Anonymous wrote:That's it. I'm not donating to my school this year. I'm tired of hearing about FA going to families with HHI of $140,000. That is scandalous.

OP, this topic is a can of worms.

Agree. People HHI of $140,000 should consider donating to charities and help out other less fortunatate children, not sending their kids to private school and expecting FA at the expanse of ther full pay families.

Create and endowment scholarship and give it to whomever you believe is worthy.

We donated to annual fund and other events at our school, but we are not going to donate anything to FA this year. There is lack of transparance in the FA award process; not sure if the money is well spent. It's bad enough that part of our tuition went to subsidize relatively high income families; definitely don't want our FA contributions to go undeserving people.

Anonymous wrote:It's not just HHI, its also assets, including home equity, savings, retirement benefits, other assets that determine eligibility. I think you can fine the forms online if you look around- should give you a sense of what schools want to look at when they consider FA.

+1

If your HHI income is $50K in wages vs $50K in interest, only the former would likely qualify for FA.

That's it. I'm not donating to my school this year. I'm tired of hearing about FA going to families with HHI of $140,000. That is scandalous.

OP, this topic is a can of worms.

It's not just HHI, its also assets, including home equity, savings, retirement benefits, other assets that determine eligibility. I think you can fine the forms online if you look around- should give you a sense of what schools want to look at when they consider FA.

No one making over $86K+ per year HHI (2011 medican income for DC metro area) should get financial aid.

Our HHI is 140K and we get some aid. The bill is still enormous but the aid is what makes it possible for us.

OP here -- thanks very much, 23:34, 07:37, and 09:19.

Anonymous wrote:Some schools give you aid in the form of a "psychologist" to reduce "stress" during playdates. The school gives this "aid" to high income families. You have to ask for it.

Your wife left you. It sucks. Get over it.

Some schools give you aid in the form of a "psychologist" to reduce "stress" during playdates. The school gives this "aid" to high income families. You have to ask for it.

sybersus wrote:I have a 1.5 year old, and we are starting to think about future schooling. I am curious what the HHI cut odd is for private school financial aid. Trying to figure out if it would even be worth checking out further. My DH works for fed gov't and I am at a public interest group, and full tuition is def out of the question. We are in DC by a not very good public school, but charters are an option. Thanks for any help.

It might help if you understood how financial aid works from the school's perspective and not yours.

There is a limited amount of money that the school puts into a financial aid account or fund.

Someone at the school --- a financial aid committee or the Admissions Director --- distributes the funds amongst the applicants based on trying to achieve the school's aims. The want a full class and they want the best possible mix of students and families based on all the interests within the school.

There aren't a set of rules. Instead its a multi-variate, zero sum gqme

A student that needs 100% aid is equivalent to two students that need 50% aid. A student with a special attribute that needs 50% aid trumps a student with no special attributes that needs 50% aid.

Someone ought to make up a board game so that parents might see how this all works.

Anonymous wrote:It seems to vary from school to school and year to year.

We have similar jobs so probably similar HHI. We have a ton of debt from a long stint of unemployment and our "starter" house is so deeply underwater that we'll be here until we're dead.

We didn't apply for aide at first for fear of jinxing admission. Everyone says it is needs blind but we didn't want to take any chances--cute, quirky, funny, smart boys are a dime a dozen in Pre-K and K admissions.

We did apply for aid after we'd been there for awhile. We get a small amount--enough that we can eat and pay tuition and not freak out if the dishwasher breaks.

The only way to find out is to apply.

It seems to vary from school to school and year to year.

We have similar jobs so probably similar HHI. We have a ton of debt from a long stint of unemployment and our "starter" house is so deeply underwater that we'll be here until we're dead.

We didn't apply for aide at first for fear of jinxing admission. Everyone says it is needs blind but we didn't want to take any chances--cute, quirky, funny, smart boys are a dime a dozen in Pre-K and K admissions.

We did apply for aid after we'd been there for awhile. We get a small amount--enough that we can eat and pay tuition and not freak out if the dishwasher breaks.

I have a 1.5 year old, and we are starting to think about future schooling. I am curious what the HHI cut odd is for private school financial aid. Trying to figure out if it would even be worth checking out further. My DH works for fed gov't and I am at a public interest group, and full tuition is def out of the question. We are in DC by a not very good public school, but charters are an option. Thanks for any help.