FA - real life

[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: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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

Lol, thanks for finally admitting what all the outrage is about. How petty.

My family is incredibly privileged to be able to pay 4/5 of the tuition.
And, while I am grateful for the 1/5 we get in aid, I also know my well-behaved academically advanced kid is contributing to the school. I don't think we'd get aid if that wasn't the case. I don't feel like a second class citizen at the school and if that makes full pay families mad, then they can be mad.

The admissions standards are the same for all kids, regardless of financial aid. Your kid going to school there, who is academically advanced and well behaved, contributes nothing more than the next kid.


On the other hand, as a parent you are contributing much less than the other parents. You are actually letting the others parents pay for your kid. You are receiving a generous gift however you seem to think you earned it. You have not.

It's not a "generous gift" if the giver expects the recipient to feel bad about receiving it. PP is furious that recipients feel they are peers instead of supplicants - that's the same reason PPs are mad about kids in nice clothes or taking a vacation. They crave a visible marker of their superiority, and if other people aren't feeling inferior to the rich then what is even the point of having money, right?

Here's the thing: donors don't give the money to individual students. Donors give the money to the school, which thanks the donor and then spends how it chooses. That postcard or phone call from the school is your thank you note: you already received it.

The school uses some of the money for financial aid, which is a tool to manage enrollment, and in doing so it does in fact take into account which students it wants to incentivize to stay. How the FA recipient thanks the school - by volunteering, or donating small amounts for years after graduation, or nothing at all - is between the recipient and the school that gave them the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a large donor at a private school then I think it’s completely reasonable that children are financial aid and thank you note. And I say that to somebody who’s on financial aid. What’s

Let’s say you are on an airplane enroute to LA. You paid $500 for your seat. The airline said that’s the price and you apparently agreed.

Turns out the person in the seat next to you paid $400 for their ticket. Maybe they bought if at the last minute or months earlier.

What does that person owe you?

How is this comparable? If you can afford to fly to LA, you shouldn't be getting FA.

[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: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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

Lol, thanks for finally admitting what all the outrage is about. How petty.

My family is incredibly privileged to be able to pay 4/5 of the tuition.
And, while I am grateful for the 1/5 we get in aid, I also know my well-behaved academically advanced kid is contributing to the school. I don't think we'd get aid if that wasn't the case. I don't feel like a second class citizen at the school and if that makes full pay families mad, then they can be mad.

The admissions standards are the same for all kids, regardless of financial aid. Your kid going to school there, who is academically advanced and well behaved, contributes nothing more than the next kid.


On the other hand, as a parent you are contributing much less than the other parents. You are actually letting the others parents pay for your kid. You are receiving a generous gift however you seem to think you earned it. You have not.

It's not a "generous gift" if the giver expects the recipient to feel bad about receiving it. PP is furious that recipients feel they are peers instead of supplicants - that's the same reason PPs are mad about kids in nice clothes or taking a vacation. They crave a visible marker of their superiority, and if other people aren't feeling inferior to the rich then what is even the point of having money, right?

Here's the thing: donors don't give the money to individual students. Donors give the money to the school, which thanks the donor and then spends how it chooses. That postcard or phone call from the school is your thank you note: you already received it.

The school uses some of the money for financial aid, which is a tool to manage enrollment, and in doing so it does in fact take into account which students it wants to incentivize to stay. How the FA recipient thanks the school - by volunteering, or donating small amounts for years after graduation, or nothing at all - is between the recipient and the school that gave them the money.

If someone makes lifestyle choices to not afford the expenses that they create, why should others subsitize them? Those spots should go to true low income.

[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: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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

This is a joke, right? Financial aid is coming from the endowment and other sources. It’s not coming from anybody else’s tuition.

Yet another example how this site is full on fan-fiction for most people. Anon is great and important, but there's a very large % of people here just commenting on **** they have no clue about (pretty much like everywhere else on the Internet)

But the other poster is correct, at least at schools with decent endowments (which is most of the good ones).

We are discussing local private schools, not colleges. None of the local private schools have endowments that are a major funding source of financial aid since they are relatively small compared to universities. Financial aid funds comes from donors and from full pay tuition.

[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: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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

Lol, thanks for finally admitting what all the outrage is about. How petty.

