There*

A family that fits in -- it's not as loaded as you all would like it to be. It simply means that when you throw in families who are poor with parents who typically aren't college educated professionals with uber wealthy people their is a serious disconnect. When you throw middle class professionals into the mix they more are likely to fit in with both spectrums. Chances are they grew up poor so will be able to connect to families are poor. On the other hand they are educated, so though not wealthy will have some things in common with the uber wealthy. Families like this are a better fit. Families like this, though not rich have a plethora of other things to contribute to the community. While the uber wealthy love the idea of "helping" the poor they don't want to spend time socializing with them. As for the poor, I imagine the same can be said. No one wants to spend time socializing with a bunch of people that they suspect are looking down on them. While some in the middle class will also suffer from this, generally speaking they are better able to handle being in environments with the highly accomplished.

The term was not meant to disparage anyway. Nonetheless, realistically speaking not all families are going to be a good fit for the private school environment.

As for traveling, do you really think private schools want to educate children on the world and not expect them to go out and experience it. That defies logic and common sense. It would be counterproductive to educate on world history and then suggest well since you can't afford our full price tag, you better not go further than Florida to vacation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP that's traveling to Disney, Caribbean, Asia, etc. while on FA, you really need a reality check.

Oh please. Do you actually think these private schools want families that don't travel? Absolutely not. I'm my FA application I FULLY disclosed how much we spend annually on vacations. The reality is they are happy to provide FA for families who will fit it. I believe a PP called it "families that bridge the gap" between the poor and the extremely wealthy. No my DC won't vacation to the alps but DC also won't feel less than because she has to sit at home during spring break while her classmates when on exotic vacations. The schools are happy to have us. Our DC is bright, energetic, loves learning and isn't going to stick out as a poor disadvantaged kid you all seem to think are the only ones deserving of FA. I am quite sure they will also award those families FA. Yet they also see the value in awarding it to families like mine.

Schools really make admissions decisions based on whether families travel or not? Vomit.

If you don't travel, you don't "fit in."

I'm not sure I want to fit in at a school like this anyway. Yikes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP that's traveling to Disney, Caribbean, Asia, etc. while on FA, you really need a reality check.

Oh please. Do you actually think these private schools want families that don't travel? Absolutely not. I'm my FA application I FULLY disclosed how much we spend annually on vacations. The reality is they are happy to provide FA for families who will fit it. I believe a PP called it "families that bridge the gap" between the poor and the extremely wealthy. No my DC won't vacation to the alps but DC also won't feel less than because she has to sit at home during spring break while her classmates when on exotic vacations. The schools are happy to have us. Our DC is bright, energetic, loves learning and isn't going to stick out as a poor disadvantaged kid you all seem to think are the only ones deserving of FA. I am quite sure they will also award those families FA. Yet they also see the value in awarding it to families like mine.

Schools really make admissions decisions based on whether families travel or not? Vomit.

If you don't travel, you don't "fit in."

Bizarre. We receive FA and we don't travel. That's the first thing that was cut from our budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP that's traveling to Disney, Caribbean, Asia, etc. while on FA, you really need a reality check.

Oh please. Do you actually think these private schools want families that don't travel? Absolutely not. I'm my FA application I FULLY disclosed how much we spend annually on vacations. The reality is they are happy to provide FA for families who will fit it. I believe a PP called it "families that bridge the gap" between the poor and the extremely wealthy. No my DC won't vacation to the alps but DC also won't feel less than because she has to sit at home during spring break while her classmates when on exotic vacations. The schools are happy to have us. Our DC is bright, energetic, loves learning and isn't going to stick out as a poor disadvantaged kid you all seem to think are the only ones deserving of FA. I am quite sure they will also award those families FA. Yet they also see the value in awarding it to families like mine.

Schools really make admissions decisions based on whether families travel or not? Vomit.

If you don't travel, you don't "fit in."

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if this has been covered, but search function did not assist me.

Do any schools consider a parent's (or both parents') status as federal employees when evaluating your FA application? We're basically on a fixed income. Respectable, but fixed.

On our FA form, it does ask for employer, but I would think income is income - why would it make a difference where you worked?

Sorry if this has been covered, but search function did not assist me.

Do any schools consider a parent's (or both parents') status as federal employees when evaluating your FA application? We're basically on a fixed income. Respectable, but fixed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We made $200K last year and had a mortgage of $330K and about $100K of student loans. We are in a small private. We have 4 kids - 3 at the school, 1 in day care $18K a year.

Total tuition was $45K (for all 3), school offered us $17500 off.

How in the world will you ever save for kids colleges? Or retirement? Since you still have one in daycare, are the others still in elementary schools? Do you realize the cost of private education gets much higher in HS?

We save 5% + matching for retirement. Hopefully, we'll send the kids to public college. We save a little for that too. Our income is also expected to increase.

Our kids are in a religious private school -we know its not a good financial decision for us but its the absolute best place for our children and our family and its worth every sacrifice. We are also young, so we'll be in our early 50's when the 4th is done with school and have plenty more time to work.

