What HHI for financial aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just under $300k when we applied to well reputed (non-religious) privates for 6th grade. Tuition was in the 50s on average. We got a few paltry offers of $10k but mostly nothing. The one school that waitlisted our kid (who got into the rest) said they’d be admitted if willing to full pay.

We stayed in public.

On that income yuo can afford full pay. That's crazy you expect that much help.

That’s not true. That’s $300k before taxes. See my very basic breakdown above.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is about $350k. Applied for Catholic HS for one kid and didn't bother applying for financial aid as we assumed we wouldn't qualify. Maybe we should have tried but I'd rather aid go to families who really couldn't afford it without help.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Families looking for discounts are not interested in supporting the school or the school community. Let them bargain shop elsewhere.

This comment makes zero sense.

I get it from a school budget perspective. Full pay families have to subsidize the FA families. Many are also donating on top of that.

That has nothing to do with saying that families looking for financial aid aren’t interested in supporting the school or the community. An absurd comment.

A prior poster here with about 300k income said a 20% tuition discount was not big enough.

The best way I know of measuring support to a school is in dollars.

Time is money. All the schools DC has attended have been extremely appreciative of the parent volunteers that make dozens of things possible, from teacher appreciation events to early-years holiday room parties to the parents who organize meals for the HS students staying at rehearsal until 8 pm for the play.

That happens everywhere, including public schools. Not the same as financial support but also appreciated.

Financial support also happens everywhere, including publics, even if your kid doesn’t go to the local public. Source: the fliers stuck in my door by students asking for donations or selling products in support of the local (Fairfax) public ES, MS, and HS drama departments, bands, and every individual sport under the sun. Some of which I do give money to, along with my kid’s private school.

Kids fundraising is not relevant at all here.

Sure it is. Who do you think disproportionately contributes? Other parents.

You’ve concocted some weird view where only full pay families can support the school through financial contributions and now you can’t get out of it.

The kids are fundraising for their hobbies at the school: some music group, sports team, or whatever rather than paying the normal activities fees. It is because the parents are cheap and are crowdsourcing their kid’s extracurricular costs. It is not contributing to the school at all.


There is a big difference. Private schools have a development office where $10-20M of the annual budget comes from donors.

Public schools have bake sales to raise money for the dance troop. This is instead of the parents just paying activities fees. Or fundraising for a class trip, rather than just charging the parents the cost of the trip.

There is no comparison.

So you admit that the parents are covering costs that other schools would just charge for. So they are contributing financially to the school, just in a different form.

Whether it is on the same scale is irrelevant. We are talking about how families contribute to a school, both financially and non-financially. You keep throwing out red herrings.

Additionally, many families who receive FA are only receiving partial amounts and still donate when the asks start to come in.

None of your points make sense.

At private schools, the school is fundraising for themselves through a development office


At public school, the school does zero fundraising. To minimize activity fees for parents, the kids fundraise for their parents to cover activity fees for their hobbies. They are fundraising for their parents to cover the costs of their hobbies.

It really couldn’t be any more black and white.

[Anonymous]

The next time a kid comes to you with a fundraiser for their sports team, music club, or class field trip, you need to understand what is actually going on here:

Cheap ass parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Families looking for discounts are not interested in supporting the school or the school community. Let them bargain shop elsewhere.

This comment makes zero sense.

I get it from a school budget perspective. Full pay families have to subsidize the FA families. Many are also donating on top of that.

That has nothing to do with saying that families looking for financial aid aren’t interested in supporting the school or the community. An absurd comment.

A prior poster here with about 300k income said a 20% tuition discount was not big enough.

The best way I know of measuring support to a school is in dollars.

Time is money. All the schools DC has attended have been extremely appreciative of the parent volunteers that make dozens of things possible, from teacher appreciation events to early-years holiday room parties to the parents who organize meals for the HS students staying at rehearsal until 8 pm for the play.

That happens everywhere, including public schools. Not the same as financial support but also appreciated.

Financial support also happens everywhere, including publics, even if your kid doesn’t go to the local public. Source: the fliers stuck in my door by students asking for donations or selling products in support of the local (Fairfax) public ES, MS, and HS drama departments, bands, and every individual sport under the sun. Some of which I do give money to, along with my kid’s private school.

Kids fundraising is not relevant at all here.

Sure it is. Who do you think disproportionately contributes? Other parents.

You’ve concocted some weird view where only full pay families can support the school through financial contributions and now you can’t get out of it.

The kids are fundraising for their hobbies at the school: some music group, sports team, or whatever rather than paying the normal activities fees. It is because the parents are cheap and are crowdsourcing their kid’s extracurricular costs. It is not contributing to the school at all.


There is a big difference. Private schools have a development office where $10-20M of the annual budget comes from donors.

