Do schools treat you in any way differently if you are receiving financial aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if the teachers know or care. But I’m sure it’s obvious to other kids and parents when we roll up to school in our 13-year-old Honda amidst the line of Teslas, BMWs, Mercedes, etc. Our house is tiny and we don’t jet off to Aspen or Paris for school breaks. But my kid’s friends don’t care. If your child’s friends are true friends, they won’t care either.

We have a 12 year old Honda and are not currently on FA (we will be starting next years… only 10%). We have 3 kids and can’t afford a nice car (or Aspen) because we spend all our money on tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FA is an exercise in cross subsidization. Not every child can be on FA. The model simply doesn't work unless full pay families subsidize the FA. From an economic viability perspective full pay families are more important to independent schools.

From a big picture standpoint, yes. But once a family has been given FA, as an individual, that child is no less (or more) important than any given full-pay (or at least full-pay non-VIP) child. The school does not treat students on FA differently than full-pay students.

This was our experience. We were on FA for seven years and have been off it for two years. Absolutely no difference on an individual level. I don’t think individual teachers know or care about how tuition is getting paid, whether it be via financial aid, earned income, or inherited wealth. That’s just not their focus.

Do you think your experience would be the same if things were reversed? Full pay for seven then FA for two?

We're the reverse. Full pay for 2 years of high school followed by financial aid.
We asked for small amount of aid and were given 75-80%.
I assume the school really likes my kid as they are now basically paying for her education and gave us aid well in excess of what we asked for. She is a super strong student.
We have not noticed any change in how we're treated. We're active members of the community, donate modestly to the auction, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FA is an exercise in cross subsidization. Not every child can be on FA. The model simply doesn't work unless full pay families subsidize the FA. From an economic viability perspective full pay families are more important to independent schools.

From a big picture standpoint, yes. But once a family has been given FA, as an individual, that child is no less (or more) important than any given full-pay (or at least full-pay non-VIP) child. The school does not treat students on FA differently than full-pay students.

This was our experience. We were on FA for seven years and have been off it for two years. Absolutely no difference on an individual level. I don’t think individual teachers know or care about how tuition is getting paid, whether it be via financial aid, earned income, or inherited wealth. That’s just not their focus.

Do you think your experience would be the same if things were reversed? Full pay for seven then FA for two?

We're the reverse. Full pay for 2 years of high school followed by financial aid.
We asked for small amount of aid and were given 75-80%.
I assume the school really likes my kid as they are now basically paying for her education and gave us aid well in excess of what we asked for. She is a super strong student.
We have not noticed any change in how we're treated. We're active members of the community, donate modestly to the auction, etc.

Wow, did you situation change, leading to such a huge jump?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do schools treat you in any way differently if you are receiving financial aid?

Do the teachers know? Does the staff know? Does the head of school "principals" know? Any different treatment.

Note: this is in reference to already accepted.

In our private, the weakest teacher in each grade has most of the FA students and some of the faculty discounted students. My kids sometimes had the very best teachers when they were in classes that had all full pay kids (and the big donor kids).

[Anonymous]

Teacher in independent school for over 20 years. We are never told who is on financial aid. No faculty care or treat anyone differently based on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools treat you in any way differently if you are receiving financial aid?

Do the teachers know? Does the staff know? Does the head of school "principals" know? Any different treatment.

Note: this is in reference to already accepted.

In our private, the weakest teacher in each grade has most of the FA students and some of the faculty discounted students. My kids sometimes had the very best teachers when they were in classes that had all full pay kids (and the big donor kids).

How would you know? Do you have a list of every FA/discount kid and every donor kid, and which class they are in? I call BS on this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools treat you in any way differently if you are receiving financial aid?

Do the teachers know? Does the staff know? Does the head of school "principals" know? Any different treatment.

Note: this is in reference to already accepted.

In our private, the weakest teacher in each grade has most of the FA students and some of the faculty discounted students. My kids sometimes had the very best teachers when they were in classes that had all full pay kids (and the big donor kids).

Is this for real, or are you being a bit hyperbolic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FA is an exercise in cross subsidization. Not every child can be on FA. The model simply doesn't work unless full pay families subsidize the FA. From an economic viability perspective full pay families are more important to independent schools.

From a big picture standpoint, yes. But once a family has been given FA, as an individual, that child is no less (or more) important than any given full-pay (or at least full-pay non-VIP) child. The school does not treat students on FA differently than full-pay students.