You are doing the right thing. I absolutely believe that sacrificing now to provide a happy and healthy learning environment has long-term benefits for children. It doesn't matter whether they end up at an ivy league school as long as their early childhood development is solid. I don't care what people say about how good their public school is, 20-30 kids per teacher is not healthy, not fostering a nurturing environment, and not conducive to learning. For the sake of class size alone, private is worth it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We made $200K last year and had a mortgage of $330K and about $100K of student loans. We are in a small private. We have 4 kids - 3 at the school, 1 in day care $18K a year.

Total tuition was $45K (for all 3), school offered us $17500 off.

How in the world will you ever save for kids colleges? Or retirement? Since you still have one in daycare, are the others still in elementary schools? Do you realize the cost of private education gets much higher in HS?

We save 5% + matching for retirement. Hopefully, we'll send the kids to public college. We save a little for that too. Our income is also expected to increase.

Our kids are in a religious private school -we know its not a good financial decision for us but its the absolute best place for our children and our family and its worth every sacrifice. We are also young, so we'll be in our early 50's when the 4th is done with school and have plenty more time to work.

Anonymous wrote:We made $200K last year and had a mortgage of $330K and about $100K of student loans. We are in a small private. We have 4 kids - 3 at the school, 1 in day care $18K a year.

Total tuition was $45K (for all 3), school offered us $17500 off.

How in the world will you ever save for kids colleges? Or retirement? Since you still have one in daycare, are the others still in elementary schools? Do you realize the cost of private education gets much higher in HS?

We made $200K last year and had a mortgage of $330K and about $100K of student loans. We are in a small private. We have 4 kids - 3 at the school, 1 in day care $18K a year.

Total tuition was $45K (for all 3), school offered us $17500 off.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sticker price of schools/colleges keeps going up and up partly in order to fund ever-more-generous financial aid. Dual-earner incomes of typical senior faculty employees tend to be in a protected sweet spot for very substantial grant aid, with a sharp drop-off as incomes move up from there. What hasn't been mentioned is that admissions tend not to be fully need blind, so many parents who might get some aid don't apply for it in the hopes of improving admission odds. Then they experience the aggravation of knowing that other families at the school with similar incomes are paying much less.

It does seem sad that many posters apparently prefer to have the student body be less qualified and composed of rich kids with a handful of working class kids thrown in, but basically no one in between. Wouldn't such an approach remove many of the most outstanding scholars/athletes/artists/leaders?

I'm a "full pay" parent. I think FA is great, and I want my kids to be in school with people of all different backgrounds. It seems very unfair if the level of FA families get is dependent upon their willingness to work the system and maybe get more than they really need, so they can keep going on vacations and other things. It would be better if the school published some sort of guideline - Income of X, Assets of Y gets your Z% off the bill. You might not agree with where they draw the line, but everyone would know where they stand. Realistically, those guidelines already exist. They would then need to lay out acceptances so that they got enough tuition coming in - but I'm guessing they do that already too. The whole process would be better with more transparency.

On your comment on need blind admissions - I don't think there is a single NW DC private that has enough of an endowment that they can do truly need blind admissions. I think its more of a spreadsheet that says we need certain percentages of full pay and range of partial pays to make the budget work. Only universities with the very largest of endowments can go to fully need blind admissions.

There are plenty of schools with need blind admissions. They are called "public schools."

These FA threads are getting tiresome. Please people, if your HHI is under $350K, go ahead and apply if it bothers you so much that someone who makes $200 is getting aid.

Anonymous wrote:The sticker price of schools/colleges keeps going up and up partly in order to fund ever-more-generous financial aid. Dual-earner incomes of typical senior faculty employees tend to be in a protected sweet spot for very substantial grant aid, with a sharp drop-off as incomes move up from there. What hasn't been mentioned is that admissions tend not to be fully need blind, so many parents who might get some aid don't apply for it in the hopes of improving admission odds. Then they experience the aggravation of knowing that other families at the school with similar incomes are paying much less.

It does seem sad that many posters apparently prefer to have the student body be less qualified and composed of rich kids with a handful of working class kids thrown in, but basically no one in between. Wouldn't such an approach remove many of the most outstanding scholars/athletes/artists/leaders?

I'm a "full pay" parent. I think FA is great, and I want my kids to be in school with people of all different backgrounds. It seems very unfair if the level of FA families get is dependent upon their willingness to work the system and maybe get more than they really need, so they can keep going on vacations and other things. It would be better if the school published some sort of guideline - Income of X, Assets of Y gets your Z% off the bill. You might not agree with where they draw the line, but everyone would know where they stand. Realistically, those guidelines already exist. They would then need to lay out acceptances so that they got enough tuition coming in - but I'm guessing they do that already too. The whole process would be better with more transparency.

On your comment on need blind admissions - I don't think there is a single NW DC private that has enough of an endowment that they can do truly need blind admissions. I think its more of a spreadsheet that says we need certain percentages of full pay and range of partial pays to make the budget work. Only universities with the very largest of endowments can go to fully need blind admissions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP that's traveling to Disney, Caribbean, Asia, etc. while on FA, you really need a reality check.

Oh please. Do you actually think these private schools want families that don't travel? Absolutely not. I'm my FA application I FULLY disclosed how much we spend annually on vacations. The reality is they are happy to provide FA for families who will fit it.

"Families that will fit in? Oh man, that's a loaded term. Care to explain?

Yes I would love to know that that means as well.