OP, even in the DC metro area, you are still upper middle class. There is no way that a school will look at someone with your assets and offer you financial aid. If you really want to send your kids to private school, then you need to take out a mortgage on your home or use some of your "nest egg". Alternatively, send your children to public school. If you live in a bad neighborhood, no problem, sell your $500K house and move to a good school district!

If you are a family of four with no mortgage and you make $120K, and you say you are frugal then where is all your money going?? I don't understand this. We don't make that much more than you, we pay $2000/month for housing, and still manage to auto-save $1500/month, put $1000/month towards student loans and live well (I mean, we drive 10 year old paid off cars and I definitely don't shop at Nieman Marcus, but we eat out, take nice vacations, buy clothes on sale from mid-level stores, etc...). Your math is not adding up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your net worth is close to 1M you will be hard pressed to cry poor.

I didn't cry poor. I asked whether any schools are so rich that they have generous financial aid policies that would give some help to our family. By DC standards, we are nothing close to rich. If the answer is no, fine. But don't misrepresent what I said. I can't understand why asking causes such resentment. Maybe you aren't so good at saving yourselves?

Can we stop playing this card? Yes, you are. Leave your bubble.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the thoughtful response. I may be in your camp some day. It's just the OPs position of a paid off home and 350 in stock got me riled up!

Understood. It's all about choices (at least up to a point).

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I may be in your camp some day. It's just the OPs position of a paid off home and 350 in stock got me riled up!

Anonymous wrote:Not meant to be snarky, but OPs frugal nest egg lifestyle valuing their nest egg higher than education (I.e. not paying for schools from the 350k) is consistent with a public school warren Buffett lifestyle. Why even consider privates? And I hope my donations don't support this. Private school is a lifestyle choice. I personally can't stand this attitude. If we couldn't afford private my wife or I would literally get second jobs because of the tremendous experience our children have. We don't even think about college admissions - for us focused on each day we just love our kids experience at their private.

I'd cash that stock out in a heartbeat. Call me foolish. In my experience it will come back to you two or three fold.

I'm not sure about this, and I'm speaking from experience.

We had three in private for many years and truly feel their experiences there were special. Oldest graduated from a private HS and is thriving in college.

BUT - it just cost us so much money. We had to do something, 90k a year when both DH and I were already working and making less than 150k just wasn't enough. We never had money for vacations, home repairs or family emergencies. We maxed out several credit cards. Forget about vacations. There was nothing left for that. There was nothing left for summer camps either. It was really stressful.

SO now we're doing public. This is the first year, so we'll see how it goes. So far I feel the academics are comparable, or even better than, their private school. The differences I notice are more social/emotional. The public middle and high schools around here are just so large, and the daily schedule is so packed that it doesn't provide a lot of time for socializing, seeing teachers for extra help, or team building. There's lunch and that's about it. No wonder sports are emphasized so much -- it is one way to make the very large community feel smaller.

I haven't made up my mind yet on public vs private. All I know is that many parents are like us -- we make too much for FA and we make too little to really afford private school tuition. I'm all for making sacrifices for education, but there comes a point where it's just impossible,

Not meant to be snarky, but OPs frugal nest egg lifestyle valuing their nest egg higher than education (I.e. not paying for schools from the 350k) is consistent with a public school warren Buffett lifestyle. Why even consider privates? And I hope my donations don't support this. Private school is a lifestyle choice. I personally can't stand this attitude. If we couldn't afford private my wife or I would literally get second jobs because of the tremendous experience our children have. We don't even think about college admissions - for us focused on each day we just love our kids experience at their private.

I'd cash that stock out in a heartbeat. Call me foolish. In my experience it will come back to you two or three fold.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income is about $90K, with no nest egg, and only renting rather than owning our home.

There's no way I'd describe myself as "Lower middle" or "working class". I work with many people in those categories as a service provider, and easily realize how lucky I am to be able to provide for my family as I do.

+1 Exactly. With a 350K stock inheritance and 120K income, you are not working class. With that inheritance, chances are at least one of you never lived in a working class family. Our HHI is also about 90K and we live frugally and well within our means. We aren't deprived in any way, feel no need to keep up with the Joneses, and I would never claim to be working class. We face none of the tough decisions of true working class families. None of them have a 350K safety net. None of them could pay down a 500K house and have the safety net of that sort of equity. You are not low income. Given the rest of your post, I'd guess you are well-educated. Having to work does not make a person working class. No, you didn't cry poverty, but the claim to be working class rubs a lot of people wrong when they either come from that background (me), are actually working class, or work with/alongside people who are actually working class. I have no problem with you asking whether a school might give you financial aid. But the working class claim shows a pretty profound disconnect from reality and disregard for the real challenges that many people face.

Well-stated.

Anonymous wrote:Our income is about $90K, with no nest egg, and only renting rather than owning our home.

There's no way I'd describe myself as "Lower middle" or "working class". I work with many people in those categories as a service provider, and easily realize how lucky I am to be able to provide for my family as I do.

+1 Exactly. With a 350K stock inheritance and 120K income, you are not working class. With that inheritance, chances are at least one of you never lived in a working class family. Our HHI is also about 90K and we live frugally and well within our means. We aren't deprived in any way, feel no need to keep up with the Joneses, and I would never claim to be working class. We face none of the tough decisions of true working class families. None of them have a 350K safety net. None of them could pay down a 500K house and have the safety net of that sort of equity. You are not low income. Given the rest of your post, I'd guess you are well-educated. Having to work does not make a person working class. No, you didn't cry poverty, but the claim to be working class rubs a lot of people wrong when they either come from that background (me), are actually working class, or work with/alongside people who are actually working class. I have no problem with you asking whether a school might give you financial aid. But the working class claim shows a pretty profound disconnect from reality and disregard for the real challenges that many people face.

Our income is about $90K, with no nest egg, and only renting rather than owning our home.

There's no way I'd describe myself as "Lower middle" or "working class". I work with many people in those categories as a service provider, and easily realize how lucky I am to be able to provide for my family as I do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe OP should read that "school for douche bags" thread

No matter what you may think of the OP, your comment was crude and boorish even by DCUM standards.

+1000