Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just played around with the SSS form, because my sense was that we make too much to qualify for aid, but we were having a hard time figuring out how to responsibly budget for our favorite school. I have a low-cost house (under 200k) and income at about 200k. One kid. However, student loan debt and consumer debts are high, and we're just a few years out of school so we haven't had a chance to get out in front of these debts. So, our income is high but we're encumbered more than we'd like and just beginning with savings / retirement.

Bad news for me: The SSS analysis came back saying we can pay about 38k in their estimation -- which is a lot more than I feel comfortable budgeting. I have no idea if restructuring the debt would change the SSS analysis (it might give us some more liquidity, to get closer to the mark), or if explaining that the consumer debt is related to projects on the fixer-upper house would meet with some sympathy. But I suspect that the disjuncture between the estimate and what I feel I can wisely pay is simply a sign that we're not financially prepared, at least not yet. We'll probably just go to ground and work on the debt problem for a few years.

But maybe there's good news here for someone else: If you have two kids, or your house costs more, it seems possible that the SSS formula (and the related ones) will see you has having some demonstrated need.

This doesn't surprise me at all. I don't really understand giving FA to people because they have consumer debt. A mortgage is different. We have one in private and 2 in public. Zero debt except for mortgage, $150 income and we get $7000 in FA. We truly can't pay that bill without grandparent help. If we made another $50k, most of that could go towards school and we'd be golden. We don't expect FA to supplement our lifestyle. We expect to make sacrifices to pay our bill. No fancy cars, small house, only very basic vacations (we drive to the beach), etc.

We are so grateful for any FA we receive.

Anonymous wrote:I just played around with the SSS form, because my sense was that we make too much to qualify for aid, but we were having a hard time figuring out how to responsibly budget for our favorite school. I have a low-cost house (under 200k) and income at about 200k. One kid. However, student loan debt and consumer debts are high, and we're just a few years out of school so we haven't had a chance to get out in front of these debts. So, our income is high but we're encumbered more than we'd like and just beginning with savings / retirement.

Bad news for me: The SSS analysis came back saying we can pay about 38k in their estimation -- which is a lot more than I feel comfortable budgeting. I have no idea if restructuring the debt would change the SSS analysis (it might give us some more liquidity, to get closer to the mark), or if explaining that the consumer debt is related to projects on the fixer-upper house would meet with some sympathy. But I suspect that the disjuncture between the estimate and what I feel I can wisely pay is simply a sign that we're not financially prepared, at least not yet. We'll probably just go to ground and work on the debt problem for a few years.

But maybe there's good news here for someone else: If you have two kids, or your house costs more, it seems possible that the SSS formula (and the related ones) will see you has having some demonstrated need.

Anonymous wrote:???

Maret starts with about 20 kids in K.

Anonymous wrote:???

Maret starts with about 20 kids in K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have more than 100k HHI, you are unlikely to get aid. This is from personal experience. It is unfortunate, but true. With that said, may as well give it a shot. Who knows.

Depends on the school. Here's info from Maret:

- 24% of students receive aid.

- The ave grant is $25,522.

- Of families receiving financial aid:
29% have gross household income under $100k
29% have gross household income between $100k and $150k
20% have gross household income between $150k and $200k
22% have gross household income above $200k

Very helpful info!

More than you know.

Maret has 75 students in each incoming Class

If 24% of these students get FA, that's 18 students.

If 29% of the 18 who get FA are from families with less than $100K, that's 5 of the 75 students.

If the average grant is $25.500 a year that translate into a total FA budget for that incoming class of $460, 000. Or 1.836,000 for all four classes.

Anonymous wrote:I just played around with the SSS form, because my sense was that we make too much to qualify for aid, but we were having a hard time figuring out how to responsibly budget for our favorite school. I have a low-cost house (under 200k) and income at about 200k. One kid. However, student loan debt and consumer debts are high, and we're just a few years out of school so we haven't had a chance to get out in front of these debts. So, our income is high but we're encumbered more than we'd like and just beginning with savings / retirement.

Bad news for me: The SSS analysis came back saying we can pay about 38k in their estimation -- which is a lot more than I feel comfortable budgeting. I have no idea if restructuring the debt would change the SSS analysis (it might give us some more liquidity, to get closer to the mark), or if explaining that the consumer debt is related to projects on the fixer-upper house would meet with some sympathy. But I suspect that the disjuncture between the estimate and what I feel I can wisely pay is simply a sign that we're not financially prepared, at least not yet. We'll probably just go to ground and work on the debt problem for a few years.

But maybe there's good news here for someone else: If you have two kids, or your house costs more, it seems possible that the SSS formula (and the related ones) will see you has having some demonstrated need.

Anonymous wrote:Ok good to know! So even if not actually applying to a school now we can list one to see the amount we "could" be qualified for? ? (In a perfect world).

If so, we will definitely do this!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have more than 100k HHI, you are unlikely to get aid. This is from personal experience. It is unfortunate, but true. With that said, may as well give it a shot. Who knows.

Depends on the school. Here's info from Maret:

- 24% of students receive aid.

- The ave grant is $25,522.

- Of families receiving financial aid:
29% have gross household income under $100k
29% have gross household income between $100k and $150k
20% have gross household income between $150k and $200k
22% have gross household income above $200k

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish these threads would not devolve into crossfire over "people having a right to private education." Is anyone even making that claim?

The question most people are asking is, "How do I size up what I can / ought to be able to afford." And: "What do the schools expect / offer?"

Given the high cost of living in the region, these are fair questions.

Thank you for your kind response and others likewise. We don't need to get mean on here guys. And to clarify I meant to say "DC region" for a house but it's actually Northern VA where we bought our place.

We don't have anything fancy- no fancy cars- nothing. We scrape by in this city and did so even before buying a house. We saved for over a decade. It's an expensive city. bUt we don't need character judging. Different people and priorities are different to different people. I am just asking if we would qualify

Anyway, some SSS site was mentioned. Sorry to be naive. What is this site? Would you be able to provide an address for it? I would love to put in our numbers.

Thanks so much

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here, when you fill out the forms for FA, it is like a financial X-ray. You have to list the purchase price of your home, how much you have left to pay, your investments, the make and model of your cars, if you went on vacation, where you went ad how much you spent, if you have any employees in your household (butler, nanny, gardener, etc), if you have any debts and there is a space for notes (i.e., you have an elderly parent, child with special needs, a spouse that just lost their job, etc). I don't know which elements of the application carry more weight. If you have a lot of credit card debt, you may want to explain, "I lost my job and used my credit cards to keep from defaulting on our mortgage." If you have debt because you are a shop-aholic, they aren't going to help you. The schools are looking at the whole picture. When we were offered aid, I specifically asked: assuming our finances don't change drastically from year to year, can we expect to receive the same amount of money? They said yes, they assumed they were making a commitment until our child graduated.

I would sincerely hope that any family receiving financial aid at any school in this area does not employ a household staff of a butler, nanny or gardener.

Signed,

A parent who works hard to pay full freight for two kids and gets tired of the "please donate to financial aid" pitches

With the nanny it depends. My child's daycare center is charging 1800/m for infants. With twins, or three small kids in the house, I can imagine the nanny coming out cheaper. Depending on hours needed, etc.

The butler would be surprise I'd think! I hope?