<p>Thanks to whoever posted that you need to look at the endowment figures and compare them to the number of students.</p>
<p>At this time, we have 14 schools on our list. We were easily able to schedule 11 visits. I know that seems crazy and probably is. </p>
<p>Has anyone had good or bad financial aid experiences with any schools?
We are a middle class family with 5 children. If I could make some cuts based on a lack of financial aid it would make life easier.</p>
<p>I can only speak from my own experience. The BS that my daughter attends is a small school, not mentioned on this board. It has a very small endowment. However, we were offered a lovely FA package, more than 3x their average grant amount. If we had made our decision to apply, or not apply, based on the boarding school review financial aid info or other people's experiences, we never would have applied to this school. My point is, with most schools, I think financial aid offers will differ for each family, depending on how much the school wants the child. My daughter was accepted to schools with larger endowments and larger average FA grants (per Petersons and boarding school review), yet, their FA offers were less than the school she currently attends.</p>
<p>Also, as w/ college, the finaid offer may be a function of how an individual canidate stacks up against the rest of the pool. Thus, a student may get a more attractive finaid pkg from a lesser sch where s/he is more of a "star," than from a sch w/ larger endow where s/he is just a member of the pack.</p>
<p>jennycraig and nyc are correct -- there really isn't any way to guess what your FA package might be.</p>
<p>Some schools use their FA funds to encourage athletes or top academic students to attend, others use the funds for legacy students or siblings, others award FA on a first come, first serve basis, others based on how well a student "fits" into a school community. Many schools use FA funds to add diversity to their class in terms of geographic or racial diversity. Most schools use a mix of these strategies to build their class.</p>
<p>When putting together my son's list, we looked at numerous financial figures -- and when those figures were low across the board, we eliminated the school from the list. Like you, we had to cut somewhere -- although we did not cut any school that he thought was "fantastic" even if the FA didn't look great.</p>
<p>% students on financial aid
size of endowment
yearly tuition
average grant
average grant divided by yearly tuition (this gives you a percentage of the yearly tuition that the grant would cover)</p>
<p>I also called some of the schools to ask if loans were generally included as part of the FA package for families with our income and assets</p>
<p>I PM'd you.
But said similar things to jenny, nyc and stef</p>
<p>We're a middle class family with two educator parents. Our financial aid offers varied wildly, from nothing to very generous. The school that we expected the most from gave us zero, and the one that told us not to expect much gave the most. So, I don't think you can generalize from one family's experience to your own- you just have to apply to the ones you like and see what happens!</p>
<p>Actually, it was the least prestigious school that offered us nothing, and they were the ones who told us in the parent interview that they had "merit scholarships" that our child would qualify for. It was then pretty amusing, because that same school hired a marketing firm to haunt us for the rest of the spring and summer with questionaires and phone calls about why we weren't enrolling at the school. I felt like saying "Well, that's the $35,000 question, isn't it!"</p>
<p>My family too had the experience of reciving nothing from one of the least prestigious schs. OTOH, the less prestig sch had a small endow and the parent body was not as affluent as at other schs. This meant (1) the sch had less $ in general to offer - - even for merit shc and (2) we were comp less needy.</p>
<p>I think one can make educated guesses about awards, but the size of the endow, is neither dispositive nor the single most important factor.</p>
<p>In my experience, I did got better FA offers from schools with higher endownments.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone's insight. I guess we will stay the course, go on as many visits as we can and hope that one of the schools that he likes will give him enough aid.</p>
<p>Quote
[quote]
OTOH, the less prestig sch had a small endow and the parent body was not as affluent as at other schs.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Across the board, boarding schools cost $37K-$39K per year. Since the more prestigious schools have larger endowments and typically give larger financial aid grants, wouldnt it make sense those schools would attract families from all economic backgrounds? I know there are many wealthy families at the top schools; however, I also know there are kids whose families make less than $50K / year. </p>
<p>At a less-endowed school, the typical FA grant may only be $10K. Therefore, the majority of families are paying close-to or full sticker price. There are probably more affluent families at the smaller schools than one may realize, but because the school does not garner a lot of attention, and the family is not a Ford, Bush, or Trump, they go undetected.</p>
<p>Good Point Jenny.
