Anonymous wrote:My daughter received 80% aid at a Big 3. She was in the 6th grade. I was surprised to learn from other families that all schools are not as generous.

Can I ask what your HHI was when you applied?

Anonymous wrote:How do you find out how the amount of each school's endowment?

Many of the schools I am looking at state how much they have out in FA the previous school year.

My daughter received 80% aid at a Big 3. She was in the 6th grade. I was surprised to learn from other families that all schools are not as generous.

How do you find out how the amount of each school's endowment?

Consider the Boarding Schools like Andover for high school.

Thanks PPs. My DS is very bright and tests well in his current school. I'm applying for middle school for next year. He is Hispanic so maybe the minority status might help? I could probably afford around $7,000 or so but I would need to find a PT job to pay for it. So many of the schools state that they value diversity but how does that apply to economic diversity if they expect parents to be able to afford $10K or more per year even with a FA award. So far, it looks like Gilman and McDonogh have the largest endowments. Any other suggestions?

Students certainly can qualify for aid the first year at the school. Can you pay 10K? You just never know. Also, there are specific programs that can help underrepresented minority students if you happen to fall in that category.

In an entry year, we were offered aid at two out of three schools.

My advice: chase the endowments. Go where the money is. Apply for schools with the deep endowment. The school that didn't offer us any aid had a substantially smaller endowment than the ones that did.

You are not crazy to recognize that your income may, in fact, be too low. Schools use financial aid to engineer their classes, and they can do this with twice as many students if they offer each half as much aid (i.e., two at 50% rather than one at 100%). It really depends what your kid is bringing to the table.

I would encourage you to apply though!

Not true OP. Apply. If your child is smart, athletic, stands out etc... schools will offer high FA up front.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PP. What a shame that some schools do not give any aid the first year. Most of the FA info on the schools' websites state that if a family can afford to pay full tuition, they will be expected to do so in the future unless their financial circumstances change. So if first year students don't get aid and returning students don't have any major changes in financial situations, who is getting all of the aid?

Depends on the school but often times the aid budget is fairly small to begin with so there really is nothing left over.
Speak to the schools you are interested in regarding providing Sid yo first year students. They will tell you their policy. They might tell you that the might be able to provide aid if there us any left but they usually won't know that until after June which will very long after you must accept/decline your spot.

You stand a very good chance of getting aid. We were offered 50% for the first year and our income was over 100k at the time. I didn't think we'd qualify for any. Fast forward a few years and I'm hearing of families with HHI of 200k getting some help.

Thanks PP. What a shame that some schools do not give any aid the first year. Most of the FA info on the schools' websites state that if a family can afford to pay full tuition, they will be expected to do so in the future unless their financial circumstances change. So if first year students don't get aid and returning students don't have any major changes in financial situations, who is getting all of the aid?

Some schools will only give 50% - 75% aid so you will have to decide for yourself if you could afford to make up the difference.

Also take into account most new students do not get aid the first year (goes to current students) and the cost of private school far exceeds the tuition cost.

Private school ends before public and we needed almost an extra month of summer camp at private camps. That was a big financial burden for our family on top of already paying tuition year round.

Why would there be a lower end threshold?

I make $51,000 or so and I am wondering if schools would find this income too low to award any FA. I know there is a lot of talk about incomes being too high for FA but is there a lower end threshold for FA?