FA - real life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

+1 this is very common. Also see the financial aid families leasing new Mercedes every few years and renovating their houses.

In theory, I agree with this. But you also don’t know the details. A cheap trip to Europe is the same price as a moderate trip somewhere in the United States. One of the requirements of receiving financial aid is not that you must suffer while you receive it. Somebody can get financial aid and still update a super old bathroom or take vacation. Of course somebody has to draw the line at what is not reasonable but that’s the job of the financial aid office isn’t it?? Generally the financial aid document ask for a lot more than just your tax forms. They’re asking recipients to say what they are spending on vacations and cars and home improvement. I know this because I have filled it out. So assuming that people are filling it out truthfully, what they do with their extra money is their business. The financial aid office does not require them to put every extra cent towards tuition.

Why would they fill it out truthfully? They are trying to maximize their aid.

Because its the right thing to do and the consequences would be extreme if it was found to be false. Sort of like filing out taxes correctly. We receive aid and I have never lied in the forms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

+1 this is very common. Also see the financial aid families leasing new Mercedes every few years and renovating their houses.

In theory, I agree with this. But you also don’t know the details. A cheap trip to Europe is the same price as a moderate trip somewhere in the United States. One of the requirements of receiving financial aid is not that you must suffer while you receive it. Somebody can get financial aid and still update a super old bathroom or take vacation. Of course somebody has to draw the line at what is not reasonable but that’s the job of the financial aid office isn’t it?? Generally the financial aid document ask for a lot more than just your tax forms. They’re asking recipients to say what they are spending on vacations and cars and home improvement. I know this because I have filled it out. So assuming that people are filling it out truthfully, what they do with their extra money is their business. The financial aid office does not require them to put every extra cent towards tuition.

Why would they fill it out truthfully? They are trying to maximize their aid.

Because its the right thing to do and the consequences would be extreme if it was found to be false. Sort of like filing out taxes correctly. We receive aid and I have never lied in the forms.

I appreciate your honesty. The truth is that cheating on tax forms and on financial aid forms is happening. Nobody is checking this stuff. We all have to live with ourselves and I don’t know how some of these people do. They justify it to themselves somehow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

Agree. There is no reason to live like a pauper. The schools don't require aid families to do this. If you are choosing to do so then that is your choice. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you. I sleep better knowing we're not paying full price.

You can't force your standard on everyone else, especially since the schools themselves don't share your standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

+1 this is very common. Also see the financial aid families leasing new Mercedes every few years and renovating their houses.

In theory, I agree with this. But you also don’t know the details. A cheap trip to Europe is the same price as a moderate trip somewhere in the United States. One of the requirements of receiving financial aid is not that you must suffer while you receive it. Somebody can get financial aid and still update a super old bathroom or take vacation. Of course somebody has to draw the line at what is not reasonable but that’s the job of the financial aid office isn’t it?? Generally the financial aid document ask for a lot more than just your tax forms. They’re asking recipients to say what they are spending on vacations and cars and home improvement. I know this because I have filled it out. So assuming that people are filling it out truthfully, what they do with their extra money is their business. The financial aid office does not require them to put every extra cent towards tuition.

Why would they fill it out truthfully? They are trying to maximize their aid.

Because its the right thing to do and the consequences would be extreme if it was found to be false. Sort of like filing out taxes correctly. We receive aid and I have never lied in the forms.

I appreciate your honesty. The truth is that cheating on tax forms and on financial aid forms is happening. Nobody is checking this stuff. We all have to live with ourselves and I don’t know how some of these people do. They justify it to themselves somehow.

That’s a different issue though than people being upset that people correctly fill out their forms with a HHI of 300,000. People are mad that they receive aid at all. Of course we should be mad if they are being deceitful, but why be angry if they are honest and still get aid. It’s clear on these websites that many people are getting aid above 300,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

Agree. There is no reason to live like a pauper. The schools don't require aid families to do this. If you are choosing to do so then that is your choice. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you. I sleep better knowing we're not paying full price.

