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:

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.

No, the financial aid funds have to be budgeted from sources. Your view is just not practically how it works. There is a financial aid budget that limits what can be given out.

[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:

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.

No, the financial aid funds have to be budgeted from sources. Your view is just not practically how it works. There is a financial aid budget that limits what can be given out.

The school needs to balance the budget, meaning revenue and expenses need to match. Financial aid is a discount on tuition. That means a reduction in revenue per student from tuition sources. Endowment is used to close the gap between revenue and expenses. Another source is annual giving funds that are not placed in the endowment.

[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.

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

Comments like this and the mooch comment are how you know there are tons of dumb trolls 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:

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.

No, the financial aid funds have to be budgeted from sources. Your view is just not practically how it works. There is a financial aid budget that limits what can be given out.

The school needs to balance the budget, meaning revenue and expenses need to match. Financial aid is a discount on tuition. That means a reduction in revenue per student from tuition sources. Endowment is used to close the gap between revenue and expenses. Another source is annual giving funds that are not placed in the endowment.

Again, this is your view, but practically not how it works. Schools budget funds for financial aid and it is not a write off. The operating budget is tight.

You are arguing money is fungible and the budget is all nonsense.

I am telling you that financial aid only exists because limited funds are secured and allocated to make it happen.

[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:

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.

No, the financial aid funds have to be budgeted from sources. Your view is just not practically how it works. There is a financial aid budget that limits what can be given out.

The school needs to balance the budget, meaning revenue and expenses need to match. Financial aid is a discount on tuition. That means a reduction in revenue per student from tuition sources. Endowment is used to close the gap between revenue and expenses. Another source is annual giving funds that are not placed in the endowment.

Again, this is your view, but practically not how it works. Schools budget funds for financial aid and it is not a write off. The operating budget is tight.

You are arguing money is fungible and the budget is all nonsense.

I am telling you that financial aid only exists because limited funds are secured and allocated to make it happen.

I study higher ed endowment management for a living…

There are many ways to balance a budget while offering financial aid. It all comes down to revenue vs. expenditures.

[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.

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

Comments like this and the mooch comment are how you know there are tons of dumb trolls on this thread.

They seem like legitimate responses to ungrateful parents who are wasting the school’s financial aid funds.

[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:

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.

No, the financial aid funds have to be budgeted from sources. Your view is just not practically how it works. There is a financial aid budget that limits what can be given out.

The school needs to balance the budget, meaning revenue and expenses need to match. Financial aid is a discount on tuition. That means a reduction in revenue per student from tuition sources. Endowment is used to close the gap between revenue and expenses. Another source is annual giving funds that are not placed in the endowment.

Again, this is your view, but practically not how it works. Schools budget funds for financial aid and it is not a write off. The operating budget is tight.

You are arguing money is fungible and the budget is all nonsense.

I am telling you that financial aid only exists because limited funds are secured and allocated to make it happen.

I study higher ed endowment management for a living…

There are many ways to balance a budget while offering financial aid. It all comes down to revenue vs. expenditures.

Big picture sure, however there are practical considerations for why the financial aid budget is what it is. The budget is not arbitrary. There are real donors contributing to financial aid, and the existence of financial aid causes full pay tuition to increase for every full pay student at the 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:

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.

No, the financial aid funds have to be budgeted from sources. Your view is just not practically how it works. There is a financial aid budget that limits what can be given out.

The school needs to balance the budget, meaning revenue and expenses need to match. Financial aid is a discount on tuition. That means a reduction in revenue per student from tuition sources. Endowment is used to close the gap between revenue and expenses. Another source is annual giving funds that are not placed in the endowment.

Again, this is your view, but practically not how it works. Schools budget funds for financial aid and it is not a write off. The operating budget is tight.

You are arguing money is fungible and the budget is all nonsense.

I am telling you that financial aid only exists because limited funds are secured and allocated to make it happen.

I study higher ed endowment management for a living…

There are many ways to balance a budget while offering financial aid. It all comes down to revenue vs. expenditures.

Big picture sure, however there are practical considerations for why the financial aid budget is what it is. The budget is not arbitrary. There are real donors contributing to financial aid, and the existence of financial aid causes full pay tuition to increase for every full pay student at the school.

Earmarked funds rarely change the budget or expenditures (it would have to be something earmarked for a brand new expense or have funds larger than the entire budget). Funds earmarked for financial aid go to financial aid. Then tuition revenue that would’ve gone to financial aid can be diverted to other budget items. Works for any other type of earmarking too, not just financial 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:

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.

No, the financial aid funds have to be budgeted from sources. Your view is just not practically how it works. There is a financial aid budget that limits what can be given out.

