There was a great thread a few years ago called “Creative Ways to Pay”. Can we revive that question? The closer M10 gets the more convinced I am that the hardest scenario to deal with would be if my kid gets into a school but doesn’t get enough financial aid. Trying to brainstorm other ways to come up with funds that don’t involve selling a kidney or a second mortgage. Any other FA families in this round of applications having the same thoughts? Ideas?
This is my great fear, too!
Dealing with an outright rejection would be easier, for sure @CaliMex!
I’m living your fear as I type this. Single mom, EFC on fafsa less than $2500. Aid package not even close. Bottom line come up with $41000 or don’t come. I can tell you from experience with my older daughter that private schools have a ton of FA through endowments. She went to a Jesuit school that was 46,000 a year and the package, all aid not merit, was 36000. Bottom line $10,000 a year. Easy enough to get a loan for. My sons major limited his applications this year. He is very bright, but so is everyone else. Needed to apply out of state, hence the HUGE bottom line. Tuition is 54000 a year at Texas A & M so we are just sick over it. Praying for a solution.
Y’all are making me nauseous. We’ve been waiting for our 1040 to send to school for FA for next year. Story short, DH is self-employed, but business really struggled through oil bust…mid year, he was approached to start LLC with other investors…sounds like a good plan, right? I mean he’d lost a pantload the first 6 months of the year and we were struggling…well, our personal accountant calls yesterday to let me know whoever set up the LLC had no idea what he was doing and per the paperwork, DH’s income was 6 digits…WHAT!!! Where??? So, I’m now in a complete panic because although we had negative income, someone’s paperwork screw up makes it look like we made bank…I see FA flying out the window unless someone can fix this quick. [-O< :-SS so, if anyone else has a legal get rich quick idea, I’m in!!!
@ggbucks This is about prep schools (boarding high schools, generally).
@narcissediaz98 I don’t have a panacea. Hopefully you “cast a wide net” and researched carefully when selecting schools to apply to. Most people who do so, seem to end up with at least one doable option.
Sorry I assumed since it was college confidential the posts referred to college level!
My husband always says, “Sell the cats.” Four years of boarding school bills later and I still haven’t found any takers.
Make sure you and your kid are very clear on what you can and can’t pay before the decisions arrive. Don’t sugar coat for them. That softens the blow a little if you have to turn down a school for financial reasons, to have made those expectations really clear ahead of time.
For buuzn03 I would suggest writing a letter and then calling the financial aid office (not sure if this was a college or private secondary) and explain the situation. The more proof you can offer, the better … I mean, it might not make a difference but I work at a state university and we do adjust for students due to special circumstances etc. And I think colleges know that IRS docs don’t always tell the whole story. But on a more general point, I do think it’s difficult when schools claim to ‘meet need’ but then come nowhere close to the Expected Family Contribution calculator. I mean, I don’t expect it to be perfect or whatever, but for those who are well off but not rich it’s crazy (and of course crazy for someone who earns $100k a year, lives in my area that is horribly expensive and has other kids – they can’t pay half their takehome pay for their kid to go to a private college). And yes, I take the broader point that there are excellent state schools (I teach at one and it’s fabulous) but if there are these glittering brochures etc that are essentially not being straight about admission chances/actual aid, it’s very difficult to explain to a teenager how the system REALLY works.
@intparent and @scotcitz: Did you mean to post in the prep school forum?
I knew it was the prep forum, and did mean to. This story is the same whether it is college or prep school. Letting your kid get revved up about a school you can’t afford is cruel at any age. Making the boundaries clear is best in either case.
@intparent completely agree, my kid is well aware of our financial situation and how much aid would be needed for her to attend any of the prep schools she has applied to. Couldn’t imagine going into this process without having made that completely clear. There’s always a range though, right? If we received 7/8ths of the amount we think we need in aid for example, I’m sure we would consider ways to drum up the remaining 1/8th needed. However, if we only received half of what we needed, I doubt we’d find a way to quickly make up the remaining half. Just wanted to throw this scenario out there to other FA families who may have been in a similar boat in past admission cycles, in case they found unusual/creative ways to fund tuition payments. No matter what though, we have a solid Plan B if boarding school doesn’t work out in the end, for whatever reason! Hurry up, M10! 
Don’t be afraid to ask for more aid or if you get multiple offers to let them know what another school offered you. Most of SwimKid’s acceptances met or bettered his top FA offer. There was only One whose offer expected us to pay 6x the next closest offer that Made it very hard to increase aid. They wanted a daily expenditure list and a whole bunch of other stuff. We didn’t even bother.
A home equity LOC used to be a popular way to fund prep school but I am not sure the interest is still fully tax deductible under the new tax law and interest rates are creeping up. One tip I learned in the trenches - if you live in a state with very high taxes, schools may consider adjusting your FA accordingly but you might need to call each school. This call would be after you child is accepted if FA is not sufficient. If there are any circumstances in your family that might make your family contribution as calculated not accurate, you should point this out asap.
Grandparents with deep pockets can gift tuition and if it is paid directly to the school, there are/were? tax advantages to the grandparents.
Many schools will give a parent a “heads up” if they want to accept a child but are not offering enough FA for the child to attend. Parents are sometimes contacted just prior to 3/10 so they can prepare and hear from the AOs what the odds are of the child possibly moving off the FA wait list prior to the emails arriving. Some families prefer to have the school send a wait list letter over an acceptance and some prefer that the child receive the recognition of an acceptance letter even though they don’t receive sufficient FA.
FWIW it isn’t true that a high level of need equates with worse odds - often schools prefer to offer a substantial amount of $$ to a super star or “pointy” kid who needs full aid in hopes of landing a needed and desirable student over offering smaller amounts to multiple kids who will also need multiple beds and might be able to bridge the FA gap another way.
My last need based aid package came for the third daughter from one of the top 10 prep school. It is a great package. Thanks prep school from the bottom of my heart. I hope my kids repay back prep school generosity in multiples times by paying back to school. Thanks, we owe you a lot!
@nynycasino1234 that is how we feel with our year 1 package…anxiously awaiting to hear about Year 2… but we frequently remind DS to prove to the school that he’s worth it & that their money wasn’t wasted on him.
I need a side hustle!
Same here, @CaliMex!
Thank goodness I have a side hustle lol!!!