Sidwell tuition increase

[Anonymous]

Some of the posts here are so dramatic. Why does this need to be an ideological debate? Stay and pay, or leave. Leaving would not be easy, but if you can't afford it and are unable to get additional FA, you can't afford it.

[Anonymous]

Someone has to pay for the purchase of that building on the corner, fund the financial aid programs,

Personally, I do not see the value, if kids form public schools end up at the same colleges, what is the point? sure the lower GPA kids aren't going but the top kids in public schools are which probably equal the enrollment at the privates are just as well educated if not more fully educated due to diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why it’s dumb to send your child to private unless money is no object. If a 3.75 percent increase actually affects you then you have no business sending your child to private as it means you’re spending a significant portion of your after tax wages on tuition, which is even worse considering your taxes pay for local public schools. Not to mention it’s highly debatable that private schools even make a difference as study after study show it’s mainly your family uppbringing and if your parents value education.

Or I can look at it this way. My kid attends Sidwell and I only pay 7k/year. The rest is covered by FA. Therefore, 3.75% of 7k is about $262.00. Still money but doable. Now $1537.00 on top full pay, that's another story.

Good point. only 2/3s of the stickprice tuition goes towards your or any actual kid. Lots of subsidizing others going on and tuition transfers!

Second point, Sidwell Friends is really pushing the envelope on charging over $40k for ALL grade levels, including PK, K, 1, 2, etc. Unlike most other privates in the area and coasts and boarding schools which charge less for lower schools.

Think hard about how this aggressive pricing and price increases syncs with their Quaker Values, and lack thereof. For us it leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We find out in March if our kid 2 gets in as well, but I know a different K-12 school in Virginia that has a fantastic board, communication, and works with families on all sorts of budget, curriculum, catering, transpo issues.

Finally, I don't like doing business with companies that act like this (and I don't), not sure if I want my kids sculpted by a school that does.

So in other words you are concerned kid 2 won’t get in and you think Potomac is a better fit for your family. So go to Potomac. I’m an alum of Sidwell and my kid visited and hated it. It’s not required to attend.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell hates America!

[Anonymous]

If you are applying for PK and you are worried about the cost, be aware that the price tag will double by the time your kid gets to high school.

I don't think there is a material difference between Sidwell and the other schools in the area.

[Anonymous]

Does Sidwell charge fees in addition to the tuition? Our school charges less for tuition but lunch, bus, activities, even field trip fees ar eso high

[Anonymous]

Sidwell does not charge extra for it's lunch program. Even then, it is by no means the highest priced private in the area. Holding increases to 2% above inflation (and less above average wage growth in DC metro), during a building program, while maintaining one of the highest FA programs in the area, does not seem out of line. The bulk of most school budgets go to teachers salaries and benefits, no? I doubt they are overly paid and I presume their benefits costs are going up like at my organization.

[Anonymous]

"I am so sick of this crap. Whose salary is increasing at the same rate yearly? Besides the corporate lawyers and bankers? Or those who've inherited wealth?"
Maybe being a lawyer or a banker wasn't for you, but your children inherit the money you are giving away right now. If invested, it would be a lot of money.
There are many good public schools around. I also truly believe that top kids from public school do just as well as top kids from privates.
Ofcourse you can complain. Mine go to public and I don't complain. So not sure why you would choose to pay and complain, when you have a choice of not paying and not complaining, or not paying and complaining if you wish to do so.
Why not tell us how you feel about your child going to Sidwell. The feeling must be worth something.
I can't even start to describe how I feel about my kids going to 2 of the Wotp public schools. I'm so excited for them, I want to be a kid. The schools are beautiful, warm, inviting, high performing and pretty much free. Both are as close as they come to schools back in Finland.
Did you start in public at least? Would've saved a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are applying for PK and you are worried about the cost, be aware that the price tag will double by the time your kid gets to high school.

I don't think there is a material difference between Sidwell and the other schools in the area.

Do a smaller percent of PK or other very young grades get aid? It is very hard to tell at that age what kind of student/kid someone will end up being, so it seems harder to know how to allocate aid. I could see the school it wanting to commit to significant aid for years on end. (I know there is no actual commitment and aid amounts can and do drop - but I hope the school wouldn't generally radically alter aid to de facto force someone out.)

I always assumed the very young grades were mostly people who felt they could afford the tuition and wanted to increase the chance of admission. Is that wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I am so sick of this crap. Whose salary is increasing at the same rate yearly? Besides the corporate lawyers and bankers? Or those who've inherited wealth?"
Maybe being a lawyer or a banker wasn't for you, but your children inherit the money you are giving away right now. If invested, it would be a lot of money.
There are many good public schools around. I also truly believe that top kids from public school do just as well as top kids from privates.
Ofcourse you can complain. Mine go to public and I don't complain. So not sure why you would choose to pay and complain, when you have a choice of not paying and not complaining, or not paying and complaining if you wish to do so.
Why not tell us how you feel about your child going to Sidwell. The feeling must be worth something.
I can't even start to describe how I feel about my kids going to 2 of the Wotp public schools. I'm so excited for them, I want to be a kid. The schools are beautiful, warm, inviting, high performing and pretty much free. Both are as close as they come to schools back in Finland.
Did you start in public at least? Would've saved a lot of money.

This post is hard to follow but I fully agree with this point. Even assuming tuition holds steady, you’re looking at over 500k spend on tuition. If you invested 500k for each child, they’d most likely be able to purchase a home after graduating college and never have a mortgage! That or never have to take loans for grad school. Unless your public schools are very bad, you’re missing an opportunity to create generational wealth as opposed to allowing your children to end up like most middle class kids with $0 to their name upon college graduation and most likely with some sort of loans.

[Anonymous]

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Total compensation costs for private industry workers increased 2.5 percent in the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, D.C.-Md.-Va.-W.Va., metropolitan area for the year ended September 2017 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. . . . Locally, wages and salaries, the largest component of total compensation costs, advanced at a 3.3-percent pace for the 12-month period ended September 2017. Nationwide, total compensation costs rose 2.5 percent over the year and wages and salaries advanced by 2.6 percent.

Private schools are people intensive businesses. Comp costs drive the tuition raises. Add in campus improvements and tuition rises even further.

Will every parent see the same rise in wages and salaries? Of course not. And that's a shame and I feel for those that are in that position.

[Anonymous]

2017-18

STA 44,144
NCS 41,975
Sidwell 40,840
GDS, 40,000 (no lunch program)
Potomac 39,770
Maret 37,700

[Anonymous]

Another Sidwell parent. Totally agree with you op.

[Anonymous]

Yes but consider your ROI. Princeton, Harvard, Columbia. A job starting at 80k a year. Happy and well adjusted children ready to face the world and make it a better place = you cannot put a price on this can you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:when my first kid started at Sidwell, the tuition was $13k. She has been out of college for a couple of years. But siblings are still there.

Woah!