People with $1.2M+ homes and getting significant financial aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in a small house with a small mortgage that affords us the budget to pay for private. Would not be happy to find out our tuition dollars are subsidizing someone with a house worth 2-3 times as much as ours. Should we upgrade and apply for financial aid?

I think about this often. How much does FA subsidize people's poor financial choices?
We are conservative with our money, live in a modest home and drive 10 year old cars which all contributes to our ability to pay for private.
But are families who are living in expensive houses with expensive cars really getting aid??

I was a major FA kid but have done well enough for myself now to be able to afford tuition, but obviously we have made some sacrifices to do so. I have donated (in varying amounts) every year since graduation and earmarked it to FA as a way to "pay back" what the school gave me.
If I find out my money is subsidizing someone who lives in a $2M house in Bethesda and drives a Tesla, I'm going to be livid.

[Anonymous]

I don't see the issue. I bought my house for 800k and it's worth 1.3 now, for reasons I don't control. I don't make more money than I did when I bought it, cashflow is the same. Am I supposed to sell the house to pay for school?
If the school has better candidates for financial aid, that's fine: they don't have to give me any. But it's pretty clear we are among the "poor" families, based on donations and vacations we can't afford, and I'm not too proud to apply. We get modest aid, less than 10%.

[Anonymous]

1.2m is a teardown shack not sure the outrage are you a boomer and remember when you could buy a house for a nickel?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't the schools assess these factors for financial aid? Or you mean these families are flying under the radar?

With the family I am aware of, I suspect the house they live in is owned by grandparents. Or grandparents buy cars, clothes, etc. for lifestyle and parents submit their $60,000/yr job income tax records for financial aid.

We have similar situations at our private school. $2-$4m houses, nice cars, trips at every break, and some even have ski or beach houses. I guess it’s nice to have parents who take care of you, but FA should somehow take this into account.

We have a relatively new HOS and before they started, it was even worse. It was a poorly kept secret that certain people were allowed to negotiate for financial aid. Basically if you had social capital or were linked through family friends or alumni ties at other schools to the head and other administrators, you would threaten to leave at re-enrollment time and then the school would give you an alternate tuition price to get you to stay.

Some of the families who have been around for a while now grumble loudly about minor tuition increases…because for years they weren’t affected for them so they have no framework for the tuition price. The youngest in those families cannot graduate soon enough.

[Anonymous]

We are in a 1200 sq ft, 100 year old house in Bethesda worth 1M+. Our income today would probably qualify us for financial aid at a private school... except that I prefer putting my kids in public.

You don't know other people's circumstances. Judge not, lest ye be judged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't the schools assess these factors for financial aid? Or you mean these families are flying under the radar?

With the family I am aware of, I suspect the house they live in is owned by grandparents. Or grandparents buy cars, clothes, etc. for lifestyle and parents submit their $60,000/yr job income tax records for financial aid.

I also know a family like that. but there is nothing the school can do about it. They probably don’t want to do anything about that - the schools want their financial aid kids to fit in as seamlessly as possible (no one wants any class tensions), and this type of family is ideal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know of multiple kids who get 50% off and they live it 1.5M homes and higher in McLean and Bethesda and are receiving significant financial aid for their kid in a top school. Also worthy of note- these are not top athletes, students, etc.

Anyone else seeing this?

Yes. I would love there to be some sort of audit for this. Just regular kids being paid to be there because their parents didnt save any money unlike the rest of us suckers.

[Anonymous]

There shouldn’t be financial aid for private schools to begin with. The problem here (though really 1.2M for a house they may not own isn’t that egregious) illustrates that. If you can’t pay, you can’t go. There’s a free option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There shouldn’t be financial aid for private schools to begin with. The problem here (though really 1.2M for a house they may not own isn’t that egregious) illustrates that. If you can’t pay, you can’t go. There’s a free option.

I agree. That's how it worked when I grew up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of multiple kids who get 50% off and they live it 1.5M homes and higher in McLean and Bethesda and are receiving significant financial aid for their kid in a top school. Also worthy of note- these are not top athletes, students, etc.

Anyone else seeing this?

Yes. I would love there to be some sort of audit for this. Just regular kids being paid to be there because their parents didnt save any money unlike the rest of us suckers.

This has been going on forever. My parents lived modestly and had solid savings for college and a very middle class income. Top boarding schools all told them to either gut the college savings entirely or buy a house with a huge mortgage to go into debt to qualify for FA.

[Anonymous]

Are these kids recruited athletes? Or just friends with someone on the Board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know of multiple kids who get 50% off and they live it 1.5M homes and higher in McLean and Bethesda and are receiving significant financial aid for their kid in a top school. Also worthy of note- these are not top athletes, students, etc.

Anyone else seeing this?

Wow. It’s amazing you have detailed info on these family’s financial status and level of aid. And for multiple families. Usually that’s not so available or people don’t reveal it. But kudos for getting the data. Or just being full of BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the issue. I bought my house for 800k and it's worth 1.3 now, for reasons I don't control. I don't make more money than I did when I bought it, cashflow is the same. Am I supposed to sell the house to pay for school?
If the school has better candidates for financial aid, that's fine: they don't have to give me any. But it's pretty clear we are among the "poor" families, based on donations and vacations we can't afford, and I'm not too proud to apply. We get modest aid, less than 10%.

+1. In similar situation as pp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the issue. I bought my house for 800k and it's worth 1.3 now, for reasons I don't control. I don't make more money than I did when I bought it, cashflow is the same. Am I supposed to sell the house to pay for school?
If the school has better candidates for financial aid, that's fine: they don't have to give me any. But it's pretty clear we are among the "poor" families, based on donations and vacations we can't afford, and I'm not too proud to apply. We get modest aid, less than 10%.

Similar situation here. Bought the house almost 20 years ago for $700k. Assessed at about a million now. We have quite a low mortgage payment due to refinancing a few years after we bought it, but we could never afford this house now.

We do manage as a full-pay family, but only with help from grandparents. No fancy cars and vacations, either, although we just replaced a 20-year-old car that finally died completely.

[Anonymous]

Well I know of a family with a $1M+ home in McLean with FA for their daughter. The parents don’t seem to work? They are both on campus constantly. This is high school. It’s really weird.