What kind of income receives financial aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I've researched this topic extensively, not because I wanted financial aid but because there are so many teacher/staff kids attending my children's schools that should/would not have been admitted if their parent didn't work at the school or should be "not invited back". In the eighteen years I've sent my children to private schools I've found the kids who cause the most problems and require the most energy from the teachers are the teacher/staff kids. The teachers kids are favored and there is a different set of rules that apply to them. I know why they are admitted so, my question was "how can these families afford the tuition". To my dismay, I've found the majority of financial aid goes to teacher and staff kids leaving very little for the deserving families. I've talked to financial aid administrators and they have said "there is always a way to favor the staff". Although schools always have some sort of tuition remision for teachers and staff, it doesn't cover everything. The rest is from financial aid. The schools tax returns are on-line as proof. I forget the pointer but I know it now costs $1000 a year to access them so I quit looking at them.

My spouse taught at a Big Three for over a decade (no longer does). I make about $100K/year. We got ZERO financial aid. None. And no discount on tuition either.

[Anonymous]

PP here - should clarify, at the time spouse taught there (spouse left 8 years ago), our combined income was maybe $120K/year.

[Anonymous]

20:02 here. Thank you to both of you for responding on this!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:to 20:02 - we applied for aid when each one started private school. We made less money than we do now when the first one started. I think it's better to apply for aid when you apply to the school. If you don't and pay the full tuition they probably won't give you aid the next year unless your income goes down significantly. If you can pay the first year, the thinking goes, why can't you pay the following year?

And some schools state that if you don't apply for FA the first year and just pay the full tuition, unless your circumstances change for the worse, expect to pay the full tuition every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We make about $200,000, but have three children in private school. We get financial aid. If we didn't, more than half of our income would go to tuition. I'm very grateful for the aid and we live incredibly frugally.

Would you be willing to share about how much you receive? We make about 200,000 before taxes with third child set to begin private school in fall 2010. We have not applied in the past, but two tuitions has been a strain and three might not be feasible.

[Anonymous]

We get a little less than half, from three different schools ($10, $15, $17) and we pay about $50,000 (plus books, activities fees etc). There are other variables also. We have no equity in our house, no savings, do not contribute to 401, do not take vacations, go out to dinner etc.

[Anonymous]

We earn 145k and were denied financial aid at all schools. I think it was the equity in our house that did it. When my husband attended the financial aid workshop last Fall, he specifically asked that question - does your equity count against you when applying for financial aid? He was told, absolutely not, you are not expected to sell your home to send your child to school. Well, we were denied and now have our house on the market to downsize and pull some equity out as it's the only way we can afford to send our child to a school that costs a little over 28k with after-care. I have absolutely no idea how financial aid works and why some people are granted aid and others not.

You sound just like us! We just got our SSS back and it said we can afford $ 24,000 and we have a combined income of $ 150,000. We bought a home this year so it has no equity yet BUT I believe they held against us the fact that we had $ 40,000 in savings for closing costs, etc. That was TRULY are like savings though. I'm really bummed because it is very doubtful we will get any aid and we cannot afford the $ 30k in tuition (included after care) if we get in somewhere. I'm just curious how does one qualify for aid in DC. I mean a couple making $ 150,000 is NOT alot for this area. The SSS said we have negative net worth yet we can somehow afford to pay
$ 24,000?! Crazy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, I strongly disagree that "teachers' kids" are the problem kids. What a horrible, unfair generalization. It is not supported by my experiences.

Agree. I was a private-school teacher for years (pre-kids) and in my experience, the worst-behaved kids were the wealthiest, entitled ones, definitely not the teachers' kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:14:47, not to hijack this thread, but wouldn't offering higher salaries to employees based on their race be patently illegal under Title VII, and maybe the 14th amendment in the case of a public university? By the same token, I wonder if private schools making more generous financial aid awards because of race would be violating Title VI, if those schools receive any federal funding. It is amazing what types of racial discrimination all of these institutions continue to practice in the name of "diversity" because nobody knows or speaks up about it.

i would normally just let this idiotic sentiment go, but considering that not so long ago, non-whites couldn't even drink at the same water fountain as whites and that far more insidious and subtle racism has consistently prevailed and held back meritorious people of color in this country since then, i have to respond. this argument is kind of like having a marathon race and making one guy carry a 50 lb weight for the first 10 miles and then saying "we shouldnt have done that. we are sorry. you don't have to carry the weight anymore, but please do not ask us for any preference. as we have admitted, that was wrong. discrimination is now against the law!"

seems fair...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We get a little less than half, from three different schools ($10, $15, $17) and we pay about $50,000 (plus books, activities fees etc). There are other variables also. We have no equity in our house, no savings, do not contribute to 401, do not take vacations, go out to dinner etc.

Sounds like my life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We get a little less than half, from three different schools ($10, $15, $17) and we pay about $50,000 (plus books, activities fees etc). There are other variables also. We have no equity in our house, no savings, do not contribute to 401, do not take vacations, go out to dinner etc.

I would hardly put 401k contributions in the same discretionary bucket as vacations and meals out. If you are not contributing to a retirement plan, why on earth are you paying for private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We earn 145k and were denied financial aid at all schools. I think it was the equity in our house that did it. When my husband attended the financial aid workshop last Fall, he specifically asked that question - does your equity count against you when applying for financial aid? He was told, absolutely not, you are not expected to sell your home to send your child to school. Well, we were denied and now have our house on the market to downsize and pull some equity out as it's the only way we can afford to send our child to a school that costs a little over 28k with after-care. I have absolutely no idea how financial aid works and why some people are granted aid and others not.

You sound just like us! We just got our SSS back and it said we can afford $ 24,000 and we have a combined income of $ 150,000. We bought a home this year so it has no equity yet BUT I believe they held against us the fact that we had $ 40,000 in savings for closing costs, etc. That was TRULY are like savings though. I'm really bummed because it is very doubtful we will get any aid and we cannot afford the $ 30k in tuition (included after care) if we get in somewhere. I'm just curious how does one qualify for aid in DC. I mean a couple making $ 150,000 is NOT alot for this area. The SSS said we have negative net worth yet we can somehow afford to pay
$ 24,000?! Crazy!

SSS is not always reliable for determining aid. The last two years SSS has stated we are able to afford 20,000 for tuition and we usually get 15K for aid. Our combined income is 120K with one child. No equity in home, no savings, and so many other no's. We are considering the move from private to public but DC is so happy in private. We really want to finish what we started but it seems impossible even with the aid. Hope this helps someone!!! Also, consider writing a letter to the school detailing your true financial picture. That sometimes is helpful : ) Good luck and I hope everything works out for you and your family.

[Anonymous]

Thank YOU! It is so hard because like you I want the best for my child. I guess I will cross that bridge if I even get there..lol. We don't even know if we are in anywhere yet. If we do I will write a letter detailing our income vs our debts. We also have many "no's". It makes me feel a little better knowing that not everyone in private school is super rich : )

[Anonymous]

We have three in private school now and all of them get FA. We are thinking of putting the youngest in public school, but I wonder if next year (or the following) we will get significantly less FA because we only have two in private and it won't help us financially to put DC in public school because we'll end up paying the same amount. I don't want to put him in public if it doesn't save us any money. Has anybody been in this situation? Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Wow. We are a 400K HHI family and would get private school tutition reimbursed by employer. If this was not the case (ie if there was no reimbursement), we would certainly NOT consider paying private tuition for our (only) DC.

[Anonymous]

What is HHI?