My family is incredibly privileged to be able to pay 4/5 of the tuition.
And, while I am grateful for the 1/5 we get in aid, I also know my well-behaved academically advanced kid is contributing to the school. I don't think we'd get aid if that wasn't the case. I don't feel like a second class citizen at the school and if that makes full pay families mad, then they can be mad.

The admissions standards are the same for all kids, regardless of financial aid. Your kid going to school there, who is academically advanced and well behaved, contributes nothing more than the next kid.


On the other hand, as a parent you are contributing much less than the other parents. You are actually letting the others parents pay for your kid. You are receiving a generous gift however you seem to think you earned it. You have not.

It's not a "generous gift" if the giver expects the recipient to feel bad about receiving it. PP is furious that recipients feel they are peers instead of supplicants - that's the same reason PPs are mad about kids in nice clothes or taking a vacation. They crave a visible marker of their superiority, and if other people aren't feeling inferior to the rich then what is even the point of having money, right?

Here's the thing: donors don't give the money to individual students. Donors give the money to the school, which thanks the donor and then spends how it chooses. That postcard or phone call from the school is your thank you note: you already received it.

The school uses some of the money for financial aid, which is a tool to manage enrollment, and in doing so it does in fact take into account which students it wants to incentivize to stay. How the FA recipient thanks the school - by volunteering, or donating small amounts for years after graduation, or nothing at all - is between the recipient and the school that gave them the money.

If someone makes lifestyle choices to not afford the expenses that they create, why should others subsitize them? Those spots should go to true low income.

You need to take this up with your school. You are mad about how the school distributes money. IMO the school distributes money for reasons other than charity, but you can go be on the board or whatever and try to change that since it bothers you.

[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: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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

This is a joke, right? Financial aid is coming from the endowment and other sources. It’s not coming from anybody else’s tuition.

Yet another example how this site is full on fan-fiction for most people. Anon is great and important, but there's a very large % of people here just commenting on **** they have no clue about (pretty much like everywhere else on the Internet)

But the other poster is correct, at least at schools with decent endowments (which is most of the good ones).

We are discussing local private schools, not colleges. None of the local private schools have endowments that are a major funding source of financial aid since they are relatively small compared to universities. Financial aid funds comes from donors and from full pay tuition.

Sidwell's endowment is $92.4 million. The endowment pays millions toward financial aid each year.

[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:

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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

This is a joke, right? Financial aid is coming from the endowment and other sources. It’s not coming from anybody else’s tuition.

Yet another example how this site is full on fan-fiction for most people. Anon is great and important, but there's a very large % of people here just commenting on **** they have no clue about (pretty much like everywhere else on the Internet)

But the other poster is correct, at least at schools with decent endowments (which is most of the good ones).

We are discussing local private schools, not colleges. None of the local private schools have endowments that are a major funding source of financial aid since they are relatively small compared to universities. Financial aid funds comes from donors and from full pay tuition.

Sidwell's endowment is $92.4 million. The endowment pays millions toward financial aid each year.

That is a pretty small endowment. I hope you were joking. Most of those funds are restricted and can’t just be used for financial aid, even if they wanted to.

[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:

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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

This is a joke, right? Financial aid is coming from the endowment and other sources. It’s not coming from anybody else’s tuition.

Yet another example how this site is full on fan-fiction for most people. Anon is great and important, but there's a very large % of people here just commenting on **** they have no clue about (pretty much like everywhere else on the Internet)

But the other poster is correct, at least at schools with decent endowments (which is most of the good ones).

We are discussing local private schools, not colleges. None of the local private schools have endowments that are a major funding source of financial aid since they are relatively small compared to universities. Financial aid funds comes from donors and from full pay tuition.

Sidwell's endowment is $92.4 million. The endowment pays millions toward financial aid each year.

That is a pretty small endowment. I hope you were joking. Most of those funds are restricted and can’t just be used for financial aid, even if they wanted to.

That's not a small endowment, particularly considering it's a day school with small enrollment. It's high per capita. At 5% per year (the suggested draw rate), they're generating between 4 and 5 million. And restricted gifts are a farce and everyone in endowment management and finance knows it. All money is fungible.

[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:

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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

This is a joke, right? Financial aid is coming from the endowment and other sources. It’s not coming from anybody else’s tuition.

