Daykidmom -
I don’t assume everyone is cheating or living more irresponsibly.
I just don’t think there should be any judgement at all about how &/or IF the income is used.
I find a system that penalizes people that save to be a bad system.
FA should ONLY be based off income, not spending/saving.
I can say, though, that I have yet to meet another FA family (in person) who hasn’t laughed at the system.
Read my examples above.
If you are busting your behind, I find it very hard to believe it doesn’t ruffle your feathers to know that you, too, are competing for those same dollars.
It’s a broken system.
What can I say? We drive old cars, our house is falling apart, and if we have any expensive clothes, we got them at thrift stores. Our BS tuition, although heavily discounted, pushes us to the limit. And as DaykidMom pointed out, some full-pay families are in the same boat; that is, we are using every bit of our resources to give our children this great start in life. You prefer to save your resources for college, and that is a reasonable decision. But please don’t assume that we are cheaters just because you happen to know some people who are.
Wow. If those are the parents at your current school I imagine I’d want to get the heck out of there too. Why do you want your kids in that environment?
My D spent some time at a very nice BS. She is now at a tiny arts school. My S spent all 12 years at the local public school where he had friends on food stamps, friends who were immigrants, friends who lived on golf courses. The whole spectrum of real life. Graduates went on to Ivy League schools, top tier LACs many state schools and comm college or the military. Just like real life.
I have not been to Italy. Been having a midlife crisis about it lately… as I know… I’m not going to get there. Ever.
We have made a choice to invest in our kids with private schools. It has been a priority for many years and it has always worked out through FA on a wing and a prayer. It’s pretty terrifying most of the time…but it always works out. My older child is now in boarding school with great aid and our hope is that my younger child could attend the same school in a few years. The reality is even if second child if offered the same package I don’t know how we will make it happen?.. and I worry about the scenario you keep describing regarding your son and daughter. BUT we just move forward, and pursue it. It requires losing a sense of control.
SurfCity,
4 of the 6 people above are at our school. 2 are at other schools in the DC area.
These people don’t feel like they are “cheating” … more like they are working the system that is in place. And when they choose NOT to massage the bucket in which their money sits, they get hurt by the system.
Unfortunately, the end result is that it “cheats” the available funding that should be heading downstream to needy families.
I’m glad there are families here that are in my same boat – not that I want people to be in need…but doing the right thing. As you can tell, I know TONS of people that are not living on a wing and a prayer and take the help anyway. The way they look at it is that so many people get the $$ by asking that they are in essence getting further behind by not putting their hand out, too. They are not going to defraud a document but they do ensure the funding goes into buckets that don’t count so that they get the aid. It is rampant and frustrating.
My point on FA is that if you monitor/ding savings, you need to monitor/ding spending. Since it is impossible to monitor spending, the only fair way to assess FA is strictly by income and leave assets out of the formula. If someone needs help, they should not get more or less than the next guy that makes the same just because they spent OR saved.
Our current school is not the best it could be but it is the best option in our area. If there were more competition, they would be forced into positive change but they know they are the big fish in a dinky pond
JDewey,
I hope, on graduation day, your kids buy you a plane ticket to Italy!
It is #1 on my list, too.
Very good friends of ours (godparents to both of our kids) own an 8 bedroom private villa in Northern Italy near Turino (where the Winter Olympics were held). Like you, I have yet to visit and I have a free place to stay for as long as I like. Maybe they can spread my ashes there??? =))
