FA - real life

[Anonymous]

Is this a thing for Bethesda privates? We are full pay but squeezed into a tiny house with half that mortgage to be able to pay for it. Why should we be subsidizing tuition for families living in $1 million plus homes?! Particularly those making less than us that just went ahead and bought more.

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Anonymous wrote:A lot of people find OP to be irresponsible, unethical, and shameful. For the people who find this acceptable, how were you raised?

Like a normal person, not a maladjusted weirdo who comments repeatedly on internet threads about a topic they know nothing about (because you aren’t a DMV full pay private school parent, let’s be clear).

I have 3 kids, full pay, here and am deeply bothered by OP.

You being deeply bothered by what schools do with their financial aid is absurd. As plenty of people said all schools do this. If you don’t like it leave! Yes, even the school you pay full pay for three kids gives a ton of financial aid to plenty of families like OP. You must be really ignorant if you think financial aid is going to only “poor poor” people. You and your kids talk and walk amongst people just like OP and you don’t even know it. Wake up!

You misunderstand. I am deeply bothered by the recipients like OP. The schools are being generous to help the school community. They are being taken advantage of by greedy parents like OP. The level of corruptness for OP to think this is okay and not feel guilty is off the charts.

How could you argue they’re being taken advantage of when they submit all their financial information to the school, and the school decides to still give them aid?

The school really doesn’t know if they are needy or not. The financial documents do not paint the full picture. All the school has determined is that the parents qualify if they really need it.

The school is not fooled when they see the person has a $300k income, $1.3 million home, and six figure taxable assets. Yet they give the aid anyway. No one is corrupting anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this a thing for Bethesda privates? We are full pay but squeezed into a tiny house with half that mortgage to be able to pay for it. Why should we be subsidizing tuition for families living in $1 million plus homes?! Particularly those making less than us that just went ahead and bought more.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people find OP to be irresponsible, unethical, and shameful. For the people who find this acceptable, how were you raised?

Like a normal person, not a maladjusted weirdo who comments repeatedly on internet threads about a topic they know nothing about (because you aren’t a DMV full pay private school parent, let’s be clear).

I have 3 kids, full pay, here and am deeply bothered by OP.

You being deeply bothered by what schools do with their financial aid is absurd. As plenty of people said all schools do this. If you don’t like it leave! Yes, even the school you pay full pay for three kids gives a ton of financial aid to plenty of families like OP. You must be really ignorant if you think financial aid is going to only “poor poor” people. You and your kids talk and walk amongst people just like OP and you don’t even know it. Wake up!

You misunderstand. I am deeply bothered by the recipients like OP. The schools are being generous to help the school community. They are being taken advantage of by greedy parents like OP. The level of corruptness for OP to think this is okay and not feel guilty is off the charts.

How could you argue they’re being taken advantage of when they submit all their financial information to the school, and the school decides to still give them aid?

The school really doesn’t know if they are needy or not. The financial documents do not paint the full picture. All the school has determined is that the parents qualify if they really need it.

The school is not fooled when they see the person has a $300k income, $1.3 million home, and six figure taxable assets. Yet they give the aid anyway. No one is corrupting anything.

Landon and Waldorf, yes, they indicate this on their websites. Holton-Arms, probably. The rest I don’t know.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:As if my home was worth 800k. Not a chance. It’s not worth that. Not close, but it’s finally worth more than we bought for. Finally. BUT then what. Where do we move? We can’t afford an 800k home. We can only afford 500-600k. Not even 600k if I’m being honest. Where we can we find that in a SAFE place? No where. So, we stay where we are. My oldest is a sophomore in college and my youngest a senior in HS. We have selected colleges that give good merit and live within our means. We are truly the middle class, IMO.

Picking up and moving isn’t as easy as people make it sound.

Give me a break. There are trade offs to everything. You just don’t want a longer commute or a townhome/condo or a school district with more URMs or to uproot your kid from their friends.

There are plenty of options for that budget. You just don’t like them.

Longer commute and uprooting your kid and having enough space are all valid concerns!

It's really clear from PP's reaction to this scenario - family making less than $200k, public option is subpar - that they think no one should get FA. The only FA they'd support is for hypothetical poorer kids who are not at the school. If one of those kids did end up at the school somehow, PPs would declare that they, too, had it too easy and could afford private if they did x, y, and z or better public if they moved.

Of course they are valid concerns! But all of life is tradeoffs.

I’m sick and tired of people sobbing about how they can’t afford housing when they clearly can.

This is irrelevant to the debate on if privates should give FA to middle income people[b].

That's not a real debate. The schools do in fact give that aid. PP can in fact afford private with that aid. You don't get a vote in whether she gets aid, so we're not debating anything.

You are just berating people who are doing the best they can for their kids, because you need to feel superior about something. You like to think you would make different choices than PP, but you haven't had to actually face those IRL and almost certainly would do the same things if you were in the same situation.

I’m not berating anyone for doing the best for their kids, I’m berating them for lying and misrepresenting their choices.

I’m actually on your side here-I am in this situation and using public at the moment but support middle income people using private FA benefits that are available to them.

Just don’t lie about your choices.

[Anonymous]

That F A will buy a lot of gold plated diapers! God bless richdbags!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:People angry about financial aid and how schools are doling it out should simply enroll in a school that doesn’t offer need-based aid. There are plenty. No one’s forcing you to go to Sidwell or Maret.

Okay. But if you do go, and are full pay tuition, you are forced to subsidize the FA program through the school’s budget.

Sure. So enroll at a school that offers zero financial aid, and you won't be "forced" to subsidize anything. BASIS McLean would be happy to take you.

I know! Full ride parents can choose public school! After all, they are already subsidizing those public school kids with their taxes.

[Anonymous]

Alot of times rich people don't pay their fair share of taxes with the generous loopholes, write-offs, and tax breaks on top of tax breaks, don't forget bail outs for the big banks, subsidies for billion dollar companies paid for by us and coming soon a tax payer funded war with Venezuela where the oil will go to the oil companies.

It's really us poors with our shtty public schools that find your prvt schools and rich people tax breaks as y'all ruin our economy and democracy. So thanks all you movers and shakers. You just drive us off of a cliff due to greed and manipulation.

[Anonymous]

I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Why can't people making 300K apply for financial aid? Let the school and clarity figure out if they are eligible. there is nothing illegal or wrong just to apply.

If folks feel like their full-pay money go to the wrong people, complain to the schools. What is fair?

[Anonymous]

There are two forms of "financial aid" in play.

The first is for people who are legitimately poor, or at least sufficiently poor.

The second is what amounts to price discrimination. Cost of flying a half-full airplane is negligibly different from flying a full airplane, so airplanes will offer special deals in order to fill them up. Same with schools: marginal cost of an additional student is low, thus they offer discounts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are two forms of "financial aid" in play.

The first is for people who are legitimately poor, or at least sufficiently poor.

The second is what amounts to price discrimination. Cost of flying a half-full airplane is negligibly different from flying a full airplane, so airplanes will offer special deals in order to fill them up. Same with schools: marginal cost of an additional student is low, thus they offer discounts.

In theory I agree with you but some of the big schools giving aid are turning kids away. They are not filling seats that would have otherwise gone empty.

[Anonymous]

The airplane seat analogy is just wrong. Please stop repeating it ad nauseam. That has nothing to do with financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The airplane seat analogy is just wrong. Please stop repeating it ad nauseam. That has nothing to do with financial aid.

It’s no more inaccurate than the people repeating ad nauseam that financial aid is only for the poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.