Reply to New STA parent seeking advice, suggestions, or just plain "I wish I had known X" info

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Any advice for a family of modest financial means on the fence about applying for 4th grade? How much FA is available? My gut tells me we would be happier at a public school system, and that DS will thrive almost anywhere provided academics are solid and he fits in socially. Have you seen families leave solely for financial reasons?[/quote]

If you like your local public, sure, stick with your gut.  Although St. Albans gives a lot of FA for this area (1 in 4 students receive financial aid), what the gurus in Princeton NJ (where the FA forms are evaluated by a service used by all the independent schools) think you can pay will definitely require significant sacrifice even if the school gives you the full amount calculated as your need.  Then there are the extras.

Socially, it's been my experience (and maybe it is the all boys thing) that there's a good mix socially (often because of athletics) regardless of financial background, but it can really be tough as a family of modest means to have your child soaking up the idea that it is normal for teenagers to drive 40,000 cars; for the whole family to go on fabulous and expensive foreign vacations as a matter of course; and for everyone to have a wallet full of money to fund multiple daily trips to Chipotle.

I'm a fan of St. Albans -- I think they do education, and boys' education, really well -- but I do think it can be an oddly hothouse environment.  One sort of counter-intuitive example is school trips.  When I was growing up, coming from a family of modest means, we just couldn't go on any expensive school trips -- that was how it was.  Now schools like St. Albans make sure that all the kids, even those on FA, can go on school trips.  Great for inclusion, but tough in a weird way if you are trying to teach your child that nothing comes for free.  I think college, where it's back to "if you can't pay you don't go" can help reverse that, but it is sometimes tough being the parent and always reminding the kid to look at the price tag when so many of the other kids don't have to.[/quote]

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