FA - real life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Everyone so angry here (though I suspect it’s really only one person) is about to be absolutely shattered when their kids go to a top college, more than half the class is on aid, and may don’t pay a dime, including some “Pellionaires,” who are also getting federal aid.

College aid is completely different.

First of all, K-12 is offered completely free through public schools. Private is a luxury option.


Financial aid at private schools in the DMV is largely funded by tuition paid for by the other parents. There is no large endowment to cover these expenses. The full pay families are paying the majority of the financial aid budget. For a luxury education.

You can go to community college and transfer to a public four-year for a fraction of the price of private. A tiny fraction. Private college is absolutely as luxurious as private undergrad. And private college aid funds living expenses too.

Many top privates have substantial endowments. And many colleges that don’t have huge endowments are doing insane and inequitable discounting through sophisticated enrollment management algorithms.

Not the same at all. Roughly 90% of K-12 students attend public school. Completely free. Financial aid is really not needed for K-12.

About 73% of college students attend a public university, including community college, which is significantly cheaper than a private university. If this bothers you at the K-12 level it’s going to infuriate you at the tertiary level too.

K-12 and college are completely different. Just stop.

The main difference being college is primarily funded by loans taken out in the child’s name, which are not available for K-12. There is no comparison.

And this shows you don’t understand the college financial landscape. Good private universities these days regularly meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Kids from families making up to $300k are getting aid these days at expensive private colleges.

But more relevant to the point is that when it comes to busybodies’ anger over financial aid, they really aren’t different at all. Go to the college forum. There are people regularly complaining about their kids’ roommates getting aid and having nicer things than their own kid. And you’ll see these posters lamenting that the FA kids didn’t go to community college where they clearly belong.

If you are overly invested in other people’s lives now, that isn’t going to suddenly change when your kid turns 19.

You are the one who doesn’t understand colleges. The percent of private universities that do this is tiny. For the majority, this is not a thing.

It is common at any T50 private university, and even some T100. At the top end they even go beyond to giving full packages to $200k families. If you attend a DMV independent high school, you are aiming for, and expecting, these schools. No one cares about the rest.

No, it doesn’t extend to all the T50 or T100. Also, lots of people care about the rest. To say otherwise is the height of stupidity.

It absolutely does for the T50 privates and even some beyond that. You have no idea what you are talking about. Just Google it.

And no, DMV private families are not aiming for schools outside of the T100. Have you looked at what a T100 school is? This is yet another example of weird tourists on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Why would people care that OP is receiving financial aid? I guess I don’t get it. Are you mad at the school for giving them FA or her because they applied for it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone so angry here (though I suspect it’s really only one person) is about to be absolutely shattered when their kids go to a top college, more than half the class is on aid, and may don’t pay a dime, including some “Pellionaires,” who are also getting federal aid.

College aid is completely different.

First of all, K-12 is offered completely free through public schools. Private is a luxury option.


Financial aid at private schools in the DMV is largely funded by tuition paid for by the other parents. There is no large endowment to cover these expenses. The full pay families are paying the majority of the financial aid budget. For a luxury education.

You can go to community college and transfer to a public four-year for a fraction of the price of private. A tiny fraction. Private college is absolutely as luxurious as private undergrad. And private college aid funds living expenses too.

Many top privates have substantial endowments. And many colleges that don’t have huge endowments are doing insane and inequitable discounting through sophisticated enrollment management algorithms.

Not the same at all. Roughly 90% of K-12 students attend public school. Completely free. Financial aid is really not needed for K-12.

About 73% of college students attend a public university, including community college, which is significantly cheaper than a private university. If this bothers you at the K-12 level it’s going to infuriate you at the tertiary level too.

K-12 and college are completely different. Just stop.

The main difference being college is primarily funded by loans taken out in the child’s name, which are not available for K-12. There is no comparison.

And this shows you don’t understand the college financial landscape. Good private universities these days regularly meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Kids from families making up to $300k are getting aid these days at expensive private colleges.

But more relevant to the point is that when it comes to busybodies’ anger over financial aid, they really aren’t different at all. Go to the college forum. There are people regularly complaining about their kids’ roommates getting aid and having nicer things than their own kid. And you’ll see these posters lamenting that the FA kids didn’t go to community college where they clearly belong.

If you are overly invested in other people’s lives now, that isn’t going to suddenly change when your kid turns 19.

You are the one who doesn’t understand colleges. The percent of private universities that do this is tiny. For the majority, this is not a thing.

