Hi,
Wondering about the criteria that school adcom’s use for financial assistance - is it solely based on PFS (parent financial statement) to SSS by NAIS or they use some other criteria. Asking this because, going by pfs/nais - we may not be eligible to get much assistance (based on the descretionary amount they show at the end); however when I go to Exeter website and see their financial assistance stats (how many students in each yearly-income/family-size getting fa and how much) - lot of families in our yearly income range/family size got significant assistance.
So confused on what is the basis they use? Yearly income statement for the current and past one year is straight forward but when it comes to assets, not sure how accurate this would be (ie how does the school or nais ascertain the asset details - especially if someone dont declare it). Also how do they account for people like us whose income fluctuates a bit (+/- 30%) and couple good years doesnt gaurantee same income level in the years later.
PS: understand that getting admission into any of these schools is difficult even without financial assistance - but trying to get a view of FA decision.
As you know, the estimated family contribution is not based on income alone. Assets, debts, number of children in tuition-charging schools, etc. are as important as your taxable income. The NAIS ascertains all that through your answers on the FA application AND through the 2-year tax returns you’re required to submit (currently that would be 2015 and 2016). If your income fluctuates year to year, you can state that in the comments section of the application and back it up with prior years’ tax returns if necessary.
Our experience was that FA offered by schools was better than the NAIS-estimated family contribution. However, others on CC have had the opposite experience. I think that it all depends - on your specific circumstances as well as on the school, the candidate, the year - and no blanket statement will ever be accurate when it comes to FA.
@GoatMama Thanks for sharing your experiences. Understand that FA depends on many things (like most other things related to admissions) and could be different for schools/years/candidates etc. thought of gauging experiences vis-a-vis NAIS-estimated family contribution and school award.
Regarding our speicific case, yes we added that in the general comments/additional info section; the school (Exeter) also explicitly mentioned that we can send any other info that is not captured in the PFS. we were worried that may be we came across as too greedy (we mentioned that we could contribute xx/year and NAIS came up with yy/year and yy>>xx) - so gave a detailed explanation on where our number came from. Not sure if they would look into our comments/explanation but we did what we can. let’s see.
I think that you did the right thing, and I wouldn’t worry about being perceived a certain way. It’s best to be forthcoming when it comes to FA. It’s worse to go in as PF and ask for FA in subsequent years. You know that schools ask not only about current but also about future FA needs. Good luck!
The Exeter level rich schools are typically more generous than strictly following the PFS. The Fa award process is also a quite flexible and not so transparent process. Families with similar financial situations can get drastically different FA packages from difffeent schools and sometimes even from the same school. So don’t try to figure out how the puzzle works out but instead provide as much information as possible detailing your circumstances to the FA office so they can make an informed decision. Does the family have any private school cost currently?
@panpacific - thanks for the input. In terms of currentprivate school cost - no dont have that but our second kid is currently in middle school and we would need either BS or nearby private school fee for her in the following year (without getting into details, the local public school does not meet their academic needs; so there is a private school in her future but it could be different from the current one - she has different academic/other interests)
A few schools (Exeter and Andover come to mind) had a $ for primary residence that wasn’t considered as part of your assets. So that can vary from school to school.
Do they account for local cost of living? We live in a very expensive market. If I told you how much we pay in rent and showed you pictures of our home, half of you would be horrified and the other half would laugh. Do they take that into account? Can we submit cancelled rent checks?
The very basic financial aid estimator on Choate’s website includes geographic location (big cities). The Parent Financial Aid Statement on the SSS.NAIS website has a place toward the end to estimate monthly expenses and includes rent/mortgage, I think.
I will tell you this, we got drastically different aid from the schools my child was accepted to. One school was going to cost us 4x more than the next closest. It was kind of crazy actually. They did give us an opportunity to appeal, but that was actually a pretty big turn off to us. We were afraid that even if they brought the aid up this year, we may have troubles in subsequent years so it was crossed off the list.
