The "Generosity Quotient"

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>I made up a new statistic the other day. We visited a school that my husband declared was "for the rich," and he thought that they probably wouldn't need to give much financial aid, his reasoning, I think being that it was such a lovely place that they should be able to fill it with people who could pay. Well, all boarding schools are for the rich to a great extent, but all the schools we are looking at are remarkably generous with financial aid. So, I did some calculation to prove to him that the school in question was as generous as others.</p>

<p>I had already at some point calculated the financial aid per student for each school to which my children are applying (total aid awarded / total # students). Some schools have a higher percentage of day students, but for simplicity's sake I just used the basic numbers. So I tried to determine the total base cost (tuition + required fees) for each school, and divided FA/student by that amount. The result is my "generosity quotient." Of course, the numbers aren't perfectly accurate, but it gives a rough idea.</p>

<p>As an example, Exeter has a very high GQ of 0.339, with $17 million in FA, 1071 students, and a total base cost of $46.9K. The other schools we are applying to range from 0.230 to 0.320.</p>

<p>I don't know how meaningful this statistic is, but I figured it was worth sharing.</p>

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<p>Tuition (and boarding fees) don’t cover the cost of educating each student. I don’t know what Exeter’s total cost per student is–you could perhaps find it in their development department’s publications. I’m sure it’s more than $46.9 K.</p>

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<p>I know that, but I am using published tuition/fee info for a rough idea of what the total cost to parents is at each school. Exeter’s generosity extends into its charging a lower tuition than other schools, and my statistic accounts for this, however imperfectly.</p>

4

<p>Andover celebrates End of Tuition Day in April every year, which is when full-pay students’ money would run out and costs are payed by endowment and donations. I bet Googling it would bring up a ********** article with the estimated total cost.</p>