You can't force your standard on everyone else, especially since the schools themselves don't share your standard.

You sleep better knowing that other parents at your school are paying for your own kids? Subsidizing your kids through financial aid?

That is a weird thing to say. You are not pulling your weight as a parent. Personally I think you should try to pay back the generous gift you are receiving. Donate it all back.

[Anonymous]

And truly needy students are not getting that regardless of what the schools like to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

Agree. There is no reason to live like a pauper. The schools don't require aid families to do this. If you are choosing to do so then that is your choice. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you. I sleep better knowing we're not paying full price.

You can't force your standard on everyone else, especially since the schools themselves don't share your standard.

You sleep better knowing that other parents at your school are paying for your own kids? Subsidizing your kids through financial aid?

That is a weird thing to say. You are not pulling your weight as a parent. Personally I think you should try to pay back the generous gift you are receiving. Donate it all back.

You are either uninformed or just bitter. Another parent who sleeps better at night knowing they receive financial aid. We fill out our forms correctly and we receive an amount that allows us to send our children to an amazing school. We are incredibly grateful. If I ran into a tremendous amount of money, I would absolutely make a massive donation to our school, but it’s not a quid pro quo. It’s more like a sliding scale for those of you that are so confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

Agree. There is no reason to live like a pauper. The schools don't require aid families to do this. If you are choosing to do so then that is your choice. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you. I sleep better knowing we're not paying full price.

You can't force your standard on everyone else, especially since the schools themselves don't share your standard.

You sleep better knowing that other parents at your school are paying for your own kids? Subsidizing your kids through financial aid?

That is a weird thing to say. You are not pulling your weight as a parent. Personally I think you should try to pay back the generous gift you are receiving. Donate it all back.

I'm completely fine with allowing my tuition dollars to pay for a discount so that the children of public servants can reasonably afford to attend. We want to encourage people to pursue public service careers, and many public servants have incredibly interesting academic backgrounds that provide a perspective that benefits the community. There's a family at my kid's school whose parents are both Smithsonian biologists. Their family has added so much richness to our school, and I'm glad the school is committed to allowing families like theirs, for whom tuition is a real stretch, to be there.

*To be clear, I'm not saying only people with parents with cool public service jobs should get aid. I'm just giving an example of how aid for the upper-middle class is something that benefits the school community.*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you used public school, you would be very well off. That is the thing. You want private, but you can’t quite get there financially.

You had three kids and want them all in private. Three kids is a large family. You should either figure out how to earn more, or drop down to public.

Financial aid doesn’t make sense for you. You could afford private if you had fewer kids. You had a big family and stretched your budget too far. Either earn more or drop down to public.

who are you to be telling them what they should or should not do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

Agree. There is no reason to live like a pauper. The schools don't require aid families to do this. If you are choosing to do so then that is your choice. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you. I sleep better knowing we're not paying full price.

You can't force your standard on everyone else, especially since the schools themselves don't share your standard.

You sleep better knowing that other parents at your school are paying for your own kids? Subsidizing your kids through financial aid?

That is a weird thing to say. You are not pulling your weight as a parent. Personally I think you should try to pay back the generous gift you are receiving. Donate it all back.

You are either uninformed or just bitter. Another parent who sleeps better at night knowing they receive financial aid. We fill out our forms correctly and we receive an amount that allows us to send our children to an amazing school. We are incredibly grateful. If I ran into a tremendous amount of money, I would absolutely make a massive donation to our school, but it’s not a quid pro quo. It’s more like a sliding scale for those of you that are so confused.

You are receiving a generous gift. The entitlement on display among some of the posters is really shocking. I have donated large amounts to our school and I am reconsidering my priorities.


They aren’t giving you a discount. They are supposed to be offering a life altering gift to your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

Agree. There is no reason to live like a pauper. The schools don't require aid families to do this. If you are choosing to do so then that is your choice. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you. I sleep better knowing we're not paying full price.

You can't force your standard on everyone else, especially since the schools themselves don't share your standard.

