<p>As re-enrollment approaches, have you heard of changes in policy or changes in FA offerings from your prep school.</p>
<p>Example: scholarship no longer available to European with aid not based on need, but offered just of fill out the international demographic with other then Asians.</p>
<p>What are you hearing?</p>
<p>The only thing that I have heard is from Johns Hopkins CTY. It says something like "all families should expect to contribute this year." I found it odd because I had never heard of anyone getting more than half anyway. Some other summer programs I have looked into have hinted that there is less money for FA.</p>
<p>I haven't heard anything from prep schools.</p>
<p>I suspect there will be few announcements, but that doesn't mean that schools will be able to offer as much aid as last year. It will vary greatly from school to school as well - some have been hit harder than others, of course. From what I've heard, schools are also trying hard to figure out what they can do.</p>
<p>How do they handle students whose family financial circumstances change during the period of their matriculation? Let's say a student was full pay during year one but circumstances changed such that tuition was out of reach during subsequent years. Is such a student then considered for aid? And if so, is there a risk to the school that the burden of aid for any given class of students rises as they move from first to second to third to fourth years?</p>
<p>pan1956</p>
<p>I am not speaking from direct knowledge so someone who knows please correct me if I am wrong. </p>
<p>You can apply for aid if your financial situation changes but I believe you are down the food chain so to speak. The school's first commitment is to aid already awarded to current students, next comes aid for the new class and then they consider you. Now, I have to believe if they want to keep your child in the school and you can clearly identify your increased need the school will do what they can to help.</p>
<p>pan 1956 - I think generally schools want to support their current families so that the aid starts with current families on aid, then current families who are NEW to needing assistance, and then to new families in general. This picture may complicate the situation for new applicants this year since I think many schools will find current families needing aid for the first time....not all schools operate this way but most have loyalty to students already enrolled and want to make continued attendance possible for them...</p>
<p>morris and siemom,
thank you both for your very insightful comments!</p>
<p>Families can and do apply for more aid if their circumstances change - and schools allow for this. Those schools that I know a bit about do their best to support current families as well.</p>
<p>In October the message was "if your situation has changed please come talk to us"</p>
<p>In January the message was " we're cutting 10% of the school budget by putting more master teachers in front of student, rather then in administration/oversight."</p>
<p>If I was running the financial element of a BS, I would continue the same amount % of FA students coming in, but I would be wary of of those coming in Full pay the first year and then asking for FA in order to continue at the school the next three years. Pragmatically I would suggest that many parents are actually planning to do this with their child's education payment schedule. It is very hard if not impossible to gauge this these days. Say your BD starts out with a mixed 70% total and partial FA student population in their budget for 2009-20012, this could very easily turn into a 90%+ FA population if the economy continues on its current path. Many schools will crumble under the burden of this additional cost. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I know of a school at which the system seems to work this way. You're admitted. The school has a small financial aid budget, nowhere near large enough to cover the students who need aid. They do admit students who need aid, i.e., they don't reject students who request aid outright. Some of the students (I don't know how many) then find funding sources, I would assume from their extended family. The school requires that students who enroll without aid agree not to apply for more aid for two (or three?) years, to avoid precisely the gamesmanship you mention, Sarum.</p>
<p>At a certain level, if 95% of students need aid to attend a school, then I would think that school should consider lowering tuition. I don't think it's been done yet, but I can't think of a reason why it couldn't be done. I'm assuming, of course, that the school in this theoretical example doesn't have a large enough endowment to permit it to extend aid to 95% of its students.</p>
<p>No boarding school matriculates that many FA students. 50% FA tops. Princeton, maybe (80% FA.) Boarding secondary schools never higher than 50%. And most of the less well endowed institutions enroll only 30-35% FA matriculants.</p>
<p>Yes, they do. Look at this page at Boarding school review: Boarding</a> Schools with the Highest Percentage of Students on Financial Aid - All Schools</p>
<p>It lists 22 schools which supply financial aid to more than 50% of enrolled students. 62 schools supply financial aid to more than 35% of enrolled students.</p>
<p>Conserve offers aid to more than 70%.</p>
<p>I looked at your link and stand corrected. Do those schools have such a high percentage of matriculants on aid because they are altruistic or because they have very few full pay applicants?????</p>
<p>I don't know. Glancing at the list, many of them seem to be faith-based. So, altruistic?</p>
<p>Others seem to have been governed by their founder's wishes.</p>
<p>My % estimates of FA students were random. I have no idea how many FA students are in Independent BS. My point was if this gamesmanship the second year prevails for some, how far will it drive the schools and their education down economically? Some schools shouldn't worry as their endowments are sky high, they can adjust the next year, but to others it would be the rhinoceros in the room...so to speak.</p>
<p>Reduce tuition? I think we would see a drastic reduction in services to begin with. None of the corporations I know of are reducing their fees, they are instead cutting staff and reducing their services. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Expect rising tuitions, stagnating endowments, anemic giving. In case no one noticed, the economic news is getting worse by the day. This is a long and deep one, maybe the remaking of our whole system of egalitarianism. In one way or another, it will eventually affect them all. Brandeis had a billion dollars and is in the process of cannibalizing its artistic patrimony merely in order to meet its short term obligations. Tufts is no longer need blind. MIT and the Ivies are freezing salaries and limiting hiring and construction. I wonder how the preps are planning for the long winter.</p>
<p>Cornell has a hiring freeze (especially for temporary workers) set in place until June.</p>
<p>Next question is how is all this going to effect/affect the HADES schools? Or how is it already changing them in services to students, community, and admissions? I only disagree with Pan in that they won't/can't raise the tuition in this economic environment.</p>
<p>bad economy = less money flow ?</p>
<p>if they're actually going in the red, then i suspect they tighten financial aid, perhaps let in more full-tuition students (?), lay off teachers.. if it gets extreme, start closing dorms and .. well, you know what happened to conserve. :(</p>
<p>i don't think HADES will really go in the red (fundraisers & donations from alumnus?) but if their endowments don't falter, i'll be really impressed. again, these are just the un-informed predictions of a tween so don't pin me down on these :)</p>
<p>i'm sort of pessimistic, so don't let any of these words discourage you! i'm just adding the whole media "doom and gloom" concept, i know.. hah. anybody else have more (optimistic) predictions??</p>