It is common at any T50 private university, and even some T100. At the top end they even go beyond to giving full packages to $200k families. If you attend a DMV independent high school, you are aiming for, and expecting, these schools. No one cares about the rest.

No, it doesn’t extend to all the T50 or T100. Also, lots of people care about the rest. To say otherwise is the height of stupidity.

It absolutely does for the T50 privates and even some beyond that. You have no idea what you are talking about. Just Google it.

And no, DMV private families are not aiming for schools outside of the T100. Have you looked at what a T100 school is? This is yet another example of weird tourists on this thread.

You are deranged and very wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would people care that OP is receiving financial aid? I guess I don’t get it. Are you mad at the school for giving them FA or her because they applied for it?

The FA office offers aid to families in need. Their cutoffs qualify you for aid, but they should only be taken by those who truly need the help.

FA funds are not intended for well off families to pad their retirement accounts or take extra vacations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would people care that OP is receiving financial aid? I guess I don’t get it. Are you mad at the school for giving them FA or her because they applied for it?

The FA office offers aid to families in need. Their cutoffs qualify you for aid, but they should only be taken by those who truly need the help.

FA funds are not intended for well off families to pad their retirement accounts or take extra vacations.

If a school offers a family aid, they apparently think the family needs it. I guess all these people should take this issue up with the schools then as to who they think qualifies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would people care that OP is receiving financial aid? I guess I don’t get it. Are you mad at the school for giving them FA or her because they applied for it?

The FA office offers aid to families in need. Their cutoffs qualify you for aid, but they should only be taken by those who truly need the help.

FA funds are not intended for well off families to pad their retirement accounts or take extra vacations.

If a school offers a family aid, they apparently think the family needs it. I guess all these people should take this issue up with the schools then as to who they think qualifies.

Would you qualify for food from a food pantry? They are generous with the understanding that people won’t take advantage of them. However, this is exactly what OP is doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would people care that OP is receiving financial aid? I guess I don’t get it. Are you mad at the school for giving them FA or her because they applied for it?

Everyone knows FA exists and that the schools give it out.

There is some confusion on the purpose of FA and who receives it. If you read this forum it seems that there are some who feel that only the very needy are legitimate recipients.

The real rub comes in when people suspect or believe or find out that FA is not being distributed "fairly". Especially if it involves recipients who others feel shouldn't be applying for or getting FA. In that case they appear to be mad at both the person for applying and the school for giving it.

The school's aren't going to say who they give FA to or how much they give for several reasons. This includes not wanting to stir up the kind of conversations seen here on appropriateness or fairness.

Some recipients can't seem to restrain themselves from telling others about their good fortune. I wonder if they understand all the problems this creates for the school and even for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone so angry here (though I suspect it’s really only one person) is about to be absolutely shattered when their kids go to a top college, more than half the class is on aid, and may don’t pay a dime, including some “Pellionaires,” who are also getting federal aid.

College aid is completely different.

First of all, K-12 is offered completely free through public schools. Private is a luxury option.


Financial aid at private schools in the DMV is largely funded by tuition paid for by the other parents. There is no large endowment to cover these expenses. The full pay families are paying the majority of the financial aid budget. For a luxury education.

You can go to community college and transfer to a public four-year for a fraction of the price of private. A tiny fraction. Private college is absolutely as luxurious as private undergrad. And private college aid funds living expenses too.

Many top privates have substantial endowments. And many colleges that don’t have huge endowments are doing insane and inequitable discounting through sophisticated enrollment management algorithms.

Not the same at all. Roughly 90% of K-12 students attend public school. Completely free. Financial aid is really not needed for K-12.

About 73% of college students attend a public university, including community college, which is significantly cheaper than a private university. If this bothers you at the K-12 level it’s going to infuriate you at the tertiary level too.

K-12 and college are completely different. Just stop.

The main difference being college is primarily funded by loans taken out in the child’s name, which are not available for K-12. There is no comparison.

And this shows you don’t understand the college financial landscape. Good private universities these days regularly meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Kids from families making up to $300k are getting aid these days at expensive private colleges.

But more relevant to the point is that when it comes to busybodies’ anger over financial aid, they really aren’t different at all. Go to the college forum. There are people regularly complaining about their kids’ roommates getting aid and having nicer things than their own kid. And you’ll see these posters lamenting that the FA kids didn’t go to community college where they clearly belong.

If you are overly invested in other people’s lives now, that isn’t going to suddenly change when your kid turns 19.

You are the one who doesn’t understand colleges. The percent of private universities that do this is tiny. For the majority, this is not a thing.

