Anonymous
09/14/2025 09:24
Subject: Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We're catholic. Raised and living. Moving into comparable or better housing (comparable is just fine) especially in a better school district, is not an option as homes are at least 500k and we can't afford that. 200k salary is not that much.
200 minus taxes 142k minus:
School: $20,000
Mortgage: $22,000
Car payments: $28,000
Car insurance: $5,000
Groceries: $26,000
Utilities: $9,840
31k left and that goes towards gas, clothing, repairs, medical, school fundraisers, extra activities (sports etc). Do you think that's living beyond means? I barely have enough to buy myself clothes etc. It adds up pretty quickly.
Happy to see your breakdowns.
You are getting screwed on car payments. Just buy a car and make zero payments. Your annual payments could allow you to fully own a decent car. Just one year of payments.
Your car insurance is also terribly overpriced.
This.
Anonymous
09/14/2025 08:42
Subject: Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:We're catholic. Raised and living. Moving into comparable or better housing (comparable is just fine) especially in a better school district, is not an option as homes are at least 500k and we can't afford that. 200k salary is not that much.
200 minus taxes 142k minus:
School: $20,000
Mortgage: $22,000
Car payments: $28,000
Car insurance: $5,000
Groceries: $26,000
Utilities: $9,840
31k left and that goes towards gas, clothing, repairs, medical, school fundraisers, extra activities (sports etc). Do you think that's living beyond means? I barely have enough to buy myself clothes etc. It adds up pretty quickly.
Happy to see your breakdowns.
Your car payments are more than your mortgage?!? You must have expensive taste in cars. Car loan payment for a $30k car (used are less than that) with nothing down is 1/4 of that annual car payment. You either have four newish cars all bought on loans or you have very pricy cars.
If you have more than two, get rid of them.
Anonymous
09/14/2025 00:54
Subject: Tuition assistance
Don't you know that if you're the poor kid at a rich kid school then you're asking to get bullied. Why not strive to be the best in public schools. Poor kids at rich kid schools will grow up pissed at that their parents can't provide what the rich people get.
Anonymous
09/13/2025 19:59
Subject: Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:We're catholic. Raised and living. Moving into comparable or better housing (comparable is just fine) especially in a better school district, is not an option as homes are at least 500k and we can't afford that. 200k salary is not that much.
200 minus taxes 142k minus:
School: $20,000
Mortgage: $22,000
Car payments: $28,000
Car insurance: $5,000
Groceries: $26,000
Utilities: $9,840
31k left and that goes towards gas, clothing, repairs, medical, school fundraisers, extra activities (sports etc). Do you think that's living beyond means? I barely have enough to buy myself clothes etc. It adds up pretty quickly.
Happy to see your breakdowns.
You are getting screwed on car payments. Just buy a car and make zero payments. Your annual payments could allow you to fully own a decent car. Just one year of payments.
Your car insurance is also terribly overpriced.
Anonymous
09/13/2025 18:50
Subject: Tuition assistance
We're catholic. Raised and living. Moving into comparable or better housing (comparable is just fine) especially in a better school district, is not an option as homes are at least 500k and we can't afford that. 200k salary is not that much.
200 minus taxes 142k minus:
School: $20,000
Mortgage: $22,000
Car payments: $28,000
Car insurance: $5,000
Groceries: $26,000
Utilities: $9,840
31k left and that goes towards gas, clothing, repairs, medical, school fundraisers, extra activities (sports etc). Do you think that's living beyond means? I barely have enough to buy myself clothes etc. It adds up pretty quickly.
Happy to see your breakdowns.
200 minus taxes 142k minus:
School: $20,000
Mortgage: $22,000
Car payments: $28,000
Car insurance: $5,000
Groceries: $26,000
Utilities: $9,840
31k left and that goes towards gas, clothing, repairs, medical, school fundraisers, extra activities (sports etc). Do you think that's living beyond means? I barely have enough to buy myself clothes etc. It adds up pretty quickly.
Happy to see your breakdowns.
Anonymous
09/13/2025 15:09
Subject: Tuition assistance
At that income, you’d likely get aid at independent schools putting the amount you’d pay for tuition in line with Catholic schools. At that income, (IME) your best bet is getting an academic scholarship through HSPT. Our tuition income is about the same. No tuition discount other than scholarship.
Anonymous
09/13/2025 13:00
Subject: Re:Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:At our school they usually meet the needs of families earning under 300k. So it’s going to depend on the school.
"Meet the needs" and what families think their need is, especially one that claims to be making $200K and "barely getting by," is often two very different things.
