Want to hear something scary we have paid over $450,000 for our son's education at Park. We do not qualify for aid and I currently have two kids there. We pay $6800 a month intuition. My son's college will actually cost less than private school in Baltimore. That being said, Park focuses on the middle class and has scholarships for middle income student students. They do not offer any other academic scholarships however they are generous with aid. For the most part if your income is 200,000 or lower, you get a generous package if they want your child. I know very successful people who live in million dollar homes who get aid. It doesn't hurt to ask. I didn't ask because I knew we wouldn't qualify.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Park gives FA to institutional priorities. Those kids can have ridiculous behavioral problems and everyone turns a blind eye. To be fair, the kids whose families are donating $$$$$ can also get away with egregious behavior. Donut hole families are not getting FA.

Yup- We received 2k....Yet those making double our HHI probably receive a significant discount because they're lifers and have multiple kids attending.

Can I ask what your HhI is? 2k seems funny

275k HHI; We did receive significantly more aid this year since our oldest will be in college and we will have that tuition bill. 15k.

Wow how do you sleep at night? Greedy and taking the handout.

not Pp. but how is this greedy? PP’s hhi is not as high as comfortably supporting two full pay kids.

Why should affording private school be comfortable? Good lord. Financial aid is for the needy. Taking aid on that HHI is just greedy.

Have you maybe considered that the school wants this kid to attend because it does something for the school?

All the admitted kids do this. Every single one. There are plenty more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Park gives FA to institutional priorities. Those kids can have ridiculous behavioral problems and everyone turns a blind eye. To be fair, the kids whose families are donating $$$$$ can also get away with egregious behavior. Donut hole families are not getting FA.

Yup- We received 2k....Yet those making double our HHI probably receive a significant discount because they're lifers and have multiple kids attending.

Can I ask what your HhI is? 2k seems funny

275k HHI; We did receive significantly more aid this year since our oldest will be in college and we will have that tuition bill. 15k.

Wow how do you sleep at night? Greedy and taking the handout.

not Pp. but how is this greedy? PP’s hhi is not as high as comfortably supporting two full pay kids.

Why should affording private school be comfortable? Good lord. Financial aid is for the needy. Taking aid on that HHI is just greedy.

Have you maybe considered that the school wants this kid to attend because it does something for the school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, thanks for the wake-up call.

My kids go to a Baltimore private and we are generous donors to the school. After reading this thread I’ll be decreasing my donation significantly and will designate where the funds go. Why should we work so hard so that a family making a high income can send multiple children to private school?

I am skeptical. Because anyone paying 40k+ tuition especially for multiple kids know how much of a burden it is unless you are genuinely wealthy. Even on a 400k HHI in Baltimore, which is really good for Baltimore, you would absolutely feel the financial bite if you were paying 80-82k a year out of your take home for two kids. That money doesn't exist in a void, it competes with things like college savings, mortgages, retirement. And now you're attacking someone with a 275k HHI getting 15k for one kid because they're paying for college for the other? She's still paying 25k plus the tuition for her college kid, which means she's spending a lot of money.

I don't think the Baltimore schools want to go the route of the DC schools, 90% rich kids and 10% massive financial aid. There are just not that many families in Baltimore who can afford the full tuition (which we see with some student body numbers declining compared to 25 years ago).

You can comfortably pay. Stop acting like you cannot.

With hhi 275k, comfortably pay? No way. With that income, you take home 180k. You need put 88k into kids tuition. You need use the remaining for mortgage, daily life expense, and retirement. It is hard. But frankly speaking with that income I will not sacrifice my life for kids tuition which I will let my kids stay in public.

So you want to take financial aid from private school so you can use that money to pay for the second kid’s college expenses instead? Why is the private school for kid one essentially funding college expenses for kid two? This is beyond absurd.

I don’t understand the mindset of grabbing all the handouts possible instead of earning the lifestyle you want. If you want two kids in private school, or to fund your kid’s college expenses while having another one in private school, you should have been planning for this over a decade ago and adjusted your savings and income. What exactly was your plan? Just to lean on financial aid wherever you can get it?

All financial aid is handouts. Ok, let me ask you something, what is your cutoff for financial aid? And why? Ultimately it is arbitrary and strictly your opinion.