You understand that the number of private K-12 schools offering aid to 300k HHI families is tiny, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I kind of appreciate that OP posted this. It’s “the quiet part out loud.” Many people paying full tuition either are not aware or are in denial that financial aid is going to upper income families. When they think of financial aid they think of giving to charity, of filling food pantries and donating toys to tots. They need to know that that’s not what is happening, so they can make an informed choice about whether to keep supporting this system.

Exactly! I’m shocked everyone is so surprised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people find OP to be irresponsible, unethical, and shameful. For the people who find this acceptable, how were you raised?

Like a normal person, not a maladjusted weirdo who comments repeatedly on internet threads about a topic they know nothing about (because you aren’t a DMV full pay private school parent, let’s be clear).

I have 3 kids, full pay, here and am deeply bothered by OP.

You being deeply bothered by what schools do with their financial aid is absurd. As plenty of people said all schools do this. If you don’t like it leave! Yes, even the school you pay full pay for three kids gives a ton of financial aid to plenty of families like OP. You must be really ignorant if you think financial aid is going to only “poor poor” people. You and your kids talk and walk amongst people just like OP and you don’t even know it. Wake up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would people care that OP is receiving financial aid? I guess I don’t get it. Are you mad at the school for giving them FA or her because they applied for it?

The FA office offers aid to families in need. Their cutoffs qualify you for aid, but they should only be taken by those who truly need the help.

FA funds are not intended for well off families to pad their retirement accounts or take extra vacations.

If a school offers a family aid, they apparently think the family needs it. I guess all these people should take this issue up with the schools then as to who they think qualifies.

Would you qualify for food from a food pantry? They are generous with the understanding that people won’t take advantage of them. However, this is exactly what OP is doing.

This is completely different. The school does a full review of every applicant. Now, I do know a family who qualifies for aid and then gets tuition from their rich parents. That to me is bad form but for a family to apply for FA and a school that gives it to them, that’s fine to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone so angry here (though I suspect it’s really only one person) is about to be absolutely shattered when their kids go to a top college, more than half the class is on aid, and may don’t pay a dime, including some “Pellionaires,” who are also getting federal aid.

College aid is completely different.

First of all, K-12 is offered completely free through public schools. Private is a luxury option.


Financial aid at private schools in the DMV is largely funded by tuition paid for by the other parents. There is no large endowment to cover these expenses. The full pay families are paying the majority of the financial aid budget. For a luxury education.

You can go to community college and transfer to a public four-year for a fraction of the price of private. A tiny fraction. Private college is absolutely as luxurious as private undergrad. And private college aid funds living expenses too.

Many top privates have substantial endowments. And many colleges that don’t have huge endowments are doing insane and inequitable discounting through sophisticated enrollment management algorithms.

Not the same at all. Roughly 90% of K-12 students attend public school. Completely free. Financial aid is really not needed for K-12.

About 73% of college students attend a public university, including community college, which is significantly cheaper than a private university. If this bothers you at the K-12 level it’s going to infuriate you at the tertiary level too.

K-12 and college are completely different. Just stop.

The main difference being college is primarily funded by loans taken out in the child’s name, which are not available for K-12. There is no comparison.

And this shows you don’t understand the college financial landscape. Good private universities these days regularly meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Kids from families making up to $300k are getting aid these days at expensive private colleges.

But more relevant to the point is that when it comes to busybodies’ anger over financial aid, they really aren’t different at all. Go to the college forum. There are people regularly complaining about their kids’ roommates getting aid and having nicer things than their own kid. And you’ll see these posters lamenting that the FA kids didn’t go to community college where they clearly belong.

If you are overly invested in other people’s lives now, that isn’t going to suddenly change when your kid turns 19.

You are the one who doesn’t understand colleges. The percent of private universities that do this is tiny. For the majority, this is not a thing.

It is common at any T50 private university, and even some T100. At the top end they even go beyond to giving full packages to $200k families. If you attend a DMV independent high school, you are aiming for, and expecting, these schools. No one cares about the rest.

No, it doesn’t extend to all the T50 or T100. Also, lots of people care about the rest. To say otherwise is the height of stupidity.

It absolutely does for the T50 privates and even some beyond that. You have no idea what you are talking about. Just Google it.

And no, DMV private families are not aiming for schools outside of the T100. Have you looked at what a T100 school is? This is yet another example of weird tourists on this thread.

You are deranged and very wrong.

The response of a person with no substantive response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people find OP to be irresponsible, unethical, and shameful. For the people who find this acceptable, how were you raised?