I also wonder about the schools with the lower "average" awards. Some that we have seen are in closer proximity to NYC, and the affluent suburbs and I was guessing that maybe they didn't get as much demonstrated need. Or maybe, it's just a function of the numbers and those WITH the need don't attend due to low award offers. OR, there are a some much larger awards and then many people just get really small awards thus making the average. </p>
<p>Some schools give the same percent of need to everyone. So if someone has a demonstrated need of $20,000 and the school awards 80%, they will get $16,000 and have to come up with $4,000 over their est. family contribution. If a family only needs $2,000, they would be awarded, $1,600. I maintain, that it would be MUCH easier for the family who only needs $2,000 to come up with ALL of that than it is for the family who needs $20k to come up with $4k. I'm sure there are other things that I'm not considering here about that.</p>
<p>Linda, you are right--there are a number of factors that could determine why a school has a "lower average award." I believe it is a combination of your two statements *"...maybe they didn't get as much demonstrated need. Or, maybe, it's just a function of the numbers and those WITH the need don't attend due to low award offers." *</p>
<p>If you are a family that needs significant financial aid, wouldn't you first set your sights on schools that provide the most aid? If you don't require much ($10K or less), there are a multitude of schools that meet your financial requirements. Families that apply to those schools maintain the status quo... They only need $10K and the average award is $10K. </p>
<p>It's kind of a catch-22. As parents, you don't want to set your child up for failure. If you know you need $20K in aid, and the school your child wants to attend gives an average FA package of $10K, would you still apply? (Those schools typically have a higher acceptance rate, so the chances of your child being accepted are greater.) Or, do you focus on the schools that provide large FA packages, but are so competitive, the chances of your child getting accepted with FA are reduced?</p>
<p>I also found that it is important to calculate the % of the tuition and board fees that the "average grant" covers. I found those fees to range from $30,000 to $40,000 -- so an average grant of $20,000 goes alot further at the cheaper school.</p>
<p>My son is one that will need significant FA to attend -- and he is applying at a number of schools with small endowments (they are just better fits) so it will be interesting to see how this all works out.</p>
<p>I agree with the comment about the number of affluent parents -- if a school has only 30% - 40% on FA (or less, in many cases) the rest of the families are paying full freight. In my mind, the ability to pay $30,000-$40,000 a year for school makes them pretty affluent.</p>
<p>Yes, especially when you figure that they need to come up with that $40,000/year after taxes!</p>
<p>I see many sweeping comments such as "we need lots of financial aid". How does one know if they qualify for need based aid, or how much aid they can expect? What about merit aid? I think that making sacrifices to send your child to BS means differnet things to different people. </p>
<p>Is this something that you can talk to an admissions department to get a feel, or will they just send you to sss online?</p>
<p>Not many schools give out actual "merit aid" although some do tie needs based financial aid to strength of the student because they have more requests for aid than aid. One in particular states it outright is Westminister, they say:
[quote]
Applicants for financial aid consistently outnumber the grants available. Thus, financial aid is awarded on a competitive basis to students of significant ability and achievement whose families demonstrate financial need.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>St. Paul's states that generally families with incomes under $60,000/year qualify for full financial aid. </p>
<p>We know what we need because our children are currently in an independant day school and have filled out the SSS forms and we've gotten the family reports. I'm not sure if you can do an SSS online and have it sent to you and then add schools later, but that would give you an idea. </p>
<p>In response to the Catch 22 - we are applying to a range of schools and hope that some want him enough to grant us more than their "average" award and/or he gets into St. Pauls that says they meet full demonstrated need without loans. I'm guessing we'll be somewhere in between.</p>
<p>One of our concerns is that we won't qualify for enough aid. My son is at a private day school and we did not qualify this year. It is hard for me to understand because if I lay out our bills: mortgage, heat, food, clothes, the basics, no credit card debt, there is not an extra $20,000 left. I never understand how they figure out what a family can pay.</p>
<p>We could almost pay the "estimated family contribution." And, our school only awarded about 65-70% of it. I searched on the NAIS web site once and did find some formulas that they use as a guide, but since then I have not found them again, I think I had stumbeled on a schools-section of the site that they now have as members only.<br>
One thing is you might have too much equity in your home and the formula assumes you will use it.</p>
<p>Yes, you can do an SSS form online and add the schools later. There is an additional cost of $13 per school. The pain is that you have to mail in the check along with the form--you can't add the schools online and use a credit card.</p>