There's a lot of indirect financial aid at the privates aka grandparent help. The number of kids getting some or full tuition paid by grandparents is probably higher than you think. It just shows you the world of funding a private education is bigger and more complex than you might want to think. The school decided, drawing on many years of experience, to award some aid to PP and that is really end of story. What surprises me is that someone allegedly affluent enough to pay multiple full tuition and still donate generously is also unable to really grasp the significant burden of financing private education among less affluent families.

And schools absolutely use financial aid to manage enrollment numbers. Only a few schools have more demand than places. Schools like Friends and RPCS are notably smaller than they used to be, between 150-200 fewer students compared to 25 years ago. They use financial aid to make it more affordable and manageable to families who otherwise would have been completely priced out whereas those families could have afforded the tuition 25 years ago. Tuition growth has fast outpaced inflation, if they tracked inflation the tuition of 25 years ago would be closer to 25k, not 40+. I actually did a bit of math here, the PP with the 275k income got financial aid bringing the tuition to 25k. Which puts her in the same place as a family with half her income paying full tuition in 2001. And that matches inflation. And back to an earlier point, it is financially more sound for the school to spread financial aid around more kids via smaller packages than fewer kids with much bigger packages. The school gets a stronger enrollment and more revenue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, thanks for the wake-up call.

My kids go to a Baltimore private and we are generous donors to the school. After reading this thread I’ll be decreasing my donation significantly and will designate where the funds go. Why should we work so hard so that a family making a high income can send multiple children to private school?

I am skeptical. Because anyone paying 40k+ tuition especially for multiple kids know how much of a burden it is unless you are genuinely wealthy. Even on a 400k HHI in Baltimore, which is really good for Baltimore, you would absolutely feel the financial bite if you were paying 80-82k a year out of your take home for two kids. That money doesn't exist in a void, it competes with things like college savings, mortgages, retirement. And now you're attacking someone with a 275k HHI getting 15k for one kid because they're paying for college for the other? She's still paying 25k plus the tuition for her college kid, which means she's spending a lot of money.

I don't think the Baltimore schools want to go the route of the DC schools, 90% rich kids and 10% massive financial aid. There are just not that many families in Baltimore who can afford the full tuition (which we see with some student body numbers declining compared to 25 years ago).

You can comfortably pay. Stop acting like you cannot.

With hhi 275k, comfortably pay? No way. With that income, you take home 180k. You need put 88k into kids tuition. You need use the remaining for mortgage, daily life expense, and retirement. It is hard. But frankly speaking with that income I will not sacrifice my life for kids tuition which I will let my kids stay in public.

So you want to take financial aid from private school so you can use that money to pay for the second kid’s college expenses instead? Why is the private school for kid one essentially funding college expenses for kid two? This is beyond absurd.

I don’t understand the mindset of grabbing all the handouts possible instead of earning the lifestyle you want. If you want two kids in private school, or to fund your kid’s college expenses while having another one in private school, you should have been planning for this over a decade ago and adjusted your savings and income. What exactly was your plan? Just to lean on financial aid wherever you can get it?

22:18pp here. You don’t understand it is not only depending on plan. Sometimes it is about your career path, the life style you choose etc. And btw I was defending against the “comfortably pay”, with 275k it is super stretchy. I wanted to say that pp sacrifices a lot for her/his kids. If I were her/him, I would have put kids public.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, thanks for the wake-up call.

My kids go to a Baltimore private and we are generous donors to the school. After reading this thread I’ll be decreasing my donation significantly and will designate where the funds go. Why should we work so hard so that a family making a high income can send multiple children to private school?

I am skeptical. Because anyone paying 40k+ tuition especially for multiple kids know how much of a burden it is unless you are genuinely wealthy. Even on a 400k HHI in Baltimore, which is really good for Baltimore, you would absolutely feel the financial bite if you were paying 80-82k a year out of your take home for two kids. That money doesn't exist in a void, it competes with things like college savings, mortgages, retirement. And now you're attacking someone with a 275k HHI getting 15k for one kid because they're paying for college for the other? She's still paying 25k plus the tuition for her college kid, which means she's spending a lot of money.

