Anonymous wrote:OP here. We were granted additional aid.

Hopefully I'll have a job in the next month or so and won't need the assistance. I'm aggressively looking for a new position.

Great news!

OP here. We were granted additional aid.

Hopefully I'll have a job in the next month or so and won't need the assistance. I'm aggressively looking for a new position.

These schools take from the poor and give to the rich in the name of Jeebus

I was told unequivocally no. The imput income and assume you'll get a job.

You can ask but you ARE high earners if you can afford two in private. Be real.

Contact the FA folks. They should work with you. When I was laid off, the FA office at my kid's school basically asked me what I thought I could afford each month and discounted tuition to that level. As it happened, I was a room parent that year, but volunteering, retirement assets, etc. had no bearing on their ability/willingness to help us through that time.

I'm so sorry you are going through this. Definitely ask. I would think if they have any money left for the year, this would definitely be a scenario where they would tap it.

And to all of those speaking of pulling a high schooler as if that is such an easy thing: Please stop. It completely upends the child's life at a critical time. Is it possible that it will have to happen? Of course (sorry OP). If OP can't find another position sometime within the next few months and the school can't offer enough aid, I'm fairly certain OP would not otherwise jeopardize their family. Right now though, OP has probably paid most of next year's tuition and there isn't any guarantee they would recoup that. Plus, OP will hopefully get another job and this will be a short-term issue. Why would you upend your kids in that case if you can make it work in other ways at least for the year?

Good luck, OP. I hope the school has some FA and you find another position quickly.

Sorry you are going through this and good luck, OP.

Anonymous wrote:I lost my job within the past week as part of highly unexpected lay-offs at my former company. I've been given about 2 months severance and am aggressively looking for a new position.

We have one high school child at school and have a second due to start in the fall (also for high school). We receive about 5% aid (new for us upon adding child #2).
Would you ask for additional aid? I recognize that the school likely does not have more aid to give.
My salary pays just shy of the two tuitions-we are not huge earners .

Our public option is lousy (and we're locked into the private contracts).
I'm confident that I'll get a new position but of course I can't predict when.
I'm doing everything in my power to make this work.

Would you contact the school and when? Would you mention the severance?
UGH.

Yes, most definitely contact the school and work with the financial aid officer.

OP here and we're not members of a country club so this is not relevant

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes and see if you can volunteer your skills for the school in some way, when you are not job hunting.

I've seen this advice before. I volunteered a ton and we still got no aid. Do not think that it matters to the schools bottom line, ie the 55k tuition. OP if you have retirement, the school expects you to raid it, if you belong to any kind of club, you will have to drop it even if you already paid your dues and you may get another job soon.

Clubs,probably, but in my experience, they are not going to ask you to raid your retirement.

And I don’t think volunteering has a single thing to do with it. They don’t keep a nice and naughty list for volunteers.

This is remind me that when I first applied for financial aid, I was so clueless about rich-people-culture that under “clubs” I scratched my head and then listed my AAA membership for $79, and a professional organization that I think cost $129! Clubs are in entire different world…

I am in a similar position. Lost job in Jan and have had no success finding anything else. Let school know immediately, then when severance ran out, then finally in June I let them know we would need some aid. We received some with understanding that if salary returns to normal then it will be a one time thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes and see if you can volunteer your skills for the school in some way, when you are not job hunting.

I've seen this advice before. I volunteered a ton and we still got no aid. Do not think that it matters to the schools bottom line, ie the 55k tuition. OP if you have retirement, the school expects you to raid it, if you belong to any kind of club, you will have to drop it even if you already paid your dues and you may get another job soon.

This.

If a FA applicant is a member of a country club, I would certainly hope that the expectation is that they would drop the membership before receiving the aid in the first place!

Yes but doing so would mean losing the initiation fee and most annual dues at smaller clubs are just that, paid once a year during the summer. Would be stupid to drop a membership when dues have already been paid through the year when in a year, you will most likely have a job. If it's already paid in full, it's not an extra expense that would affect your ability to pay for private school. Now, other country clubs do have monthly dues.