Yet another example how this site is full on fan-fiction for most people. Anon is great and important, but there's a very large % of people here just commenting on **** they have no clue about (pretty much like everywhere else on the Internet)

But the other poster is correct, at least at schools with decent endowments (which is most of the good ones).

We are discussing local private schools, not colleges. None of the local private schools have endowments that are a major funding source of financial aid since they are relatively small compared to universities. Financial aid funds comes from donors and from full pay tuition.

Sidwell's endowment is $92.4 million. The endowment pays millions toward financial aid each year.

That is a pretty small endowment. I hope you were joking. Most of those funds are restricted and can’t just be used for financial aid, even if they wanted to.

That's not a small endowment, particularly considering it's a day school with small enrollment. It's high per capita. At 5% per year (the suggested draw rate), they're generating between 4 and 5 million. And restricted gifts are a farce and everyone in endowment management and finance knows it. All money is fungible.

The endowment is tiny, actually. 5% per year would go towards the whole budget. A tiny fraction would go towards financial aid, under the best circumstances. You sort of get it but also need to know, this endowment is not only for financial aid. It has other purposes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

This is a joke, right? Financial aid is coming from the endowment and other sources. It’s not coming from anybody else’s tuition.

Yet another example how this site is full on fan-fiction for most people. Anon is great and important, but there's a very large % of people here just commenting on **** they have no clue about (pretty much like everywhere else on the Internet)

But the other poster is correct, at least at schools with decent endowments (which is most of the good ones).

We are discussing local private schools, not colleges. None of the local private schools have endowments that are a major funding source of financial aid since they are relatively small compared to universities. Financial aid funds comes from donors and from full pay tuition.

Sidwell's endowment is $92.4 million. The endowment pays millions toward financial aid each year.

That is a pretty small endowment. I hope you were joking. Most of those funds are restricted and can’t just be used for financial aid, even if they wanted to.

That's not a small endowment, particularly considering it's a day school with small enrollment. It's high per capita. At 5% per year (the suggested draw rate), they're generating between 4 and 5 million. And restricted gifts are a farce and everyone in endowment management and finance knows it. All money is fungible.

The endowment is tiny, actually. 5% per year would go towards the whole budget. A tiny fraction would go towards financial aid, under the best circumstances. You sort of get it but also need to know, this endowment is not only for financial aid. It has other purposes.

Do you understand the fungibility of money at all? Any spent endowment returns are money that doesn't need to generated from tuition.

[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:

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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

This is a joke, right? Financial aid is coming from the endowment and other sources. It’s not coming from anybody else’s tuition.

Yet another example how this site is full on fan-fiction for most people. Anon is great and important, but there's a very large % of people here just commenting on **** they have no clue about (pretty much like everywhere else on the Internet)

But the other poster is correct, at least at schools with decent endowments (which is most of the good ones).

We are discussing local private schools, not colleges. None of the local private schools have endowments that are a major funding source of financial aid since they are relatively small compared to universities. Financial aid funds comes from donors and from full pay tuition.

Sidwell's endowment is $92.4 million. The endowment pays millions toward financial aid each year.

That is a pretty small endowment. I hope you were joking. Most of those funds are restricted and can’t just be used for financial aid, even if they wanted to.

That's not a small endowment, particularly considering it's a day school with small enrollment. It's high per capita. At 5% per year (the suggested draw rate), they're generating between 4 and 5 million. And restricted gifts are a farce and everyone in endowment management and finance knows it. All money is fungible.

The endowment is tiny, actually. 5% per year would go towards the whole budget. A tiny fraction would go towards financial aid, under the best circumstances. You sort of get it but also need to know, this endowment is not only for financial aid. It has other purposes.

Do you understand the fungibility of money at all? Any spent endowment returns are money that doesn't need to generated from tuition.

Sure, but this is a school that primarily serves the full tuition paying families that attend. The top priorities in the operating budget are things like salaries related to faculty and staff recruitment and retention, facilities upkeep and maintenance, etc. Financial aid is nice but they have to budget running an elite private school.

[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: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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

Lol, thanks for finally admitting what all the outrage is about. How petty.

My family is incredibly privileged to be able to pay 4/5 of the tuition.
And, while I am grateful for the 1/5 we get in aid, I also know my well-behaved academically advanced kid is contributing to the school. I don't think we'd get aid if that wasn't the case. I don't feel like a second class citizen at the school and if that makes full pay families mad, then they can be mad.