I don't think the Baltimore schools want to go the route of the DC schools, 90% rich kids and 10% massive financial aid. There are just not that many families in Baltimore who can afford the full tuition (which we see with some student body numbers declining compared to 25 years ago).

You can comfortably pay. Stop acting like you cannot.

With hhi 275k, comfortably pay? No way. With that income, you take home 180k. You need put 88k into kids tuition. You need use the remaining for mortgage, daily life expense, and retirement. It is hard. But frankly speaking with that income I will not sacrifice my life for kids tuition which I will let my kids stay in public.

So you want to take financial aid from private school so you can use that money to pay for the second kid’s college expenses instead? Why is the private school for kid one essentially funding college expenses for kid two? This is beyond absurd.

I don’t understand the mindset of grabbing all the handouts possible instead of earning the lifestyle you want. If you want two kids in private school, or to fund your kid’s college expenses while having another one in private school, you should have been planning for this over a decade ago and adjusted your savings and income. What exactly was your plan? Just to lean on financial aid wherever you can get it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, thanks for the wake-up call.

My kids go to a Baltimore private and we are generous donors to the school. After reading this thread I’ll be decreasing my donation significantly and will designate where the funds go. Why should we work so hard so that a family making a high income can send multiple children to private school?

I am skeptical. Because anyone paying 40k+ tuition especially for multiple kids know how much of a burden it is unless you are genuinely wealthy. Even on a 400k HHI in Baltimore, which is really good for Baltimore, you would absolutely feel the financial bite if you were paying 80-82k a year out of your take home for two kids. That money doesn't exist in a void, it competes with things like college savings, mortgages, retirement. And now you're attacking someone with a 275k HHI getting 15k for one kid because they're paying for college for the other? She's still paying 25k plus the tuition for her college kid, which means she's spending a lot of money.

I don't think the Baltimore schools want to go the route of the DC schools, 90% rich kids and 10% massive financial aid. There are just not that many families in Baltimore who can afford the full tuition (which we see with some student body numbers declining compared to 25 years ago).

I think numbers are actually up from 20 years ago, the financial crisis in 2008 was a low point for Baltimore private schools. Gilman has had enrollment capped at around 1000 for decades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, thanks for the wake-up call.

My kids go to a Baltimore private and we are generous donors to the school. After reading this thread I’ll be decreasing my donation significantly and will designate where the funds go. Why should we work so hard so that a family making a high income can send multiple children to private school?

I am skeptical. Because anyone paying 40k+ tuition especially for multiple kids know how much of a burden it is unless you are genuinely wealthy. Even on a 400k HHI in Baltimore, which is really good for Baltimore, you would absolutely feel the financial bite if you were paying 80-82k a year out of your take home for two kids. That money doesn't exist in a void, it competes with things like college savings, mortgages, retirement. And now you're attacking someone with a 275k HHI getting 15k for one kid because they're paying for college for the other? She's still paying 25k plus the tuition for her college kid, which means she's spending a lot of money.

I don't think the Baltimore schools want to go the route of the DC schools, 90% rich kids and 10% massive financial aid. There are just not that many families in Baltimore who can afford the full tuition (which we see with some student body numbers declining compared to 25 years ago).

You can comfortably pay. Stop acting like you cannot.

With hhi 275k, comfortably pay? No way. With that income, you take home 180k. You need put 88k into kids tuition. You need use the remaining for mortgage, daily life expense, and retirement. It is hard. But frankly speaking with that income I will not sacrifice my life for kids tuition which I will let my kids stay in public.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, thanks for the wake-up call.

My kids go to a Baltimore private and we are generous donors to the school. After reading this thread I’ll be decreasing my donation significantly and will designate where the funds go. Why should we work so hard so that a family making a high income can send multiple children to private school?

I am skeptical. Because anyone paying 40k+ tuition especially for multiple kids know how much of a burden it is unless you are genuinely wealthy. Even on a 400k HHI in Baltimore, which is really good for Baltimore, you would absolutely feel the financial bite if you were paying 80-82k a year out of your take home for two kids. That money doesn't exist in a void, it competes with things like college savings, mortgages, retirement. And now you're attacking someone with a 275k HHI getting 15k for one kid because they're paying for college for the other? She's still paying 25k plus the tuition for her college kid, which means she's spending a lot of money.

