you think it will affect admissions.

I will get flamed on here by the usual people, but my gross HHI is $300k and we receive modest FA. The school wanting DC to stay is certainly a factor, but I also believe that our income is relatively low compared to classmates. (I base this on current families donating classrooms and equipment, which we could never do.)

The school is a business and it makes business decisions related to FA: trust them to say no if they need to. But the school can't give you anything if you don't ask.

The funny thing is that wealthy or notable families get “discounts” to lure them to attend one prestigious school over the others. So, everything is absolutely a business decision whether about a strong student who couldn’t afford to attend otherwise or a family that will hopefully make large donations. The school makes calculated decisions on what families pay

[Anonymous]

If you get any aid at all, I will eat my shorts.

You need to manage your own finances better. Seriously tackle this problem yourself because there is no reason you would need aid on that salary.

[Anonymous]

We had the same profile except for the nanny and got offered a meaningless amount of aid from a couple well known privates in the DMV (under $10k) and none from rest. We were also waitlisted at schools that made clear that if we signaled a willingness to full pay we’d get in.

I don’t care what that other poster says, few families making $350,000 a year are getting half tuition to good DMV privates. They’re an outlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had the same profile except for the nanny and got offered a meaningless amount of aid from a couple well known privates in the DMV (under $10k) and none from rest. We were also waitlisted at schools that made clear that if we signaled a willingness to full pay we’d get in.

I don’t care what that other poster says, few families making $350,000 a year are getting half tuition to good DMV privates. They’re an outlier.

This is OP. Yes, I’m thinking at most we’d get a tiny amount that wouldn’t make it possible to attend.

To the poster who said to manage our finances better, I hear you. I grew up very working class. We did however have a major emergency that has impacted our finances for years. And have never ever thought about private school until this moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to understand how financial aid at private schools work. People around me are encouraging us to apply to private with the idea of receiving aid. I don't think that's likely and feel that going through the process to be disappointed would be wasteful.

Please be kind but honest. We are a two working parent household with a $350k income and two kids. Our major expense is our nanny for both kids, who would stay on as the nanny of our second child when our first goes to kindergarten. We are a multicultural family. We bought our house shortly before our oldest was born and don't have a significant amount of equity, we have some credit card debt (major emergency), some savings.

Am I right that we are unlikely to receive any aid? My husband and I both went to public schools and are very unfamiliar with this world.

401k? 529 savings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the child already admitted? The only reason not to apply is if you think it will affect admissions.

I will get flamed on here by the usual people, but my gross HHI is $300k and we receive modest FA. The school wanting DC to stay is certainly a factor, but I also believe that our income is relatively low compared to classmates. (I base this on current families donating classrooms and equipment, which we could never do.)

The school is a business and it makes business decisions related to FA: trust them to say no if they need to. But the school can't give you anything if you don't ask.

The funny thing is that wealthy or notable families get “discounts” to lure them to attend one prestigious school over the others. So, everything is absolutely a business decision whether about a strong student who couldn’t afford to attend otherwise or a family that will hopefully make large donations. The school makes calculated decisions on what families pay

Talking about trust families that have a reported "low income" and keep it low for such reasons? I have heard of this but unclear how it works. How does it work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had the same profile except for the nanny and got offered a meaningless amount of aid from a couple well known privates in the DMV (under $10k) and none from rest. We were also waitlisted at schools that made clear that if we signaled a willingness to full pay we’d get in.

I don’t care what that other poster says, few families making $350,000 a year are getting half tuition to good DMV privates. They’re an outlier.

This is OP. Yes, I’m thinking at most we’d get a tiny amount that wouldn’t make it possible to attend.

To the poster who said to manage our finances better, I hear you. I grew up very working class. We did however have a major emergency that has impacted our finances for years. And have never ever thought about private school until this moment.

LOL at the idea that $10k is meaningless. That's almost a third of the tuition at our suburban independent.

OP, I am a first-gen college grad with blue-collar parents. People like us often think that it's "sticker price or nothing" for expensive UMC-coded stuff, and that it's embarrassing to ask for a discount or need aid. But a ton of the people in private school are getting help, whether in financial aid or grandparent help or because one parent is performing some kind of service for the school. Just like the blue-collar world, there are all kinds of discounts and in-kind payments in the mix.

I have no idea whether private school is a good choice for you (personally I think private K is kind of a waste), and if you choose it you will continue to encounter financial concerns about how long to keep your child in private and whether you can afford certain extracurriculars. Those are real. Just, don't make the decision based on DCUM classism or feeling embarrassed to ask for aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had the same profile except for the nanny and got offered a meaningless amount of aid from a couple well known privates in the DMV (under $10k) and none from rest. We were also waitlisted at schools that made clear that if we signaled a willingness to full pay we’d get in.

I don’t care what that other poster says, few families making $350,000 a year are getting half tuition to good DMV privates. They’re an outlier.

This is OP. Yes, I’m thinking at most we’d get a tiny amount that wouldn’t make it possible to attend.

To the poster who said to manage our finances better, I hear you. I grew up very working class. We did however have a major emergency that has impacted our finances for years. And have never ever thought about private school until this moment.

LOL at the idea that $10k is meaningless. That's almost a third of the tuition at our suburban independent.

OP, I am a first-gen college grad with blue-collar parents. People like us often think that it's "sticker price or nothing" for expensive UMC-coded stuff, and that it's embarrassing to ask for a discount or need aid. But a ton of the people in private school are getting help, whether in financial aid or grandparent help or because one parent is performing some kind of service for the school. Just like the blue-collar world, there are all kinds of discounts and in-kind payments in the mix.

I have no idea whether private school is a good choice for you (personally I think private K is kind of a waste), and if you choose it you will continue to encounter financial concerns about how long to keep your child in private and whether you can afford certain extracurriculars. Those are real. Just, don't make the decision based on DCUM classism or feeling embarrassed to ask for aid.

The idea that someone with a HHI of $350k is a victim of classism is a bit much. $350 k is UMC by almost everyone’s definition.