Private School for Middle Class income (middle class in DC terms)?

[Anonymous]

Op here. Public school is only an option if we can lottery in some place respectable. I've volunteered frequently for hands on DC and have see how awful DC schools are... I know exceptions exist, aka lottery, but I'm not going to roll the dice on my DS's future when it comes to a quality education. (FWIW we live east of Rock creek, great neighborhood, not very good school district).

Question for those who suggested it, parochial... We are not a religious family, if we aren't catholic can our DS apply/attend? What about Jewish schools? I ask because I truly don't know.

Finally, I really do appreciate everyone's insight. It's been very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Go to St. John's, and you don't have to be Catholic. I know of several non Catholic families that go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are just about $200,000 and they told us we could afford $100,000 a year in tuition. Ha! Go parochial or move to the suburbs where there are adequate publics.

[Anonymous]

Check out Our Lady of Victory School in the Palisades. I have several friends there and they all love it. You don't have to be Catholic to attend. I believe they have several families who are not. It's a great school academically and affordable.

good luck!

[Anonymous]

St John's or Gonzaga.

[Anonymous]

The Catholic high schools often have significant non-Catholic populations. The parish PK/K-8s vary a bit more, but most will be friendly to non-Catholic families and some of them also have large non-Catholic populations, just depends on the school. Go visit and see how each school makes you feel. The parochial schools may not be quite as impressive as the 30K a year independents, but they are often better than the public options (depending on where you live) and they don't have to teach to the test due to NCLB and that frees up the teachers a lot (which is usually good, though I guess it can be bad with the wrong teacher).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A HHI of $200K is maybe in the top 25% in the area, perhaps more. Average HHI in Montgomery and Fairfax is $80-$95K. You need roughly HHI of $500K to be in the top 1%. So, private schools have priced themselves out for upper middle class/lower upper class families. If private schools were able to control their expenses or program creep, the competition to get into these schools would increase dramatically.

HHI or $200K in the DC area will put you in the top 10%, not 25%. Wake up. People's perception of relative wealth, especially in the DC private school community, is seriously skewed. FWIW, our HHI is close to $250K and based upon the "Occupy Wall St." calculators, we are in the top 4% in the country. ($200K will put you at 94%.) DC is more expensive than most parts of the country, but a HHI of $200K will still likely land you in the top tenth regionally.

To get back to OP, unless you have some seriously mitigating circumstances (e.g., medical expenditures), you will likely not be eligible for FA. There are a lot more people with a lot less wealth with equally deserving children who are entitled to the limited FA pool.

[Anonymous]

Look at the catholic schools.

[Anonymous]

OP, apologize in advance for being long but wanted to give you some level of detail. We are similar to you, our current HHI is about 350K but it was about 200K when we started this journey several years ago. We decided we wanted our kids to go to private school (for a number of reasons that really don’t matter to anyone else) but were not willing to shell out 20% of our pre-tax income to do it. I applaud those who can commit to living like paupers for the next 15-20 years but I am not one of them.

We are NOT Catholic, but we did send our kids to Catholic school. We sent them to a nice parish school where we found committed, loving teachers, most of whom had Master’s degrees and many, many years of teaching experience. We love the school to this day and continue to remember them with a donation at tax time. Most of the teachers are still there and we keep in touch with them. We have 2 kids, here’s how the money stacks up (I’m using today’s dollars)

DS: 9 years at Catholic school = $54,000 + 4 years at Georgetown Prep = $112,000
Total for DS = $166,000.

DD: 9 years at Catholic school = $54000 + 4 years at Stone Ridge = $100,000
Total for DD = $154,000

The same number of years at a "Big 3" would cost in the neighborhood of 450K EACH.

So where are they now?? DS is a junior at Duke where he is an engineering major on the Dean’s list. He applied to 10 colleges and got accepted to 9 with his lowest merit based aid package being 80K (over the 4 years). DS is a bit of a “special snowflake” that the Catholic school happily accommodated to allow him to move right along in Math & Science while staying mainstreamed for English, Spanish, History, etc. His level of merit based aid at Duke is such that his college education will be practically free.

DD is still at Stone Ridge where she is very happy, plays sports, sings, acts and is generally the polar opposite of her brother. They are very happy, productive and caring people. DD did not require any accommodations.

As I said, we are not Catholic but at our school that was truly not a big deal. DD best friend from elementary school is Jewish and she fit in just fine. I would let the homeroom teachers know early in the year that my kids could attend all the lessons, practices, etc. for the sacraments the only part they would not do was the actual participation in the sacrament itself. They attended religion class every day and both enjoyed it very much. As long as you don’t have a list as long as your arm for the teacher about religion, it won’t be a big deal.

So, because we spent significantly less on school, we were able to travel. My kids have been to Greece, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, The Vatican, and pretty much all over Europe. They have been to Alaska and Hawaii. We have seen the Grand Canyon and Mt. Rushmore. They ski, scuba and engage in a variety of activities. We have a nice lifestyle, they have nice schools, they got to travel, we could afford to buy them some (not all) of the stuff they want and still they ended up with good educations that didn’t cost half a million apiece.

You are in the difficult spot of making too much to qualify for significant FA, yet not making enough to afford the more expensive schools without a good bit of sacrifice on your part. I would encourage you to look at some of the Catholic parish schools and see what they offer. They are the best bargain in town. The other thing to remember is to keep it in perspective. Once you become an adult, no one really cares where you went to elementary school (let alone pre-K) and no one has asked where I went to high school in probably over 20 years - but if anyone really wants to know, I graduated from public.