I don't think the Baltimore schools want to go the route of the DC schools, 90% rich kids and 10% massive financial aid. There are just not that many families in Baltimore who can afford the full tuition (which we see with some student body numbers declining compared to 25 years ago).

You can comfortably pay. Stop acting like you cannot.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, thanks for the wake-up call.

My kids go to a Baltimore private and we are generous donors to the school. After reading this thread I’ll be decreasing my donation significantly and will designate where the funds go. Why should we work so hard so that a family making a high income can send multiple children to private school?

I am skeptical. Because anyone paying 40k+ tuition especially for multiple kids know how much of a burden it is unless you are genuinely wealthy. Even on a 400k HHI in Baltimore, which is really good for Baltimore, you would absolutely feel the financial bite if you were paying 80-82k a year out of your take home for two kids. That money doesn't exist in a void, it competes with things like college savings, mortgages, retirement. And now you're attacking someone with a 275k HHI getting 15k for one kid because they're paying for college for the other? She's still paying 25k plus the tuition for her college kid, which means she's spending a lot of money.

I don't think the Baltimore schools want to go the route of the DC schools, 90% rich kids and 10% massive financial aid. There are just not that many families in Baltimore who can afford the full tuition (which we see with some student body numbers declining compared to 25 years ago).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Park gives FA to institutional priorities. Those kids can have ridiculous behavioral problems and everyone turns a blind eye. To be fair, the kids whose families are donating $$$$$ can also get away with egregious behavior. Donut hole families are not getting FA.

Yup- We received 2k....Yet those making double our HHI probably receive a significant discount because they're lifers and have multiple kids attending.

Can I ask what your HhI is? 2k seems funny

275k HHI; We did receive significantly more aid this year since our oldest will be in college and we will have that tuition bill. 15k.

Wow how do you sleep at night? Greedy and taking the handout.

not Pp. but how is this greedy? PP’s hhi is not as high as comfortably supporting two full pay kids.

Why should affording private school be comfortable? Good lord. Financial aid is for the needy. Taking aid on that HHI is just greedy.

It doesn't matter what you think. It's the school's decision. And they gave her aid.

It does matter what parents think. This is an abuse of resources and both the donors and parents should know about this waste/abuse of funds.

Wow, thanks for the wake-up call.

My kids go to a Baltimore private and we are generous donors to the school. After reading this thread I’ll be decreasing my donation significantly and will designate where the funds go. Why should we work so hard so that a family making a high income can send multiple children to private school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Park gives FA to institutional priorities. Those kids can have ridiculous behavioral problems and everyone turns a blind eye. To be fair, the kids whose families are donating $$$$$ can also get away with egregious behavior. Donut hole families are not getting FA.

Yup- We received 2k....Yet those making double our HHI probably receive a significant discount because they're lifers and have multiple kids attending.

Can I ask what your HhI is? 2k seems funny

275k HHI; We did receive significantly more aid this year since our oldest will be in college and we will have that tuition bill. 15k.

Wow how do you sleep at night? Greedy and taking the handout.

not Pp. but how is this greedy? PP’s hhi is not as high as comfortably supporting two full pay kids.

Why should affording private school be comfortable? Good lord. Financial aid is for the needy. Taking aid on that HHI is just greedy.

It doesn't matter what you think. It's the school's decision. And they gave her aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Park gives FA to institutional priorities. Those kids can have ridiculous behavioral problems and everyone turns a blind eye. To be fair, the kids whose families are donating $$$$$ can also get away with egregious behavior. Donut hole families are not getting FA.

Yup- We received 2k....Yet those making double our HHI probably receive a significant discount because they're lifers and have multiple kids attending.

Can I ask what your HhI is? 2k seems funny

275k HHI; We did receive significantly more aid this year since our oldest will be in college and we will have that tuition bill. 15k.

Wow how do you sleep at night? Greedy and taking the handout.

not Pp. but how is this greedy? PP’s hhi is not as high as comfortably supporting two full pay kids.

Why should affording private school be comfortable? Good lord. Financial aid is for the needy. Taking aid on that HHI is just greedy.