private school
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Anonymous
| my DH and i bring in $350k per year. we have 2 kids (4yo and 5yo) and we wanted to send them to private school in DC. i just looked at private schools such as Sidwell and i was shocked when realized that tuition is 35k. does any one here in DCU forum have similar income and sends 2 kids to top private. if yes how do you do manage to find 35K per kid in your budget? i am assuming financial aid is not available to people with 350k income. |
Anonymous
| What do you really think? Your income is high enough to easily afford it and if you cannot you cut back in other areas. |
Anonymous
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Is this serious???? How can you NOT afford that?!
We live comfortably on 250k a year. No private school, but with the addition of 100k we could easily do it. And still save for college, and pay our mortgage, and eat food. I'm not sure where your money is going if you can't afford it... |
Anonymous
| OP: may I suggest you apply and then if they get in worry about affording it? It may be a moot point. Why do you assume you can just slide into a Sidwell? |
Anonymous
Because she thinks money buys everything. Not that she's wrong 
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Anonymous
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You have to ask, why?
Then you have ask am I willing to give something up to pay for it. Everybody get use to certain things. I went from nanny costs to tuition so the adjustment was not that big. Though I think $30k is too much for tuition, I would pay it for the lab school. |
Anonymous
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0P, if you look in the private school forum, you will find many people who will tell you that at that income level, two in private will be tight. And yes, you will be full pay.
Of course there will be many others who will tell you that it's only tight if you insist on living in a super expensive house, driving fancy cars, etc. We live on 95K, pay 10% of our income for school, we're totally fine. It's all what you're used to and what you're willing to give up. |
Anonymous
| You don't make enough to live the lifestyle you think $350k should buy and also have 2 children in private school |
Anonymous
I was thinking the same thing! |
Anonymous
| Top privates may be more prestigious but I'm not sure they are really better. There are some good independents at 20 per year and if you think Sidwell and the like would cramp your lifestyle due to the price tag visit them and see for yourself. As an analogy, I would also prefer a Steinway piano to my Yamaha one in principal but again I'm not willing to part with the additional money. Practically, the Yamaha piano may be a better fit and I may perform better on it though the Steinway has a better name. If money is a concern visit privates at different price points so you can determine what the best fit is for your family. |
Anonymous
| So in the past five years it never occured to you to check tuition expenses for your planned educational trajectory? Weird. |
Anonymous
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OP here
about "sliding in to Sidwell"- Both kids are sharp (5yo is doing multiplication and division, reads at 3rd grade level & plays chess. 4yo reads and is very inquisitive). both DH and I have PhDs in STEM. we are not blue bloods. we will not have recommendations from senators but pre-k teachers will write very strong letters if asked. If that is not enough to get into a competitive private so be it. about "trajectory" both DH and I are first gen immigrants (met in grad school). came to US in our early 20s (had 3k in my pocket and DH had 2k in his pocket). We studied and worked our asses off!!!! had kids late in life. just recently realized that local public school is going down hill fast. So started looking for options. We have made plenty of mistakes because we did not have someone who could give us a timely advice. this is one of them. We are aiming for private middle & high school so I am hoping we have a few years to get organized. about "money buys everything". I strongly disagree. Hard work is what gets you places. I was reading education forums and I was shocked how may people argue against extra homework and feel creativity is what gets you places. if my kids learn only one thing from me is that hard work and a good head on your shoulders is what gets you places. We are hard core over educated liberals. about "piano" I agree. may be we don't need the most fancy school. may be 20k type school is what we need. So good point and we are generally looking around. the reason why I focused on Sidwell is because it is the upper bound financially and educationally (if use SAT scores as a way to measure this educational dimension). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AnukIDABt_JKdDdZYXlQbnFUQ0VfMHRpTFp1SUIxS2c&f=true&noheader=true&gid=5 about "how can we not afford that". we live comfortably no argument. but it would feel odd to take 20% (70k) of the income. We would have to cut back on a bunch of stuff. We are currently aggressively contributing to retirement and putting extra towards mortgage, we give money to our parents. it dose not feel like we do this massive lavish thing that we could just cancel and bam 70k falls out. we would probably have to dial down a lot of things. So when I posted the original question I was hoping I could get some advice from people that have made the choice to spend 70k every year and are either comfortable or uncomfortable with their financial choice. I was not tying to start a name-calling and trash-talking thread. |
Anonymous
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OP here again-
Whoever reported or deleted the offensive post THANK YOU! |
Anonymous
| People who want private school are choosing not to aggressively pay down their mortgage. And many dial down discretionary spending. |
Anonymous
+1. We have a 30yr mortgage instead of a 15. When I can, I pay extra but I don't want to be obligated to a higher payment. We also bought a house that we could easily afford and both of us work full time. |