You sleep better knowing that other parents at your school are paying for your own kids? Subsidizing your kids through financial aid?

That is a weird thing to say. You are not pulling your weight as a parent. Personally I think you should try to pay back the generous gift you are receiving. Donate it all back.

You are just impossible and frankly you need a giant dose of Xanax. You're railing on endlessly about a policy that is the industry standard for decades across almost all DMV (and US) private schools and that you have no ability to change. The only change you can make is to remove your money from the equation or apply for aid yourself. Please do yourself a favor and choose one of these options.

And we actually no longer receive aid. We didn't apply for this school year OR last as our job situation changed. So now we've switched to paying for others and we're thankful for the ability to do so. We were thankful for the assistance when we did receive it and it 10000000000% made us sleep better at night. I'm sorry to say on behalf of the aid families of the world that we aren't doing penance in the middle of the night as it sounds like you'd like. We got it and we loved it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

Agree. There is no reason to live like a pauper. The schools don't require aid families to do this. If you are choosing to do so then that is your choice. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you. I sleep better knowing we're not paying full price.

You can't force your standard on everyone else, especially since the schools themselves don't share your standard.

You sleep better knowing that other parents at your school are paying for your own kids? Subsidizing your kids through financial aid?

That is a weird thing to say. You are not pulling your weight as a parent. Personally I think you should try to pay back the generous gift you are receiving. Donate it all back.

You are either uninformed or just bitter. Another parent who sleeps better at night knowing they receive financial aid. We fill out our forms correctly and we receive an amount that allows us to send our children to an amazing school. We are incredibly grateful. If I ran into a tremendous amount of money, I would absolutely make a massive donation to our school, but it’s not a quid pro quo. It’s more like a sliding scale for those of you that are so confused.

You are receiving a generous gift. The entitlement on display among some of the posters is really shocking. I have donated large amounts to our school and I am reconsidering my priorities.


They aren’t giving you a discount. They are supposed to be offering a life altering gift to your children.

Lol anyone who has enough money for large donations and then reconsiders based on DCUM posts deserves to be parted with their money. Fools and money and all that.

But let’s be honest, you’re just making stuff up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen at our school, families with multiple children getting substantial FA taking vacations to Europe where families like ours that are full pay for two kids can't afford to take the number of vacations the families on FA take or got to places like the FA families do. That I think is unfair.

Then you should have applied for FA. The school does not expect you to live like a pauper, even if some of the weirdos here do.

I have seen very few full pay families have to restrain themselves the way you are.

Agree. There is no reason to live like a pauper. The schools don't require aid families to do this. If you are choosing to do so then that is your choice. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you. I sleep better knowing we're not paying full price.

You can't force your standard on everyone else, especially since the schools themselves don't share your standard.

You sleep better knowing that other parents at your school are paying for your own kids? Subsidizing your kids through financial aid?

That is a weird thing to say. You are not pulling your weight as a parent. Personally I think you should try to pay back the generous gift you are receiving. Donate it all back.

You are either uninformed or just bitter. Another parent who sleeps better at night knowing they receive financial aid. We fill out our forms correctly and we receive an amount that allows us to send our children to an amazing school. We are incredibly grateful. If I ran into a tremendous amount of money, I would absolutely make a massive donation to our school, but it’s not a quid pro quo. It’s more like a sliding scale for those of you that are so confused.

You are receiving a generous gift. The entitlement on display among some of the posters is really shocking. I have donated large amounts to our school and I am reconsidering my priorities.


They aren’t giving you a discount. They are supposed to be offering a life altering gift to your children.

Lol anyone who has enough money for large donations and then reconsiders based on DCUM posts deserves to be parted with their money. Fools and money and all that.

But let’s be honest, you’re just making stuff up.

You are a broken shell of a human.

[Anonymous]

To be clear, the full pay families are mostly just covering their own kids’ costs. The tuition discounts are primarily made possible through donations and through accepting lower expenditure than would otherwise be the case.