The school needs to balance the budget, meaning revenue and expenses need to match. Financial aid is a discount on tuition. That means a reduction in revenue per student from tuition sources. Endowment is used to close the gap between revenue and expenses. Another source is annual giving funds that are not placed in the endowment.

Again, this is your view, but practically not how it works. Schools budget funds for financial aid and it is not a write off. The operating budget is tight.

You are arguing money is fungible and the budget is all nonsense.

I am telling you that financial aid only exists because limited funds are secured and allocated to make it happen.

I study higher ed endowment management for a living…

There are many ways to balance a budget while offering financial aid. It all comes down to revenue vs. expenditures.

Big picture sure, however there are practical considerations for why the financial aid budget is what it is. The budget is not arbitrary. There are real donors contributing to financial aid, and the existence of financial aid causes full pay tuition to increase for every full pay student at the school.

Earmarked funds rarely change the budget or expenditures (it would have to be something earmarked for a brand new expense or have funds larger than the entire budget). Funds earmarked for financial aid go to financial aid. Then tuition revenue that would’ve gone to financial aid can be diverted to other budget items. Works for any other type of earmarking too, not just financial aid.

You are arguing it is all meaningless. If expected donations to financial aid suddenly drop to zero I suspect they would decrease the financial aid budget going forward. Likewise for alternative situations.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s worth considering the bigger picture here.
Do we really want schools where only the very wealthy or very poor attend? Or where children are segregated by race or religion? That doesn’t benefit anyone.
While there may be isolated cases of financial aid being misused—which would certainly be wrong and illegal—most families receiving assistance are genuinely grateful for the opportunity to provide their children with a quality education.
In my son’s elementary class, I believe around 70% of tuition is covered by grandparents or trust funds. Not everyone starts from the same place financially, and that’s important to remember.
It’s also nearly Christmas. Perhaps we could approach this situation with more understanding and generosity of spirit.

[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.

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

Comments like this and the mooch comment are how you know there are tons of dumb trolls on this thread.

They seem like legitimate responses to ungrateful parents who are wasting the school’s financial aid funds.

If you’re 16 years old, maybe.

[Anonymous]

Dumb trolls like parents, admin, and bad students who fight the teachers in every minute issue because if their is any problems in education it is the low paid teachers fault and if their is any progress it's the fortitude of parents, admin, and students. I don't recommend teaching as a profession. You can find min wage babysitters to fraud your data for you.

[Anonymous]

Private school, by it's very nature, is neither democratic nor fair. I prefer to focus on my child and the quality of the education she is receiving and the opportunities she is afforded through her school. I could care less who is getting aid and what their HHI may be. If we had multiple children, we would probably get aid or go public. But we don't, and that is fine. We all make choices in life and prioritize what we think is important. YMMV.

[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:

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.

No, the financial aid funds have to be budgeted from sources. Your view is just not practically how it works. There is a financial aid budget that limits what can be given out.

The school needs to balance the budget, meaning revenue and expenses need to match. Financial aid is a discount on tuition. That means a reduction in revenue per student from tuition sources. Endowment is used to close the gap between revenue and expenses. Another source is annual giving funds that are not placed in the endowment.

Again, this is your view, but practically not how it works. Schools budget funds for financial aid and it is not a write off. The operating budget is tight.

You are arguing money is fungible and the budget is all nonsense.

I am telling you that financial aid only exists because limited funds are secured and allocated to make it happen.

I study higher ed endowment management for a living…

There are many ways to balance a budget while offering financial aid. It all comes down to revenue vs. expenditures.

Big picture sure, however there are practical considerations for why the financial aid budget is what it is. The budget is not arbitrary. There are real donors contributing to financial aid, and the existence of financial aid causes full pay tuition to increase for every full pay student at the school.

As someone with firsthand knowledge I can assure you financial aid has very little to do with how or why tuitions increase. To be frank it is one of the first things cut when a school is prioritizing their budget and enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Worth pointing out that tuitions have outpaced inflation steadily since the 1990s. My private school in the 1990s was 10k a year. If it kept pace with inflation, it would be somewhere between 25-30k now. Actual tuition is pushing 45k (not DC but mid-size city). A lot of families have been priced out. The average aid package is now about 20k, which brings the tuition to what it really should be.

It is a weird dynamic but it reflects the weirdness of our economies. Look, we all have neighbors who bought when prices were cheaper and have lower mortgages. Is that fair? Is it fair that I have a 2.7 mortgage rate from buying in 2020 and my next door neighbor bought last year at a much higher rate and higher price despite having very similar houses? No, not really.