Yeah because you could probably be okay if you were making 140k and if that’s the case, you could afford to pay 60k in tuition.
Anonymous
09/12/2025 13:40
Subject: Tuition assistance
If you don't have any disposable income at all, I really don't think you can afford private school. $200k with 2 kids is an income level where you will be expected to chip in substantially. Someone told me they expect you to be able to pay about 15% of your salary towards tuition and not all schools have the resources to actually close that gap and meet all the need.
Anonymous
09/12/2025 12:05
Subject: Re:Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:At our school they usually meet the needs of families earning under 300k. So it’s going to depend on the school.
"Meet the needs" and what families think their need is, especially one that claims to be making $200K and "barely getting by," is often two very different things.
Anonymous
09/12/2025 10:11
Subject: Re:Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:At our school they usually meet the needs of families earning under 300k. So it’s going to depend on the school.
+1
Anonymous
09/12/2025 08:36
Subject: Re:Tuition assistance
At our school they usually meet the needs of families earning under 300k. So it’s going to depend on the school.
Anonymous
09/12/2025 07:31
Subject: Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why not move to a better public?
I never understand why this is everyone's go-to. Sometimes moving is not the easiest solution for a variety of reasons. Also, the housing costs to live in a top school district can be higher than the cost of tuition. Are you aware of current housing costs and interest rates? Leaving a 2% interest rate to move to a better school district for a 6% interest rate on a house that is likely hundreds of thousands more than the 2% interest mortgage will not help someone get ahead. Not to mention people who just do not want to move out of the neighborhood where they've made a home.
In this situation, OP is barely getting by financially and is unlikely to get any significant financial aid. Feel free to suggest a reasonable alternative.
With a HHI of $200k and two children, they are likely to receive aid at independent schools. If they are barely getting by as is, who's to say they have the necessary funds to up and move?
I'd still be surprised if they received adequate financial aid funds from an independent school, but you never know. You can wish on a star.
+1 the smart play here is to move to a better public district AND sort out your finances.
Anonymous
09/11/2025 14:58
Subject: Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why not move to a better public?
I never understand why this is everyone's go-to. Sometimes moving is not the easiest solution for a variety of reasons. Also, the housing costs to live in a top school district can be higher than the cost of tuition. Are you aware of current housing costs and interest rates? Leaving a 2% interest rate to move to a better school district for a 6% interest rate on a house that is likely hundreds of thousands more than the 2% interest mortgage will not help someone get ahead. Not to mention people who just do not want to move out of the neighborhood where they've made a home.
On the other hand, I never understand why everyone's go-to is, "point me to a place where they/SOMEONE ELSE can pay for my child's education [either in the form of k-12 FA or in most cases here, college merit]. "
Anonymous
09/11/2025 14:54
Subject: Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why not move to a better public?
I never understand why this is everyone's go-to. Sometimes moving is not the easiest solution for a variety of reasons. Also, the housing costs to live in a top school district can be higher than the cost of tuition. Are you aware of current housing costs and interest rates? Leaving a 2% interest rate to move to a better school district for a 6% interest rate on a house that is likely hundreds of thousands more than the 2% interest mortgage will not help someone get ahead. Not to mention people who just do not want to move out of the neighborhood where they've made a home.
In this situation, OP is barely getting by financially and is unlikely to get any significant financial aid. Feel free to suggest a reasonable alternative.
With a HHI of $200k and two children, they are likely to receive aid at independent schools. If they are barely getting by as is, who's to say they have the necessary funds to up and move?
If you're talking about secular independents that are $50K+, they might receive some aid at that income. At a Catholic school where the tuition is half that? Nope.
Anonymous
09/11/2025 12:58
Subject: Tuition assistance
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why not move to a better public?
I never understand why this is everyone's go-to. Sometimes moving is not the easiest solution for a variety of reasons. Also, the housing costs to live in a top school district can be higher than the cost of tuition. Are you aware of current housing costs and interest rates? Leaving a 2% interest rate to move to a better school district for a 6% interest rate on a house that is likely hundreds of thousands more than the 2% interest mortgage will not help someone get ahead. Not to mention people who just do not want to move out of the neighborhood where they've made a home.
In this situation, OP is barely getting by financially and is unlikely to get any significant financial aid. Feel free to suggest a reasonable alternative.
With a HHI of $200k and two children, they are likely to receive aid at independent schools. If they are barely getting by as is, who's to say they have the necessary funds to up and move?
I'd still be surprised if they received adequate financial aid funds from an independent school, but you never know. You can wish on a star.