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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see why this should bother you. We bought our house for $850k and have a 2.5 percent mortgage. It’s now worth close to 2 million. My husband’s income has gone up a little but we are a single income family since I took a step back so he could advance his career and I have a small part-time work from home job. If we ever decide to make the move to private, we would be on the hook for $60,000 plus per kid if we chose the options that suit our families needs (Bullis, Saint Andrew’s). This would be a crippling level of debt when you take into consideration the rest of our expenses and our lives. Why should we be penalized because we made a great decision with our home all those years ago? I don’t see why that’s an issue.

Financial aid is not an entitlement. Your house is an asset just like a savings account or inheritance. You could use that asset to pay tuition.

what?? I’m supposed to sell our family home to pay tuition? F y o u and f y o u again. What an awful thing to say and so clueless

Most colleges will include your home equity when determining financial aid.

This isn’t a controversial way to think about aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see why this should bother you. We bought our house for $850k and have a 2.5 percent mortgage. It’s now worth close to 2 million. My husband’s income has gone up a little but we are a single income family since I took a step back so he could advance his career and I have a small part-time work from home job. If we ever decide to make the move to private, we would be on the hook for $60,000 plus per kid if we chose the options that suit our families needs (Bullis, Saint Andrew’s). This would be a crippling level of debt when you take into consideration the rest of our expenses and our lives. Why should we be penalized because we made a great decision with our home all those years ago? I don’t see why that’s an issue.

How old are your children? If your house has doubled in value since you bought it they’re probably older and you are capable of taking a higher paying job to pay for private if your husband’s career has not advanced to the point of being able to cover that (no shade intended, my husband and I have three kids and we both work full time and our oldest child is in private).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financial aid is not supposed to be for average white kids living in 20816/20815 whose parents haven’t saved any money and don’t make enough to pay for the private school education they WANT for their kids and all the other stuff they want for their kids and themselves. Private school is not a right. So when I hear of family with kids on aid at multiple schools going to Nantucket for 2 weeks, I get frustrated. Because I would also like to go to Nantucket for 2 weeks but I cant afford it - because I’m paying for my own kids tuition and some of these people’s kids’ tuitions too.

Well, the schools disagree with you. You keep asserting that financial aid is for very low income students, but schools routinely choose not to provide the full rides that those students would need in order to attend. Instead schools provide a few thousand per student, bringing the tuition down only to what regular UMC families can afford.

You need to stop thinking about FA as charity, and realize it's more like a Macy's coupon. Some people pay full price at Macy's because they didn't sign up or are buying something that doesn't qualify, but the majority of purchases are made for less than full price (and yes this affects where they set the full price). This is done to get people in the door and keep the sales volume up. Schools have similar incentives.

Well I’ll be there shopping at Macy’s with coupons because I need to pay tuitions while many of the people I know getting aid will be shopping full price at Vineyard Vines. That is what got them to qualify for aid in the first place, versus suckers like us thinking that sacrifice and planning is the way to go.

If you have not applied for financial aid, then yes I think you are a sucker. You are willing to take a coupon at Macy's but too proud to do it at school.

BTW, grandparents pay for our vacations so that we will vacation with them. Whatever trips you see my family taking (not fancy, in my case) are not coming out of my budget, which is quite tight even with subsidized tuition.

[Anonymous]

I'm so confused why people care who receives financial aid. If people feel as though they can't afford the tuition, apply for aid, regardless of what people on this forum tell you. If you feel as though you can afford tuition without aid, don't apply. At the same time, don't criticize others based on what you see. They've made a decision based on their situation and so should you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see why this should bother you. We bought our house for $850k and have a 2.5 percent mortgage. It’s now worth close to 2 million. My husband’s income has gone up a little but we are a single income family since I took a step back so he could advance his career and I have a small part-time work from home job. If we ever decide to make the move to private, we would be on the hook for $60,000 plus per kid if we chose the options that suit our families needs (Bullis, Saint Andrew’s). This would be a crippling level of debt when you take into consideration the rest of our expenses and our lives. Why should we be penalized because we made a great decision with our home all those years ago? I don’t see why that’s an issue.

Financial aid is not an entitlement. Your house is an asset just like a savings account or inheritance. You could use that asset to pay tuition.

what?? I’m supposed to sell our family home to pay tuition? F y o u and f y o u again. What an awful thing to say and so clueless

It’s not clueless. People’s wealth comes in different forms. You made what turned out to be a great investment in a house. Someone else could have made a great investment in Nvidia stock. It’s fine if the folks deciding on financial aid look more to the latter and less to the former in determining ability to pay, and I could understand why, but both are still assets. Someone with a lot of equity in a home could borrow against it without having to sell the house.

[Anonymous]

you can thank the bleeding heart liberals for all of this they over charge everyone that can pay to subsidize those that can't afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so confused why people care who receives financial aid. If people feel as though they can't afford the tuition, apply for aid, regardless of what people on this forum tell you. If you feel as though you can afford tuition without aid, don't apply. At the same time, don't criticize others based on what you see. They've made a decision based on their situation and so should you.

Because most private school in the area makes a big deal about having families contribute annually to close the gap between tuition and actual cost and to support financial aid. So people care about whether “their” money is going to “worthy” financial aid recipients. Whether they should is another matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so confused why people care who receives financial aid. If people feel as though they can't afford the tuition, apply for aid, regardless of what people on this forum tell you. If you feel as though you can afford tuition without aid, don't apply. At the same time, don't criticize others based on what you see. They've made a decision based on their situation and so should you.