Public schools have bake sales to raise money for the dance troop. This is instead of the parents just paying activities fees. Or fundraising for a class trip, rather than just charging the parents the cost of the trip.

There is no comparison.

So you admit that the parents are covering costs that other schools would just charge for. So they are contributing financially to the school, just in a different form.

Whether it is on the same scale is irrelevant. We are talking about how families contribute to a school, both financially and non-financially. You keep throwing out red herrings.

Additionally, many families who receive FA are only receiving partial amounts and still donate when the asks start to come in.

None of your points make sense.

At private schools, the school is fundraising for themselves through a development office


At public school, the school does zero fundraising. To minimize activity fees for parents, the kids fundraise for their parents to cover activity fees for their hobbies. They are fundraising for their parents to cover the costs of their hobbies.

It really couldn’t be any more black and white.

So, again, both sets of parents are contributing financially. And then there are non-financial contributions. And this is how parents contribute to the school and community, including ones on FA at privates. That’s all we’re talking about here, not whatever new argument you try to invent when you lose the previous one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Families looking for discounts are not interested in supporting the school or the school community. Let them bargain shop elsewhere.

This comment makes zero sense.

I get it from a school budget perspective. Full pay families have to subsidize the FA families. Many are also donating on top of that.

That has nothing to do with saying that families looking for financial aid aren’t interested in supporting the school or the community. An absurd comment.

A prior poster here with about 300k income said a 20% tuition discount was not big enough.

The best way I know of measuring support to a school is in dollars.

Time is money. All the schools DC has attended have been extremely appreciative of the parent volunteers that make dozens of things possible, from teacher appreciation events to early-years holiday room parties to the parents who organize meals for the HS students staying at rehearsal until 8 pm for the play.

That happens everywhere, including public schools. Not the same as financial support but also appreciated.

Financial support also happens everywhere, including publics, even if your kid doesn’t go to the local public. Source: the fliers stuck in my door by students asking for donations or selling products in support of the local (Fairfax) public ES, MS, and HS drama departments, bands, and every individual sport under the sun. Some of which I do give money to, along with my kid’s private school.

Kids fundraising is not relevant at all here.

Sure it is. Who do you think disproportionately contributes? Other parents.

You’ve concocted some weird view where only full pay families can support the school through financial contributions and now you can’t get out of it.

The kids are fundraising for their hobbies at the school: some music group, sports team, or whatever rather than paying the normal activities fees. It is because the parents are cheap and are crowdsourcing their kid’s extracurricular costs. It is not contributing to the school at all.


There is a big difference. Private schools have a development office where $10-20M of the annual budget comes from donors.

Public schools have bake sales to raise money for the dance troop. This is instead of the parents just paying activities fees. Or fundraising for a class trip, rather than just charging the parents the cost of the trip.

There is no comparison.

So you admit that the parents are covering costs that other schools would just charge for. So they are contributing financially to the school, just in a different form.

Whether it is on the same scale is irrelevant. We are talking about how families contribute to a school, both financially and non-financially. You keep throwing out red herrings.

Additionally, many families who receive FA are only receiving partial amounts and still donate when the asks start to come in.

None of your points make sense.

At private schools, the school is fundraising for themselves through a development office


At public school, the school does zero fundraising. To minimize activity fees for parents, the kids fundraise for their parents to cover activity fees for their hobbies. They are fundraising for their parents to cover the costs of their hobbies.

It really couldn’t be any more black and white.

So, again, both sets of parents are contributing financially. And then there are non-financial contributions. And this is how parents contribute to the school and community, including ones on FA at privates. That’s all we’re talking about here, not whatever new argument you try to invent when you lose the previous one.

When kids fundraiser there is no financial contribution to the school. Zero. Absolutely none.

[Anonymous]

With my own kids, we always opt out of making the kids fundraise for their extracurriculars and just pay the activity fee instead of there is that option.

We don’t let our kids fundraise for themselves.

Parents who do should be embarrassed. It is the same as panhandling.

[Anonymous]

Child has been in both public and private schools. Sometimes the fundraisers in public help support the class, namely families who could not afford x,y, z otherwise. Savvy publics and charters lay that out for those contemplating donating to the class trip/experience.

We live in a solidly upper middle class neighborhood. We give to kids who make the case for their school and/or offer to work, ie pet sit, babysit clean out garage etc. to ensure all kids have opportunities, not because mom and dad who live in a 2M+ home want them to ask the neighbors to help pay for their kid's crew trip.

Private school is a choice and a privilege where most can afford to pay the fees and so we do, even though we don't have a huge HHI. We make financial tradeoffs in order to fund private school, ie fewer vacations, smaller house, one car etc. If the situation were to become financially untenable, we would simply make other choices. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just under $300k when we applied to well reputed (non-religious) privates for 6th grade. Tuition was in the 50s on average. We got a few paltry offers of $10k but mostly nothing. The one school that waitlisted our kid (who got into the rest) said they’d be admitted if willing to full pay.

