Finacial aid at 350K HHI with high mortgages and nanny

[Anonymous]

You only subtracted one of the three items. Now subtract the cost of three full time advancement people, including the cost of their benefits. Then subtract the FA from everyone's tuition. I know this is just a rough estimate ... Doesn't account for a lot of items, both plus and minus. But if 30,000 for most and FA for some became 20,000 for all and FA for a very few ...

[Anonymous]

OK, $20,000. Do you consider $20,000 "much more affordable for all"? Perhaps your definition of "all" is different from mine.

[Anonymous]

I consider 20,000 much more affordable than 30,000 and I think a lot more families paying 20,000 per child would be more able to contribute more to FA than they can when they are paying 30,000. And I think getting 5,000 FA towards 20,000 tuition is more helpful than receiving 10,000 towards 30,000 so less FA could go a lot farther than is currently the case.

[Anonymous]

The real cost per student is close to 12k a year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real cost per student is close to 12k a year

Citation needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a family on the receiving end of FA at a private NOVA school, I can honestly say that OPs situation and question is not as ridiculous as it sounds and yes, there are people like their family receiving aid.

So to the OP, go ahead, fill out the app, submit it and see what happens. No one will laugh at you and no one will say anything to you publicly.

They might not provide anything on the first go around but instead tell you to wait until after their commitment date for when they will find out if anymore aid is freed up.

As a donor I would not continue to donate if I found out a family in this income bracket was receiving financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, $20,000. Do you consider $20,000 "much more affordable for all"? Perhaps your definition of "all" is different from mine.

New PP here, yes, I consider $20K much more affordable. I also consider $27K more affordable than $30K. Especially when you consider that most people have have more than kid at school, the savings would be $20K or $6K for two kids. That's substantial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't most financial aid for schools like Potomac (with a high school) reserved for high school (or at least middle school) students to bump up diversity or recruit a talented athlete or scholar? Would financial aid be given to say, a Pre-K or K applicant unless the applicant was from an unrepresented minority group?

Yes, most financial aid in the privates is reserved for minority candidates so the school can boost its diversity claims. In some schools, the auction proceeds go into the same pool.

I just want to say that the families I know who receive FA at our school are white as can be. I can't believe anyone still equates financial aid receipt with minority status. What rock do you live under?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has to be a troll. No money down on a 980k mortgage?

VA loan..

How did you get a 0% down VA loan for almost a million?

I am calling BS.

In 2013, the maximum VA loan amount for DC was $843, 750.

http://benefits.va.gov/HOMELOANS/documents/docs/2013_county_loan_limits.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a family on the receiving end of FA at a private NOVA school, I can honestly say that OPs situation and question is not as ridiculous as it sounds and yes, there are people like their family receiving aid.

So to the OP, go ahead, fill out the app, submit it and see what happens. No one will laugh at you and no one will say anything to you publicly.

They might not provide anything on the first go around but instead tell you to wait until after their commitment date for when they will find out if anymore aid is freed up.

As a donor I would not continue to donate if I found out a family in this income bracket was receiving financial aid.

I am sorry to tell you that it wasn't an unusual situation at all.

There are not going to be an truly very poor people attending your kid's private school. The reality is most of the people are going to be a minimum of $100K income and occasionally those with lower incomes who are super highly educated (think non profit work, teachers etc). The rest of the people requesting aid are going to be those with 6 figure incomes who have mitigating circumstances such as a drop in salary, heavy debts, medical costs, etc.

Keep in mind that smaller privates like the ones in VA really are only giving full aid to a handful of students. The rest are getting a percentage of anywhere between 10 and 75%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is fair that a family receive any aid unless both parents are working outside of the home full time! I don't think it is fair to calculate what they would be making into the equation. For example, if they had a career that had a low paying job then they made a choice to pursue a career that would not pay enough to send their child to private school. Many people hate their high paying jobs but endure them to pay for private school etc... I think it sends a bad message to those parents struggling to pay full tuition that someone that decides to not work can receive aid but calculating say $25,000 into their financial aid calculations as if they are working but they really are not when there are many of us that are in fact really working full time for that salary. I think Financial Aid needs to rethink this or it is not fair to those of us actually working full time and struggling to do so.