Because these people have been making financial decisions that they view through a moral lens, rather than just whatever is best for them. And then they get mad when their perceived moral superiority doesn’t result in them getting the best outcome over others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so confused why people care who receives financial aid. If people feel as though they can't afford the tuition, apply for aid, regardless of what people on this forum tell you. If you feel as though you can afford tuition without aid, don't apply. At the same time, don't criticize others based on what you see. They've made a decision based on their situation and so should you.

Because these people have been making financial decisions that they view through a moral lens, rather than just whatever is best for them. And then they get mad when their perceived moral superiority doesn’t result in them getting the best outcome over others.

This. They think they are superior humans because they made certain financial decisions that include not resting FA, and are angry that people who made different “inferior” decisions are “rewarded” if they do ask for and receive FA.

Folks, if it bothers you that someone else got aid, YOU CAN ASK FOR IT TOO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so confused why people care who receives financial aid. If people feel as though they can't afford the tuition, apply for aid, regardless of what people on this forum tell you. If you feel as though you can afford tuition without aid, don't apply. At the same time, don't criticize others based on what you see. They've made a decision based on their situation and so should you.

Because these people have been making financial decisions that they view through a moral lens, rather than just whatever is best for them. And then they get mad when their perceived moral superiority doesn’t result in them getting the best outcome over others.

This. They think they are superior humans because they made certain financial decisions that include not resting FA, and are angry that people who made different “inferior” decisions are “rewarded” if they do ask for and receive FA.

Folks, if it bothers you that someone else got aid, YOU CAN ASK FOR IT TOO.

My own opinion is you run into too many people that come from very wealthy families that technically qualify for aid, but maybe morally/ethically they shouldn't.

In one extreme, we knew a family that lives in a $5MM house (100% bought by grandparents) with grandparents worth $100MM+...which afforded the parents the ability to work NPO jobs that don't earn much money and will never earn much money and qualify for aid. The grandparents were then paying whatever aid didn't cover.

I think there is always one example that pisses you off and clouds your perception of others.

[Anonymous]

This is a troll post. Just some conservative weirdo who's upset that private schools let in anybody that's two shades darker than mayo.

[Anonymous]

We live in a $1.2m home. Do not get financial aid and would never even ask for it. That said, our home is not nice at all. In fact, I would think it’s probably about the least nice home of all the people at our school. You should go up a tier to make this more insulting. Something like $1.5m home and getting financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so confused why people care who receives financial aid. If people feel as though they can't afford the tuition, apply for aid, regardless of what people on this forum tell you. If you feel as though you can afford tuition without aid, don't apply. At the same time, don't criticize others based on what you see. They've made a decision based on their situation and so should you.

Because these people have been making financial decisions that they view through a moral lens, rather than just whatever is best for them. And then they get mad when their perceived moral superiority doesn’t result in them getting the best outcome over others.

This. They think they are superior humans because they made certain financial decisions that include not resting FA, and are angry that people who made different “inferior” decisions are “rewarded” if they do ask for and receive FA.

Folks, if it bothers you that someone else got aid, YOU CAN ASK FOR IT TOO.

Not superior human beings - just normal people who made life decisions with the future of their kids in mind - like I will send my kids to public school for a few years so I can afford private down the line, or I will buy a home in a less expensive area so I can afford private school. As opposed to - I have to live in this zip code and if that means I have no savings and a high mortgage, oh well, I will just apply for aid as my kids couldn’t possibly attend public school - ironically good public schools based on good zip code - and I will qualify for aid thanks to years of living beyond my means. No one is saying that someone with two working parents living in a less expensive area who qualifies for aid shouldn’t get it. But if you’re in Westmoreland Hills, or Somerset, or Kenwood, etc and going on fancy vacations with your kids in their Yeezys, that is suspect.

[Anonymous]

And it’s not like anyone who lives in those neighborhoods and is getting this aid is open about it - if they were I think I would feel better about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financial aid is not supposed to be for average white kids living in 20816/20815 whose parents haven’t saved any money and don’t make enough to pay for the private school education they WANT for their kids and all the other stuff they want for their kids and themselves. Private school is not a right. So when I hear of family with kids on aid at multiple schools going to Nantucket for 2 weeks, I get frustrated. Because I would also like to go to Nantucket for 2 weeks but I cant afford it - because I’m paying for my own kids tuition and some of these people’s kids’ tuitions too.

Well, the schools disagree with you. You keep asserting that financial aid is for very low income students, but schools routinely choose not to provide the full rides that those students would need in order to attend. Instead schools provide a few thousand per student, bringing the tuition down only to what regular UMC families can afford.

You need to stop thinking about FA as charity, and realize it's more like a Macy's coupon. Some people pay full price at Macy's because they didn't sign up or are buying something that doesn't qualify, but the majority of purchases are made for less than full price (and yes this affects where they set the full price). This is done to get people in the door and keep the sales volume up. Schools have similar incentives.

Well I’ll be there shopping at Macy’s with coupons because I need to pay tuitions while many of the people I know getting aid will be shopping full price at Vineyard Vines. That is what got them to qualify for aid in the first place, versus suckers like us thinking that sacrifice and planning is the way to go.

If you have not applied for financial aid, then yes I think you are a sucker. You are willing to take a coupon at Macy's but too proud to do it at school.

BTW, grandparents pay for our vacations so that we will vacation with them. Whatever trips you see my family taking (not fancy, in my case) are not coming out of my budget, which is quite tight even with subsidized tuition.

It's more probable that the adults / kids shopping at vineyard vines and getting financial aid are being supported by grandparents who subsidize their lifestyle. Either that or they have small businesses they can use to hide income.

At least that's what happened at my private school I attended for 12 years.