My family is in need of significant aid, and these deposits aren’t looking too good 
I wanted to know if they’re negotiable or not
Best bet is to talk to the financial department about your situation and see if they can work with you. But make sure you have a solid plan that is affordable for your parents to present to them before approaching them. You can also go through an appeal process for more financial aid. I’ve done that successfully.
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Could you pm me on how you managed to reduce the fin aid? Like the “technique”
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Sure!
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If you can’t afford the deposit, how will you afford the school? If you can’t afford the school, it’s not the right school for you.
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Deposits vary from school to school. The deposit can be a bigger chunk of money than what a payment plan payment might be. Trying to appeal for more financial aid would probably be a better approach but if the family feels reducing the deposit would be enough to help it may be something a school would consider.
That’s fine - but if you can’t afford a deposit, how can you afford the remaining payments - whatever they add up to.
If the school is unaffordable; if one has to scrape togehter to make the deposit, it’s probably not a wise choice for the family’s finances period.
One doesn’t need to attend a private school. It’s a luxury. Yes, if they can get aid - great - but it sounds like we’re beyond that.
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Just in case you are not aware, as you mention depositS - You should only be paying a deposit to the school you will be attending -not multiple deposits.
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Did you apply for financial aid?
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It may be a matter of timing for this family. Indeed, many FP families can’t afford a lump sum payment in June for the year, and many schools offer payment plans.
I can imagine many scenarios in which an FA family could make the total payment work but doesn’t have the sum for the deposit available in such a short time frame.
OP, give the school a call. My guess is that they will work with you on this.
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Yes ofc
The deposit should be proportional to your out-of-pocket portion, not the total amount.
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Yes, not having enough money for a deposit doesn’t always mean that a BS is unaffordable to a FA family. It just means that family doesn’t have a savings account that can cover that much money at once.
For example, at D22’s boarding school, the enrollment deposit was the same for all families (FA and full pay). While it would not have been a problem for me to spread that amount out over 10 months (which is what I did with the tuition), coming up with the lump sum for the deposit all at once was very challenging and the school did not allow us to put on a credit card.
But I only had to make a large lump sum payment once (on April 10th of her 8th grade year). Every other year, I just used the school’s 10 month payment plan for the tuition, and it was fine. And then I got the whole deposit back after she graduated in June of 2022, which was great because I used that money to pay her college tuition for freshman year. Happily, the returned deposit from BS actually covered almost all of her tuition this year. So in a happy surprise, her BS deposit became a forced savings for college, but I certainly didn’t see it that way 4 years ago! And it took a lot of creativity to come up with the deposit in the first place.
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Not being able to afford the lump sum deposit in no way equates with not being able to afford the monthly payments the follow. Not everyone has the means to come up with large lump sums quickly, but can pay the amount over time.
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Your parent(s)/guardian(s) should be communicating with the schools on this topic. (There are exceptions. But those are extreme circumstances.)
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The first step would be for the adult to contact the school, thank them for their generosity, and ask who they need to communicate with to clarify the terms of the FA package.
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Clarify the terms of the FA package, voice concerns, and inquire about the appeal process.
The reason why I suggest “clarify” first is that, in addition to it being polite, you might gain some useful information, that you can use in a appeal. Or, in the process of clarifying, you may find that indeed you don’t need to appeal.
In an appeal, include any aspects of the family’s financial challenges that might not have been fully captured in the initial FA application, especially if there have been significant changes.
The A10 deposit should be 10% of the total based on FA. Is it more than that? Or was the FA less then hoped for?
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Nevermind! Misread - sorry!!
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Interesting, I just went back and looked at my old documents for my eldest daughter. The enrollment deposit was only 10% of tuition (as a high FA student, it wasn’t that much), but we also had a security deposit that had to be paid that spring.
The security deposit was much more than enrollment deposit, and quite expensive for us to come up as a lump sum. I believe it was the same dollar amount for all families whether on financial aid or not. It was completely refundable upon withdrawal from the school, which was when she graduated though we would have also gotten it back sooner if she had left earlier for other reasons.
So I think it is worth clarifying whether your school has a security deposit in addition to an enrollment deposit and if either are refundable. Our enrollment deposit was not refundable, but our security deposit was… eventually… four years later. 
In any case, it all worked out well because we got the security deposit back this summer and it covered almost all of her college tuition this year --which gives you an idea of just how expensive it was!
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The enrollment deposit is applied towards tuition.
I don’t recall seeing a security deposit on my school’s documents, just tuition insurance. Tuition Insurance does have its limitations - looking at the terms, I recalled that had had a couple of classmates in high school that were FP BS students who were expelled barely 2 months into the school year. (Assaulting your roommate is frowned upon.) Merely scandalized back then, as a now parent, I think, ouch, that has to $ting.
I think it’s important for those on FA to make their schools aware of the fiscal realities of FA families - if you find the deposit to be well beyond your capability to pay, it’s worth reaching out. However, it should be an adult doing this, not a minor.
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