Actually the financial aid calculations do factor in the income producing potential of a stay at home spouse so they are not getting the free ride that you imagine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a family on the receiving end of FA at a private NOVA school, I can honestly say that OPs situation and question is not as ridiculous as it sounds and yes, there are people like their family receiving aid.

So to the OP, go ahead, fill out the app, submit it and see what happens. No one will laugh at you and no one will say anything to you publicly.

They might not provide anything on the first go around but instead tell you to wait until after their commitment date for when they will find out if anymore aid is freed up.

As a donor I would not continue to donate if I found out a family in this income bracket was receiving financial aid.

I am sorry to tell you that it wasn't an unusual situation at all.

There are not going to be an truly very poor people attending your kid's private school. The reality is most of the people are going to be a minimum of $100K income and occasionally those with lower incomes who are super highly educated (think non profit work, teachers etc). The rest of the people requesting aid are going to be those with 6 figure incomes who have mitigating circumstances such as a drop in salary, heavy debts, medical costs, etc.

Keep in mind that smaller privates like the ones in VA really are only giving full aid to a handful of students. The rest are getting a percentage of anywhere between 10 and 75%.

But a $150k or $200k income is very, very different from a $350k income. I don't mind funding the former but if a family can't afford private school on $350k, they are doing something wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is fair that a family receive any aid unless both parents are working outside of the home full time! I don't think it is fair to calculate what they would be making into the equation. For example, if they had a career that had a low paying job then they made a choice to pursue a career that would not pay enough to send their child to private school. Many people hate their high paying jobs but endure them to pay for private school etc... I think it sends a bad message to those parents struggling to pay full tuition that someone that decides to not work can receive aid but calculating say $25,000 into their financial aid calculations as if they are working but they really are not when there are many of us that are in fact really working full time for that salary. I think Financial Aid needs to rethink this or it is not fair to those of us actually working full time and struggling to do so.

Please explain what you mean by "actually working full time".

[Anonymous]

I've made the comment before, but schools frequently advertise that they care about diversity and then they provide FA to families such as OP which as lovely as they might be do not represent diversity of life experience.

Working to lower tuition would be a much greater step towards enabling more middle income families to attend. Instead, schools invest millions on the installation of black box theaters and green roofs and so forth. Because children cannot obtain all the many benefits of participating in a school play unless the theatre is equal in quality to Arena Stage ...

Schools make it very clear through their actions that they care most about competing for the ultra wealthy. That is fine, but I wish they would drop their sanctimonious propaganda about the "value" FA students bring to the school when they are flogging families for annual giving and auction donations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is fair that a family receive any aid unless both parents are working outside of the home full time! I don't think it is fair to calculate what they would be making into the equation. For example, if they had a career that had a low paying job then they made a choice to pursue a career that would not pay enough to send their child to private school. Many people hate their high paying jobs but endure them to pay for private school etc... I think it sends a bad message to those parents struggling to pay full tuition that someone that decides to not work can receive aid but calculating say $25,000 into their financial aid calculations as if they are working but they really are not when there are many of us that are in fact really working full time for that salary. I think Financial Aid needs to rethink this or it is not fair to those of us actually working full time and struggling to do so.

Actually the financial aid calculations do factor in the income producing potential of a stay at home spouse so they are not getting the free ride that you imagine.

Right but the posters point I think was that if you have someone that was in say social work then their potential earning us but that much. Therefore they get to not work and have a potential low income factored in. I think that if you choose a career that pays a low salary then you probably can't afford private school. We all make choices. Those that poured thousands into school and make a large income most likely can afford private but they have negative consequences for that choice as well.