Why do some schools send FA award letters after acceptance?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dont know about this year but two years ago we received acceptance letters from two schools and subsequent notices saying there was no FA for us. It was upsetting to come so close.

What! Where you accepted for the first entry year at the school e.g. 9th grade at a 9-12 school

This happened to us for K at a PK - 8th school.

[Anonymous]

Same here for K. I guess the school thought I would need significant aid for the next 13 yrs so they told me they couldn't offer me anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same here for K. I guess the school thought I would need significant aid for the next 13 yrs so they told me they couldn't offer me anything.

I'm sorry. I've heard that needing more than 60% aid or so is a tough sell. Best to your family.

[Anonymous]

Schools need time to process all the financial aid applications and tax forms. Deadlines for getting those in depends on the school, but if they've only had them 2 weeks or so, they likely haven't been able to process them all by the time the admissions office is mailing out their decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same here for K. I guess the school thought I would need significant aid for the next 13 yrs so they told me they couldn't offer me anything.

I'm sorry. I've heard that needing more than 60% aid or so is a tough sell. Best to your family.

60% is the point of no return-ish?

[Anonymous]

So if 60% is the most FA schools award, they are full of BS about diversity. Diversity does not just mean race and ethnicity.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if 60% is the most FA schools award, they are full of BS about diversity. Diversity does not just mean race and ethnicity.

No one said it's the most -- just that it's a tough sell. Every school has a few kids on 80-100%. But those kids are the ones with a lot to offer the school. Private schools just can't meet 100% of the need of everyone who is admitted, so they have to use the higher % amounts judiciously. One student who needs 100% takes up twice the resources of two who need 50%. It's just math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if 60% is the most FA schools award, they are full of BS about diversity. Diversity does not just mean race and ethnicity.

No one said it's the most -- just that it's a tough sell. Every school has a few kids on 80-100%. But those kids are the ones with a lot to offer the school. Private schools just can't meet 100% of the need of everyone who is admitted, so they have to use the higher % amounts judiciously. One student who needs 100% takes up twice the resources of two who need 50%. It's just math.

Like what? I understand sports in high school but what about lower and middle school students?

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if 60% is the most FA schools award, they are full of BS about diversity. Diversity does not just mean race and ethnicity.

No one said it's the most -- just that it's a tough sell. Every school has a few kids on 80-100%. But those kids are the ones with a lot to offer the school. Private schools just can't meet 100% of the need of everyone who is admitted, so they have to use the higher % amounts judiciously. One student who needs 100% takes up twice the resources of two who need 50%. It's just math.

Like what? I understand sports in high school but what about lower and middle school students?

Some combination of:
Extraordinary ability
Non-economic diversity
Easy temperament
Something else the school is looking for (international families? interesting parental jobs or family history?)

The last one is the tough one because unless you're on the admissions board, you don't know where they need to fill in to make a balanced class...