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[quote=Anonymous]OP, it depends on which school you are considering. If you are looking at the "big 3" in DC, then your chance of getting any FA is somewhere between very, very slim and none. The number of lower income, qualified applicants exceeds available funds. Believe it or not, you are wealthy (by FA standards) and your net worth automatically disqualifies you.

You can search prior threads here but basically, this is the expectations of the school:
1) if you have SAHM, they will be expected to contribute to the household income. The FA calculation will include the potential salary your spouse COULD be earning if she/he got a job. So even if you have 1 income, the FA calculation will consider you could potentially have 2 incomes.
2) you will use the equity in your home, your savings, your stocks, etc. to pay tuition.
3) living expenses are given minimal credit. At 120K per year, your FA assessment will show that your contribution is in the 30-36K per year neighborhood. If your spouse is SAHM, your contribution will be higher.

Now, that being said... if you have your heart set on a private school I would encourage you to consider less expensive options. I don't know where you live, but Norwood in Bethesda is under 30K per year and is a lovely school. Grace Episcopal in Kensington runs around 20K and is truly a hidden gem of a school. Stone Ridge runs in the low 20's and is very good. If that is too expensive, there are some very good parish schools (I only know Maryland - sorry) but St. Elizabeth, Mercy, DeChantal... all are very good schools that run in the 6-8K per year range. That will take you from K-8 and they feed into the high schools.

Choosing a parish alternative will let you save up for 4 years of high school tuition. With no mortgage and  a low cost lifestyle, you should be able to bank up the high school tuition without too much heartburn.

My DS went to parish K-8 then to G'town Prep for 9-12. He's at Duke on a large merit scholarship so it turned out to be a really good decision for us. There's no way we could have afforded the "big 3" tuition and we made too much for FA so it was a good option for us.[/quote]

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