Like a normal person, not a maladjusted weirdo who comments repeatedly on internet threads about a topic they know nothing about (because you aren’t a DMV full pay private school parent, let’s be clear).

I have 3 kids, full pay, here and am deeply bothered by OP.

You being deeply bothered by what schools do with their financial aid is absurd. As plenty of people said all schools do this. If you don’t like it leave! Yes, even the school you pay full pay for three kids gives a ton of financial aid to plenty of families like OP. You must be really ignorant if you think financial aid is going to only “poor poor” people. You and your kids talk and walk amongst people just like OP and you don’t even know it. Wake up!

This. Sorry, but the people surprised by this are kind of dumb. You donate to the annual fundraiser, but you don’t even pay attention to the obvious stats that show aid is going to people who are still paying a significant chunk of money? So many of these schools are very clear about their average awards and their ranges, as well as the percent receiving aid. “25% of families receive aid, average amount is $38k, ranges from 5-95% of tuition.” In what world did you think 25% of your kid’s class was low-income, or that poor people would footing 95% of a $55k tuition bill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people find OP to be irresponsible, unethical, and shameful. For the people who find this acceptable, how were you raised?

Like a normal person, not a maladjusted weirdo who comments repeatedly on internet threads about a topic they know nothing about (because you aren’t a DMV full pay private school parent, let’s be clear).

I have 3 kids, full pay, here and am deeply bothered by OP.

You being deeply bothered by what schools do with their financial aid is absurd. As plenty of people said all schools do this. If you don’t like it leave! Yes, even the school you pay full pay for three kids gives a ton of financial aid to plenty of families like OP. You must be really ignorant if you think financial aid is going to only “poor poor” people. You and your kids talk and walk amongst people just like OP and you don’t even know it. Wake up!

You misunderstand. I am deeply bothered by the recipients like OP. The schools are being generous to help the school community. They are being taken advantage of by greedy parents like OP. The level of corruptness for OP to think this is okay and not feel guilty is off the charts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone so angry here (though I suspect it’s really only one person) is about to be absolutely shattered when their kids go to a top college, more than half the class is on aid, and may don’t pay a dime, including some “Pellionaires,” who are also getting federal aid.

College aid is completely different.

First of all, K-12 is offered completely free through public schools. Private is a luxury option.


Financial aid at private schools in the DMV is largely funded by tuition paid for by the other parents. There is no large endowment to cover these expenses. The full pay families are paying the majority of the financial aid budget. For a luxury education.

You can go to community college and transfer to a public four-year for a fraction of the price of private. A tiny fraction. Private college is absolutely as luxurious as private undergrad. And private college aid funds living expenses too.

Many top privates have substantial endowments. And many colleges that don’t have huge endowments are doing insane and inequitable discounting through sophisticated enrollment management algorithms.

Not the same at all. Roughly 90% of K-12 students attend public school. Completely free. Financial aid is really not needed for K-12.

About 73% of college students attend a public university, including community college, which is significantly cheaper than a private university. If this bothers you at the K-12 level it’s going to infuriate you at the tertiary level too.

K-12 and college are completely different. Just stop.

The main difference being college is primarily funded by loans taken out in the child’s name, which are not available for K-12. There is no comparison.

And this shows you don’t understand the college financial landscape. Good private universities these days regularly meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Kids from families making up to $300k are getting aid these days at expensive private colleges.

But more relevant to the point is that when it comes to busybodies’ anger over financial aid, they really aren’t different at all. Go to the college forum. There are people regularly complaining about their kids’ roommates getting aid and having nicer things than their own kid. And you’ll see these posters lamenting that the FA kids didn’t go to community college where they clearly belong.

If you are overly invested in other people’s lives now, that isn’t going to suddenly change when your kid turns 19.

You are the one who doesn’t understand colleges. The percent of private universities that do this is tiny. For the majority, this is not a thing.

It is common at any T50 private university, and even some T100. At the top end they even go beyond to giving full packages to $200k families. If you attend a DMV independent high school, you are aiming for, and expecting, these schools. No one cares about the rest.

No, it doesn’t extend to all the T50 or T100. Also, lots of people care about the rest. To say otherwise is the height of stupidity.

It absolutely does for the T50 privates and even some beyond that. You have no idea what you are talking about. Just Google it.

And no, DMV private families are not aiming for schools outside of the T100. Have you looked at what a T100 school is? This is yet another example of weird tourists on this thread.

You are deranged and very wrong.

The response of a person with no substantive response.

No, it is the response of someone who knows they are arguing with a toddler.