So, you don't have to pay a minimum of 30K each per year for private school. You only have to do that if your heart is set on a 30K school. There are plenty of other options, just go out and find what fits your kids AND your bank account. That's what we did and we are totally happy and wouldn't change a thing.

[Anonymous]

good grief. I don't understand those of you who are criticizing the PP who laughed when she said the school assumed she could afford 100K on a 200K income.
200K is before taxes. Add in taxes and she'll have 40K left to live on after tuition. You have to admit that is pretty tight for housing/clothing/food/transportation for this area, assuming the poster has 2 or probably 3 (based on the tuition quote of 100K) kids.

How many of you live on 40K a year?

Sure, 200K is a fabulous income, even for this area. But it's not exactly easy to absorb a 100K tuition bill into that income.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP. The taxman doesn't care how much your private school costs, you pay that out of after tax dollars. You can't live very well in DC on 40K per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:good grief. I don't understand those of you who are criticizing the PP who laughed when she said the school assumed she could afford 100K on a 200K income.
200K is before taxes. Add in taxes and she'll have 40K left to live on after tuition. You have to admit that is pretty tight for housing/clothing/food/transportation for this area, assuming the poster has 2 or probably 3 (based on the tuition quote of 100K) kids.

How many of you live on 40K a year?

Sure, 200K is a fabulous income, even for this area. But it's not exactly easy to absorb a 100K tuition bill into that income.

I just read the thread, I didn't see anyone criticizing the PP, I saw someone being shocked at what the FA expected them to pay. 200k in DC is not a lot of money to afford the high cost of privates for multiple kids and live comfortably.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, apologize in advance for being long but wanted to give you some level of detail. We are similar to you, our current HHI is about 350K but it was about 200K when we started this journey several years ago. We decided we wanted our kids to go to private school (for a number of reasons that really don’t matter to anyone else) but were not willing to shell out 20% of our pre-tax income to do it. I applaud those who can commit to living like paupers for the next 15-20 years but I am not one of them.

We are NOT Catholic, but we did send our kids to Catholic school. We sent them to a nice parish school where we found committed, loving teachers, most of whom had Master’s degrees and many, many years of teaching experience. We love the school to this day and continue to remember them with a donation at tax time. Most of the teachers are still there and we keep in touch with them. We have 2 kids, here’s how the money stacks up (I’m using today’s dollars)

DS: 9 years at Catholic school = $54,000 + 4 years at Georgetown Prep = $112,000
Total for DS = $166,000.

DD: 9 years at Catholic school = $54000 + 4 years at Stone Ridge = $100,000
Total for DD = $154,000

The same number of years at a "Big 3" would cost in the neighborhood of 450K EACH.

So where are they now?? DS is a junior at Duke where he is an engineering major on the Dean’s list. He applied to 10 colleges and got accepted to 9 with his lowest merit based aid package being 80K (over the 4 years). DS is a bit of a “special snowflake” that the Catholic school happily accommodated to allow him to move right along in Math & Science while staying mainstreamed for English, Spanish, History, etc. His level of merit based aid at Duke is such that his college education will be practically free.

DD is still at Stone Ridge where she is very happy, plays sports, sings, acts and is generally the polar opposite of her brother. They are very happy, productive and caring people. DD did not require any accommodations.

As I said, we are not Catholic but at our school that was truly not a big deal. DD best friend from elementary school is Jewish and she fit in just fine. I would let the homeroom teachers know early in the year that my kids could attend all the lessons, practices, etc. for the sacraments the only part they would not do was the actual participation in the sacrament itself. They attended religion class every day and both enjoyed it very much. As long as you don’t have a list as long as your arm for the teacher about religion, it won’t be a big deal.

So, because we spent significantly less on school, we were able to travel. My kids have been to Greece, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, The Vatican, and pretty much all over Europe. They have been to Alaska and Hawaii. We have seen the Grand Canyon and Mt. Rushmore. They ski, scuba and engage in a variety of activities. We have a nice lifestyle, they have nice schools, they got to travel, we could afford to buy them some (not all) of the stuff they want and still they ended up with good educations that didn’t cost half a million apiece.

You are in the difficult spot of making too much to qualify for significant FA, yet not making enough to afford the more expensive schools without a good bit of sacrifice on your part. I would encourage you to look at some of the Catholic parish schools and see what they offer. They are the best bargain in town. The other thing to remember is to keep it in perspective. Once you become an adult, no one really cares where you went to elementary school (let alone pre-K) and no one has asked where I went to high school in probably over 20 years - but if anyone really wants to know, I graduated from public.

So, you don't have to pay a minimum of 30K each per year for private school. You only have to do that if your heart is set on a 30K school. There are plenty of other options, just go out and find what fits your kids AND your bank account. That's what we did and we are totally happy and wouldn't change a thing.

Good post - only problem is being able to get into ^ HS in the 9th with limited spots....

[Anonymous]

PP here: Some of the parish schools have an extraordinary track record of getting kids into the private Catholic HS for 9th grade. For both my kid's classes the only kids who went to public were the ones who wanted to. We are not in the "golden" Whitman/Churchill clusters so I really wanted the private HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:St John's or Gonzaga.

aren't these both @ 19k-because that is still too much if you've got a couple of kids. When I went to college, room+board+tuition was 15K at Williams in the late 80's. I make a little more $$ than my Dad did in those days, doing the same job. I can't afford to send my kids to private at those prices. And I went to a big 3 private for 5th-12th. It absolutely sucks. Private school tuition in this area really pisses me off.