We stayed in public.

Thanks for your honesty, but wow. Given that you need financial aid in the first place this seems like a fair amount and savings. We are full pay and I’d love to pay $10k less just because. Honestly, your response is why I don’t contribute to financial aid and earmark our contributions to other school needs that benefit all students and staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just under $300k when we applied to well reputed (non-religious) privates for 6th grade. Tuition was in the 50s on average. We got a few paltry offers of $10k but mostly nothing. The one school that waitlisted our kid (who got into the rest) said they’d be admitted if willing to full pay.

We stayed in public.

Thanks for your honesty, but wow. Given that you need financial aid in the first place this seems like a fair amount and savings. We are full pay and I’d love to pay $10k less just because. Honestly, your response is why I don’t contribute to financial aid and earmark our contributions to other school needs that benefit all students and staff.

This is why parents view those who use financial aid as swindlers. The fraud is rampant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just under $300k when we applied to well reputed (non-religious) privates for 6th grade. Tuition was in the 50s on average. We got a few paltry offers of $10k but mostly nothing. The one school that waitlisted our kid (who got into the rest) said they’d be admitted if willing to full pay.

We stayed in public.

Thanks for your honesty, but wow. Given that you need financial aid in the first place this seems like a fair amount and savings. We are full pay and I’d love to pay $10k less just because. Honestly, your response is why I don’t contribute to financial aid and earmark our contributions to other school needs that benefit all students and staff.

This is why parents view those who use financial aid as swindlers. The fraud is rampant.

That’s an awfully broad brush you are painting with.

Some parents think so. Conveniently, their broad brush sweeps away the MC and low income students who cannot otherwise afford the school.

But you don’t want those kids anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just under $300k when we applied to well reputed (non-religious) privates for 6th grade. Tuition was in the 50s on average. We got a few paltry offers of $10k but mostly nothing. The one school that waitlisted our kid (who got into the rest) said they’d be admitted if willing to full pay.

We stayed in public.

Thanks for your honesty, but wow. Given that you need financial aid in the first place this seems like a fair amount and savings. We are full pay and I’d love to pay $10k less just because. Honestly, your response is why I don’t contribute to financial aid and earmark our contributions to other school needs that benefit all students and staff.

This is why parents view those who use financial aid as swindlers. The fraud is rampant.

Your abuse of the English language is worse than any of these people’s abuse of financial aid. It isn’t “fraud” to apply for financial aid, get an offer of $10k, and turn it down. It isn’t fraud to apply at all. The schools even encourage it.

The commenters here are extremely weird.

[Anonymous]

Just because a food pantry would offer you food doesn’t make it okay to take it. If you really don’t need it, you are an a-hole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just under $300k when we applied to well reputed (non-religious) privates for 6th grade. Tuition was in the 50s on average. We got a few paltry offers of $10k but mostly nothing. The one school that waitlisted our kid (who got into the rest) said they’d be admitted if willing to full pay.

We stayed in public.

Thanks for your honesty, but wow. Given that you need financial aid in the first place this seems like a fair amount and savings. We are full pay and I’d love to pay $10k less just because. Honestly, your response is why I don’t contribute to financial aid and earmark our contributions to other school needs that benefit all students and staff.

This is why parents view those who use financial aid as swindlers. The fraud is rampant.

Your abuse of the English language is worse than any of these people’s abuse of financial aid. It isn’t “fraud” to apply for financial aid, get an offer of $10k, and turn it down. It isn’t fraud to apply at all. The schools even encourage it.

The commenters here are extremely weird.

The fraud is there. Audit the income tax returns and financial statements/disclosures. It is there.


Like a church pastor driving a Ferrari. It is obvious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just under $300k when we applied to well reputed (non-religious) privates for 6th grade. Tuition was in the 50s on average. We got a few paltry offers of $10k but mostly nothing. The one school that waitlisted our kid (who got into the rest) said they’d be admitted if willing to full pay.

We stayed in public.

Thanks for your honesty, but wow. Given that you need financial aid in the first place this seems like a fair amount and savings. We are full pay and I’d love to pay $10k less just because. Honestly, your response is why I don’t contribute to financial aid and earmark our contributions to other school needs that benefit all students and staff.

This is why parents view those who use financial aid as swindlers. The fraud is rampant.

Your abuse of the English language is worse than any of these people’s abuse of financial aid. It isn’t “fraud” to apply for financial aid, get an offer of $10k, and turn it down. It isn’t fraud to apply at all. The schools even encourage it.

The commenters here are extremely weird.

The fraud is there. Audit the income tax returns and financial statements/disclosures. It is there.


Like a church pastor driving a Ferrari. It is obvious.

For all FA? Whose returns and disclosures? Have you seen these documents? All of them? Why would you have seen them? Can you produce them?