Percentage of Students on Financial Aid at Major Privates is Depressing

[Anonymous]

There should be no aid for private school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There should be no aid for private school

Having your kids never be regularly exposed to those who have less than them isn’t good preparation for college or the workforce.

[Anonymous]

I'm terrified by the anti private school financial aid theme some posters are propagating.

What insecurity must you have to be frightened by the possibility of a vague stab at meritocracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you going to find these poor kids who can do the work at a Big3?

Andover and Exeter take applicant nationally and internationally. Sidwell and NCS are stuck with the DMV.

My kids came from DCPS to two different Big3 schools in 9th. They attended the best DCPS elementary/middle schools and scored 99% on the PARCC (achievement tests). They're the product of two parents with graduate degrees.
They had every advantage that such kids have: top early childhood education (private preschool), parental help all along the way from PK-->8th grade, a house full of books, private tutors if/when needed, international travel, exposure to different cultures through family friends, nanny, etc.
AND STILL---9th grade at the Big3 coming out of DCPS was ROUGTH. They had to repeat a grade in math and start over in foreign language (they were put in Spanish 101 despite having 3 years of Spanish in DCPS). They learned annotate for the first time, they finally learned to write well.

They got through it with a LOT of parental involvement, tutors, teacher office hours, etc.

Now what happens to the kid who attends many of the myriad of DC public schools where only 5% of the kids are at grade level? Kids who have none of the resources that my kids did?

It's not as easy as just giving a poor kid a free ride to Sidwell. It's really hard to find these kids who come from true poverty and will be able to hack the academics and culture at these elite schools with little (or no) support at home.

There is a nonprofit called Prep For Prep in NYC that matches low-income URMs with elite NYC privates starting in middle school. The program has a rigorous training component that the kids must commit to, and NYC is huge with robust public transportation, however.

Yes, but they're in a city of 9 million people and fund about 500 kids. Plus a large percentage are Asian immigrants.

Prep for Prep does not have a large percentage of Asian immigrants.

I came here to say this. Asian American kids are the minority within the program, in part because they are only eligible for the 4th/5th grade cohort. By the time PfP is getting kids ready for 9th grade admissions, only African American and Latino kids are eligible.

It's weird, though, that PP speaks so confidently about something they don't know anything about.

[Anonymous]

Virtually all private school FA is self-interested—it helps the schools attract and retain teachers and staff, win games (which keeps rich kids on the radar of Ivy and NESCAC coaches), and burnish their college lists by sending talented athletes to T15 schools. Any private school that ended FA would lose talented staff and students to other schools, either to elite privates that still granted FA, to lower-priced Catholics, or to free publics.

FA also allows parents like OP to feel virtuous about their decision to send their children to a school with a high concentration of extremely wealthy students, but this is a relatively minor consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There should be no aid for private school

Basis doesn’t offer it. There are others you can send your kid to as well if you want a place that doesn’t offer FA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see at least 15 local schools listed here:
https://abetterchance.org/program/member-schools/

Consider donating to this org as well as your local financial aid fund if this is a true priority for you.

Why donate to them? They aren’t giving the money to students for tuition. All they do is look at the individual students and refer them to privates. It’s a better idea to donate straight to the school and maybe ask that the money go towards tuition of an underrepresented minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no aid for private school

Having your kids never be regularly exposed to those who have less than them isn’t good preparation for college or the workforce.

Yes, because the primary reason a school might have students who are poor is to benefit the rich students. To serve the rich students interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What other schools?

milton academy: nearly 60%
roxbury latin: 40%
philips andover: 45%
philips exeter: 50%

many could do better. but still, would like to see the DC schools step it up.

St. Anselm's Abbey School: 40%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no aid for private school

Having your kids never be regularly exposed to those who have less than them isn’t good preparation for college or the workforce.

Sure but there is no reason this has to happen in school. Kids do activities and have life experiences outside school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no aid for private school

Having your kids never be regularly exposed to those who have less than them isn’t good preparation for college or the workforce.

Sure but there is no reason this has to happen in school. Kids do activities and have life experiences outside school.

Lololol. As if private school kids are going to join activities with the masses. 🤣🤣🤣

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no aid for private school

Having your kids never be regularly exposed to those who have less than them isn’t good preparation for college or the workforce.

So then send them to public if you need to expose them to those who have less. Or live in a different neighborhood. Do you hear yourself? I’m going to live in an exclusive neighborhood. I’m going to send my child to an elite, expensive school where they hand-pick a few well behaved non-wealthy children so mine are exposed to those who have less than they do so they don’t appear clueless and sheltered in college or in the workforce. News flash: your child will absolutely appear somewhat sheltered in interactions with non-elites. Even UMC public school students will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no aid for private school

Having your kids never be regularly exposed to those who have less than them isn’t good preparation for college or the workforce.

That depends on where your child attends college and where she/he works. It’s great preparation for Ivies and highly selective elite universities. It will also be fine if your child intends to work on Wall Street, consulting, Big Law, etc…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no aid for private school

Having your kids never be regularly exposed to those who have less than them isn’t good preparation for college or the workforce.

Sure but there is no reason this has to happen in school. Kids do activities and have life experiences outside school.

Lololol. As if private school kids are going to join activities with the masses. 🤣🤣🤣

Mine do and have many friends from other schools. Where other kids go to school is really none of my business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw those same numbers and thought they seemed very positive. It's expensive to run a school and it's great that 1 out of 4 or 5 kids is on financial aid.
Why do you find it depressing?

Compare with many other private schools across the country which are closer to 40-50%.

The cost/student at other schools isn't typically in the same range as privates in this are. Simple math, fundraising event for scholarships raises $200k. In some areas that would be enough to cover full tuition for 20-50 kids. In the DC are it would be more like 3-6 kids.