This was our experience. We were on FA for seven years and have been off it for two years. Absolutely no difference on an individual level. I don’t think individual teachers know or care about how tuition is getting paid, whether it be via financial aid, earned income, or inherited wealth. That’s just not their focus.

Do you think your experience would be the same if things were reversed? Full pay for seven then FA for two?

We're the reverse. Full pay for 2 years of high school followed by financial aid.
We asked for small amount of aid and were given 75-80%.
I assume the school really likes my kid as they are now basically paying for her education and gave us aid well in excess of what we asked for. She is a super strong student.
We have not noticed any change in how we're treated. We're active members of the community, donate modestly to the auction, etc.

Kind of ironic. I say this respectfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if the teachers know or care. But I’m sure it’s obvious to other kids and parents when we roll up to school in our 13-year-old Honda amidst the line of Teslas, BMWs, Mercedes, etc. Our house is tiny and we don’t jet off to Aspen or Paris for school breaks. But my kid’s friends don’t care. If your child’s friends are true friends, they won’t care either.

We have a 12 year old Honda and are not currently on FA (we will be starting next years… only 10%). We have 3 kids and can’t afford a nice car (or Aspen) because we spend all our money on tuition.

Why didn't you ask before?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FA is an exercise in cross subsidization. Not every child can be on FA. The model simply doesn't work unless full pay families subsidize the FA. From an economic viability perspective full pay families are more important to independent schools.

From a big picture standpoint, yes. But once a family has been given FA, as an individual, that child is no less (or more) important than any given full-pay (or at least full-pay non-VIP) child. The school does not treat students on FA differently than full-pay students.

This was our experience. We were on FA for seven years and have been off it for two years. Absolutely no difference on an individual level. I don’t think individual teachers know or care about how tuition is getting paid, whether it be via financial aid, earned income, or inherited wealth. That’s just not their focus.

Do you think your experience would be the same if things were reversed? Full pay for seven then FA for two?

We're the reverse. Full pay for 2 years of high school followed by financial aid.
We asked for small amount of aid and were given 75-80%.
I assume the school really likes my kid as they are now basically paying for her education and gave us aid well in excess of what we asked for. She is a super strong student.
We have not noticed any change in how we're treated. We're active members of the community, donate modestly to the auction, etc.

Kind of ironic. I say this respectfully.

For sure. But they want 109% participation so we give.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools treat you in any way differently if you are receiving financial aid?

Do the teachers know? Does the staff know? Does the head of school "principals" know? Any different treatment.

Note: this is in reference to already accepted.

In our private, the weakest teacher in each grade has most of the FA students and some of the faculty discounted students. My kids sometimes had the very best teachers when they were in classes that had all full pay kids (and the big donor kids).

How would you know? Do you have a list of every FA/discount kid and every donor kid, and which class they are in? I call BS on this one.

How the heck would you know? I'm a financial aid family and I socialize with most of the other down-to-earth or less wealthy of the school and I have NO idea who gets aid and who doesn't and these are my good friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an FA family, I am guessing that most of the administrators know. It does not trouble me one bit. I've never thought/felt the teachers know. Also, I would not care if they knew.
I do wish that we had more money so I could pay the school a bit more. I truly wish that. We love our school. My child loves the school.

Has it ever been mentioned to you by ANYONE?

Just because it's never been mentioned doesn't tell you who knows or doesn't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools treat you in any way differently if you are receiving financial aid?

Do the teachers know? Does the staff know? Does the head of school "principals" know? Any different treatment.

Note: this is in reference to already accepted.

In our private, the weakest teacher in each grade has most of the FA students and some of the faculty discounted students. My kids sometimes had the very best teachers when they were in classes that had all full pay kids (and the big donor kids).

Is this really true?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools treat you in any way differently if you are receiving financial aid?

Do the teachers know? Does the staff know? Does the head of school "principals" know? Any different treatment.

Note: this is in reference to already accepted.

In our private, the weakest teacher in each grade has most of the FA students and some of the faculty discounted students. My kids sometimes had the very best teachers when they were in classes that had all full pay kids (and the big donor kids).

Is this really true?

No

[Anonymous]

We get nearly full aid and we're treated very well. I'm unable to volunteer because I'm a working single mom and I don't feel pressure to, which i appreciate. I can't compare how we're treated to full pay families, no use going down that path since I can't complain.