How rich are private school parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gawd, if you're trying to talk yourself out of private, this is a great thread to read. People, rich and "poor," get a grip and some self-respect and go about your business.

PP, this is so true. Do what works for YOUR family (and child) and forget about the rest.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Dual-income of $2.5 million. 2 in private in DC. We feel like most families are doing better than us.

Why? You know that this is clearly not the case.

Kids’ houses, cars, vacations, 2d homes, 3d homes.

A facade. I know a number of families that lease their shiny luxury cars, vacations are paid on credit, and 2nd homes belong to grandparents. My sister is a realtor in this area and is privy to a lot of financial information--according to her it is very unusual for private school families to have incomes in the 7-figures. Most hover in the $300K-$700K range. (Of course, this is still a ton of money in the grand scheme of things.)

This is closer to the truth.

PPs with millions, open your eyes and realize that you're the top of the money heap. There might be a few who spend it differently and make you think otherwise, and one family who is actually richer, but that's it.

please don't conflate wealth with annual income. I'll take the former any day.

Sorry, but $300K-$700K HHI is wealth by any standard. You need a more accurate perspective on relative wealth.

The label is not what matters. Poster has pretty accurately represented the 25th to 75th pct incomes for DC privates. How this compares to people’s perceptions of wealthy versus not is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Dual-income of $2.5 million. 2 in private in DC. We feel like most families are doing better than us.

Why? You know that this is clearly not the case.

Kids’ houses, cars, vacations, 2d homes, 3d homes.

A facade. I know a number of families that lease their shiny luxury cars, vacations are paid on credit, and 2nd homes belong to grandparents. My sister is a realtor in this area and is privy to a lot of financial information--according to her it is very unusual for private school families to have incomes in the 7-figures. Most hover in the $300K-$700K range. (Of course, this is still a ton of money in the grand scheme of things.)

This is closer to the truth.

PPs with millions, open your eyes and realize that you're the top of the money heap. There might be a few who spend it differently and make you think otherwise, and one family who is actually richer, but that's it.

please don't conflate wealth with annual income. I'll take the former any day.

Sorry, but $300K-$700K HHI is wealth by any standard. You need a more accurate perspective on relative wealth.

The label is not what matters. Poster has pretty accurately represented the 25th to 75th pct incomes for DC privates. How this compares to people’s perceptions of wealthy versus not is irrelevant.

+1. You can definitely do private at $300K, but it will require not insignificant sacrifices in other areas, particularly if you have more than one kid. (This assumes you don't have grandparents paying for some of it and/or don't have a lot of other wealth not reflected in your annual income.) Once you get to $700K, or definitely above, you should be able to cover private school tuition without really having to cut back meaningfully in other areas.

In between those figures, it really depends on peoples' individual circumstances and financial needs/wants in other areas.

[Anonymous]

We’re also a 400k dual income family at GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re also a 400k dual income family at GDS.

Fascinating comment. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

We're very, very wealthy. Our kids don't know that, and nobody who meets us at school would be able to tell either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're very, very wealthy. Our kids don't know that, and nobody who meets us at school would be able to tell either.

+100

[Anonymous]

$250k HHI with an upper schooler at one of the Big 3. We don't feel out of place or made to feel uncomfortable whatsoever by wealthier families. In our experience, these schools are much more about high academic standards and getting the most out of an education than by social class. It's all about the child/student, not the parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could still receive financial aid at 200k HHI?

We went to a big-3 admissions open house @3 years ago and were told the cut-off for being considered for financial aid was something like $360,000 for a 2-spouse family. At many of the top privates in the area, the number of kids on FI is right around 25% (Maret, GDS, Sidwell, STA/Cathedral, and probably some others too), so being on FI is extremely common! That said, of the 75% of kids who are full pay, the median wealth level isn't particular high, people still have mortgages, buy on sale, keep cars for 100k+ miles, and care about not wasting money. I'd guess the median annual HHI of the full-pay families is somewhere in the $275-$400k for families with lower schoolers; $375-$550k for middle schoolers; and $450-$600k for families with upper schoolers. Yes, there are a handful (2-4) of rich, out of sight families with $100 million in wealth (not sure of HHI), but they're by far the exception and they generally do their best not to flaunt it. In sum, "most" private school parents are upper-middle class by DC metro standards.

[Anonymous]

Why are the families of upper school students richer than the families of lower school students?

[Anonymous]

Because everyone is back to work by the time their kids go to middle school, or at least more of them are.

[Anonymous]

Thinking of sending one of our children to private only for 9-12. We make 360k and school costs mid 30s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By so called DC private school standards we are poor.

We have a combined HHI of $220K (a top GS scale government employee and a teacher). We have two DC, one in private and one in daycare. While we get about 65% FA, we pay $1200 a month for tuition plus about another $300 month for afterschool care and activties -- a total of a minimum of $15,000 a school year (and we also contribute to the annual fund and participate in the annual scholarship fundraising auction); add in about $5000 for private school summer camps and we are looking at about $20K. When our second DC starts we can assume it will be another $15K - $20K per year. Call me silly, but what poor person can afford to spend $20,000 on something that is considered a luxury? And before anyone starts ranting and raving about whether we can actually afford to, yes we are saving for college and retirement. We own a 3000 square foot home (with a $3K monthly mortgage) in a suburb of DC. We drive cars that most of America would consider luxury vehicles. We take nice vacations as well. We do not care about fancy clothes or jewelry. We only shop when necessary and when we do, the most expensive place would be at Macy's and we head straight to the sales rack. We eat out ocassionally, but again we rarely go anywhere we have to spend more than $70 to feed all four of us. In what world, is this lifestyle poor?

OP, when you choose to send your DC to private school in DC (and you are not one of the million plus dollors a year familes) whether or not you are poor is quite frankly a state of mind. I do not feel poor and when my DC even begins to venture into "why don't we have X or Y" mode, I am quick to point out how much more DC and sibling have in comparison to what many others living less than 15 miles away have, and certainly how much more than I had at DCs age. There will be people of all income levels at any private, and there will be people who care and people who do not care. There will be people who will assume who is on FA and who is not -- and they over and under estimate on many. Another family at DCs schools make substantially less and they do not get any FA. They did not apply because their DCs grandparents (on both side) each contribute 1/2 towards the monthly tuition. Their DCs grandparents are not wealthy by any strech of the imagination. They are retired with minimal expenses and take pride in doing for their grandchild what they were not able to do for their own children. Many assume that family is on FA. The parents and I often giggle over this.

My mom was poor and I had no idea. Back in the 80s/90s she made $40K and raised 2 kids as a single parent. We always had a roof over our head, clean clothes that were not second hand and we never went hungry. We had no idea we were living very much within poverty standards.

So when I hear people say that $200K income is "poor" - in any setting - I can only shake my head. People who make millions and look at people who make $200K and think those people are poor are pathetic quite frankly.

It is much easier for you to argue that you don't feel "poor" when you are relying on about $18k of other parents' money to pay tuition. It sounds like you get to maintain a very nice lifestyle (much larger house than mine, probably nicer cars, great vacations), thanks in part to those full pay parents you "giggle" about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a range. Some are on FA (from 100% to 10%), and HHI goes from little upwards of many millions. Pick a school with uniforms, it makes it less obvious.

Sorry, bit this answer its... “absurd”? Pick the school you like the most, just don’t bother to care about others money. Is just absurd.

[Anonymous]

Why exactly does this matter?