What percentage do you pay?

[Anonymous]

I promise I'm not trying to blow up this forum, but I'm curious. Are most of you paying full price for your private school? We keep thinking about making the switch, but we can't afford the standard DC area tuition without a huge sacrifice of some kind. Are most people paying that sticker price, or are most paying 25 -50% off that with the help of financial aid? This forum may skew towards the full-pay families, but this is just an informal poll. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You're really asking what percent families who get FA pay.

You can see the percent of how many pay full pay on the schools financials. We are full pay but our school gives 30% of students FA. Not 100% funded of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I promise I'm not trying to blow up this forum, but I'm curious. Are most of you paying full price for your private school? We keep thinking about making the switch, but we can't afford the standard DC area tuition without a huge sacrifice of some kind. Are most people paying that sticker price, or are most paying 25 -50% off that with the help of financial aid? This forum may skew towards the full-pay families, but this is just an informal poll. Thanks!

we moved to the exurbs to get annapolis area prices instead of DC prices, so that helped. And now we pay 90%.

[Anonymous]

OP: Thanks! I do know that many school websites show stats like "200 students receive FA," but I'm curious whether that's a 10% or 50% reduction for many of you.

[Anonymous]

Schools typically have information about what percentage of families receive aid on their websites. DCUM isn’t going to be a representative sample. Check the schools you are interested in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're really asking what percent families who get FA pay.

You can see the percent of how many pay full pay on the schools financials. We are full pay but our school gives 30% of students FA. Not 100% funded of course.

There's still a fair number of kids who get their tuition subsidized by their parents' workplace, one way or another, as an employment benefit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're really asking what percent families who get FA pay.

You can see the percent of how many pay full pay on the schools financials. We are full pay but our school gives 30% of students FA. Not 100% funded of course.

There's still a fair number of kids who get their tuition subsidized by their parents' workplace, one way or another, as an employment benefit.

That isn’t what OP is asking, though.

[Anonymous]

To echo PP, the general number is that 25-30% of students receive SOME financial aid. Most receive much less than half, some receive full.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: Thanks! I do know that many school websites show stats like "200 students receive FA," but I'm curious whether that's a 10% or 50% reduction for many of you.

Most schools also post the average reduction. For example, the FA page for our school says that 20% of students receive financial aid, and the average grant is 62% of tuition.

[Anonymous]

We paid full freight K-12 for our only child and you’re correct— we made 13 years of certain sacrifices. Not retirement, etc but home renovations, new Audi SUVs, updated wardrobes every year …. (am listing the representative things my CCDC neighbors buy that we had to skip)

Would do the same thing again. Kid got a much better education at 2 DC independents than my friends’ kids in MoCo and NWDC.

[Anonymous]

At our school, the average family on FA is still paying 60-70% of tuition. This is public on a lot of websites - both percent on FA and average grant.

[Anonymous]

Most families are full pay and everyone should try to be full pay. The financial aid families are getting their bills paid by the rest of the families there who are covering the school’s budget.

I would not send my kids to private school unless I was full pay. I know some people are okay with financial aid, but this doesn’t operate like colleges. The schools all have limited budgets, small sized programs, and the money really does come from your peers. As an adult you should feel responsible for your own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid full freight K-12 for our only child and you’re correct— we made 13 years of certain sacrifices. Not retirement, etc but home renovations, new Audi SUVs, updated wardrobes every year …. (am listing the representative things my CCDC neighbors buy that we had to skip)

Would do the same thing again. Kid got a much better education at 2 DC independents than my friends’ kids in MoCo and NWDC.

If you are in CCDC you are plenty wealthy and not making any real sacrifices. Be real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I promise I'm not trying to blow up this forum, but I'm curious. Are most of you paying full price for your private school? We keep thinking about making the switch, but we can't afford the standard DC area tuition without a huge sacrifice of some kind. Are most people paying that sticker price, or are most paying 25 -50% off that with the help of financial aid? This forum may skew towards the full-pay families, but this is just an informal poll. Thanks!

We pay full price for 2 kids on a $450k income. Whether is painful is not the metric schools will use. You need to figure out what schools interest you, apply for aid and see what they give you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most families are full pay and everyone should try to be full pay. The financial aid families are getting their bills paid by the rest of the families there who are covering the school’s budget.

I would not send my kids to private school unless I was full pay. I know some people are okay with financial aid, but this doesn’t operate like colleges. The schools all have limited budgets, small sized programs, and the money really does come from your peers. As an adult you should feel responsible for your own kids.

Your school chooses to give FA. You don’t like it. Oh well.