Thinking whether to apply for Financial Aid when submitting our application for very competitive day private school. We are relatively high income (~500k) yet had a fast career growth in the last couple of years (and fairly recent immigrants), so do not have much savings apart from 401k and a little in 529. Also high expenses with one kid already in boarding school and fully financially supporting our parents (who do not live with us). Affording tuition for the 2nd private school would be tough (not impossible, yet that would be a sacrifice). On the one hand, we do not want to hinder admission chances with asking for FA. On the other hand, if we do not ask, we would never know if that was possible at all (and that will probably eat us all the coming years)… Would appreciate any thoughts.
I think that $500,000 a year in income isn’t relatively high…it’s HIGH.
You can apply for aid, but getting need based aid is not likely. You already know that.
Sorry for piling on, but FA, with half a million in income?!? Applying might hinder their admission, not because they’re worried you might need the aid, but because you were brazen enough to ask. Just don’t. You have other choices. If sending your kids to uber expensive boarding schools is a burden, don’t do it.
Hard to believe this is a serious question. Just for perspective, we felt we needed partial FA and applied for it but were told by two schools directly before M10 that our son could only be admitted as full-pay as we did not qualify for any aid. Our HHI was nowhere near $500k.
Stop thinking.
No need to dump on this person. He/She explained that they just recently moved up to this income. In addition, I am not sure where everyone is from, but here in New York, a $500k income, after taxes ($250k?), gets eaten up pretty quickly, especially if you need to save for your own retirement. Homes cost a fortune and real estate taxes are also absurd. Lastly, most people who make this much are later on in years and if they had an exponential growth in income (like the OP noted) more recently, they need to also plan for upcoming retirement. They may not be able to spend $80k per year of after tax income for one expense alone.
In terms of filing for financial aid, my child’s school told all parents to file FAFSA regardless of income. Our understanding is that schools require it even if simply to offset any merit aid they may award. For instance, Boston College requires CSS to be be filed including wanting copies of our income tax returns. So if they are asking for it, they shouldn’t think it’s brazen to ask.
Also, schools like Princeton actually give quite a bit of aid even for high earners. Their model is actually more realistic in my opinion. The fact that most schools think someone making $150k per year can pay a $75k tuition is the part that is brazen.
The OP is asking about FA for private day school not college/university.
As far as HCOL areas, $500k is high no matter where you live, period.
Damn - major swing and a miss on my part. Didn’t realize this was a day school. There are plenty of those here in NYC that charge a fortune but I never saw a need for that – it’s mostly a NYC money show off thing. That being said, $500k is a lot of income but it’s pretty much where you need to be to pay $75-$80k per year for one expense with after-tax dollars. Apologies for the diversion everyone!
deleted, missed @Mets335 mea culpa. 
A friend who is a single mom, making about $250k a year, got significant aid from a top school. I think she pays about $35k a year for tuition and she only has one kid. So, best to apply, you never know…
Actually, the OP is first asking somewhere that they thought they could get some help. Perhaps without judgement. That isn’t “brazen”.
New money, significant financial commitments (that are not pretentious or presented as such), and maybe some challenges stemming from recent immigrant status. Nevermind, that nobody knows the rest of the story.
OP - you will not qualify for any form of free aid. Nor will you qualify for any special loans. Quite simply, you will have to borrow and/or cut expenses to afford another private school tuition. Some financing options for those covering pre-college tuition include using a HELOC (though it sounds like you may not have had time to build equity), 401k loans (not recommended), or other loans, including specific loans for prep/private high school.
Honestly, none of these financing options are great and you should think very carefully about the 8 year plan. How are you going to afford college if you can barely afford high school and can’t contribute to 529s with low balances today? If you can’t adequately cut expenses to cover current tuition AND fund 529s to at least partially cover future tuition, then the numbers simply will not add up.
I would consider public schools in this situation. Our family income was about 10% of this original poster, but I understand the financial stress of supporting older parents. Public schools often provide a good education and college admissions results may be equal to some privates. I would save for college costs (and retirement).
This is prep school. Do they use the FAFSA??
No. User did not realize he was in the prep school forum
My parents were considering a similar thing back when I applied (hence the username). We ultimately didn’t apply for FA after they looked at the SSS and did a quick “nope.” Given that $500k is almost top 1% nationwide (Income inequality: The top 1% in the US and what they make, by state) I doubt that you’ll be getting any FA anyways—even the most generous schools/colleges advertise themselves as giving FA to families making up to $250k.
There is only a couple of schools that are need-blind: Andover and Roxbury Latin. The others are need-aware. If you apply for financial aid, it will put your child’s chances at a significant disadvantage.
That all being said, attending a private school is not always the best choice. Apart from tuition, you’ll have to spend money in a lot of other ways: annual fund/giving day, books, clothes, computers, etc.
@sgopal2 but if the school is need aware, they will see that this student has NO financial need, and the schools obligation is $0.
But then again…they probably will wonder why this family applied for aid, right?
If the family decides to apply for FA, they will need to submit a Parent Financial Statement to the SSS which will report to the school the family’s need status. One look at the SSS will put this issue to bed for the OP.
Just a thought - if you are employed by the school will you then get reduced tuition? My kids went to a private day school and there was a large number of employees’ children who went to the school and received reduced tuition. This would include anyone hired by the school (not just teachers or administrators), and their income from a spouse could be well above the FA threshold. Just something to look into if the school is hiring for something you could qualify for.
True. I believe that during admissions decisions, they put the students into two piles: needs FA and does not need FA. The decisions in the “need FA” pile are tougher, and they tend to take fewer students. Once all of the FA is portioned out, then everyone else in the FA pile is rejected or waitlisted.