The admissions standards are the same for all kids, regardless of financial aid. Your kid going to school there, who is academically advanced and well behaved, contributes nothing more than the next kid.


On the other hand, as a parent you are contributing much less than the other parents. You are actually letting the others parents pay for your kid. You are receiving a generous gift however you seem to think you earned it. You have not.

It's not a "generous gift" if the giver expects the recipient to feel bad about receiving it. PP is furious that recipients feel they are peers instead of supplicants - that's the same reason PPs are mad about kids in nice clothes or taking a vacation. They crave a visible marker of their superiority, and if other people aren't feeling inferior to the rich then what is even the point of having money, right?

Here's the thing: donors don't give the money to individual students. Donors give the money to the school, which thanks the donor and then spends how it chooses. That postcard or phone call from the school is your thank you note: you already received it.

The school uses some of the money for financial aid, which is a tool to manage enrollment, and in doing so it does in fact take into account which students it wants to incentivize to stay. How the FA recipient thanks the school - by volunteering, or donating small amounts for years after graduation, or nothing at all - is between the recipient and the school that gave them the money.

Most accurate comment on this thread.

[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: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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

Lol, thanks for finally admitting what all the outrage is about. How petty.

My family is incredibly privileged to be able to pay 4/5 of the tuition.
And, while I am grateful for the 1/5 we get in aid, I also know my well-behaved academically advanced kid is contributing to the school. I don't think we'd get aid if that wasn't the case. I don't feel like a second class citizen at the school and if that makes full pay families mad, then they can be mad.

You think you have a seat at the table but you are actually at the kid’s table and that is by mistake that somehow you slipped by the admissions team. We pity how little you understand about the world however enjoy the aid while it lasts.

+1 another spoiled brat on aid

[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:

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.

Can you please explain the difference between a gift of partial tuition and a discount on tuition?

It is a gift because generous donors are paying it for you. Their philanthropy makes it possible. The money has to come from somewhere, and it is from donations as well as from the full pay families who pay thousands more in tuition each year to make financial aid possible.

If you are on financial aid, there are other people paying the bill for your kids.

At the schools with the largest donors and endowments, even the full pay kids have other people paying the bill for them. Hope you wrote them a thank you note.

your reference to thank you notes is mostly sarcastic, but it would be nice if the kids and families of the kids being subsidized showed some gratitude to the wealthier families who are subsidizing them; many of these schools seem to have a culture of looking at "privilege" as something negative.

This is a joke, right? Financial aid is coming from the endowment and other sources. It’s not coming from anybody else’s tuition.

Yet another example how this site is full on fan-fiction for most people. Anon is great and important, but there's a very large % of people here just commenting on **** they have no clue about (pretty much like everywhere else on the Internet)

But the other poster is correct, at least at schools with decent endowments (which is most of the good ones).

We are discussing local private schools, not colleges. None of the local private schools have endowments that are a major funding source of financial aid since they are relatively small compared to universities. Financial aid funds comes from donors and from full pay tuition.

Sidwell's endowment is $92.4 million. The endowment pays millions toward financial aid each year.

That is a pretty small endowment. I hope you were joking. Most of those funds are restricted and can’t just be used for financial aid, even if they wanted to.

That's not a small endowment, particularly considering it's a day school with small enrollment. It's high per capita. At 5% per year (the suggested draw rate), they're generating between 4 and 5 million. And restricted gifts are a farce and everyone in endowment management and finance knows it. All money is fungible.

The endowment is tiny, actually. 5% per year would go towards the whole budget. A tiny fraction would go towards financial aid, under the best circumstances. You sort of get it but also need to know, this endowment is not only for financial aid. It has other purposes.

Do you understand the fungibility of money at all? Any spent endowment returns are money that doesn't need to generated from tuition.

Sure, but this is a school that primarily serves the full tuition paying families that attend. The top priorities in the operating budget are things like salaries related to faculty and staff recruitment and retention, facilities upkeep and maintenance, etc. Financial aid is nice but they have to budget running an elite private school.

Financial aid is just less revenue. Fewer tuition dollars. Endowment spending is additional revenue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No self respecting human with over $300k in income would apply for financial aid.

Agreed. A mooch.