<p>No, do you think I should call them tomorrow just for my own understanding or would that seem too hostile?</p>
<p>I don’t think that’d seem too hostile, but I doubt that’d make any difference. I would call them and try to “clarify” a couple of things courteously, and ask that question, see how they’d explain.</p>
<p>No harm in calling and clarifying, what is the worst they can do. I have not closely followed your posts, will you be able to go without financial aid?</p>
<p>At this point I know our quest for FA is over for this year at least. So that would not be the point of my call.</p>
<p>I would like to know their take on the web site though- of course it says all over it that it is not a guarantee of fa award and I fully understand that- however, it IS misleading and I wonder if it is misleading for many people or just for us? We don’t have a second home, large savings (except a shrinking 401K which someone said doesn’t count against FA) or anything else that would make us an unusual FA applicant. </p>
<p>Principal: we may be able to cover tuition but would have a very hard time covering extras like books, fees, music lessons ect ect ect…We were looking for a small amount of FA like 5-10 grand. Maybe they feel we can take a loan for that amount? They didn’t say…</p>
<p>You can try Monticello student loans (specialized for boarding school). If you can get 5k worth of loans (and try for FA again next year) that may help.</p>
<p>I was playing around with the ‘estimator’ on Exeter website. It is based on the FA amount awarded in 07-08. If you choose 180K - 200K and family size of four, you get $25,xxx, however if you put > 200k and family size of 4, you get $20,xxx. I don’t understand. Maybe there was just say one applicant in the >200K category and got some unusual award? Anyway, it’s a mystery.</p>
<p>The estimator is funny. We currently have six people living under the roof (all of which are dependent) and when we check “above 200k” our efc is 12k. If a family making 201k has 6 people, two of which need serious medical attention, it could be that he/she got 20k in awards.</p>
<p>I noticed that too, watertester, about the estimator- very misleading…</p>
<p>So principal you should have applied for FA based on that! That’s what happened to us, we weren’t going to apply for FA, and maybe not even bs, but we were encouraged by that calculator… now we are facing a tough decision. </p>
<p>We should have applied to some lesser known schools that offer merit aid I guess.</p>
<p>We must be rich now! I never knew rich people worked two jobs and over time and had two mortgages and drove a scratched/dented camry! 
Boy I sound whiny- that’s not my intent…</p>
<p>principal: thank you for the tip on monticello loans for bs- I was unaware that there were any funds still available in this economy for bs loans. I will check them out after we see how revisits go this week. </p>
<p>We also have a slightly less expensive day school to consider so that is something to think about too.</p>
<p>It doesn’t come up when you search in google for some reason. Go to BoardingSchoolReview, and look for an article that says “Affording a Boarding School Education”, scroll down until it talks about loans.</p>
<p>Sounds like bad timing for you PA-C. You mentioned that your income had just recently increased. Now, before you get a chance to “catch up”, the school will take those dollars first. I am concerned we will be in a similar situation with an increasing income, but a mountain of debt from a period of job loss/lower income. The schools will see the increased $$ and want them before we get a chance to replace hubby’s 10 year old 200,000 mile vehicle or make badly needed repairs to our home.</p>
<p>Exeter should probably take down that estimator as it seems to lead to false hopes.</p>
<p>I looked at what you are talking about re the estimator, and I could not believe it myself. I seriously doubt that a family of 3 in the over 200,000 category would get 20 some thousand dollars of aid, but the number comes up. I noted that they say that 200 some students in the 75-200K range get aid, which is a fair bit, but I wonder how many are in each decile. I would guess few at the upper edges. I would think that you could get an award like that if you had college tuition to pay as well, and only one of the three was a parent, and probably for other special instances, but not otherwise. I did note that they say they will impute income for a non working parent. How on earth can they decide what to impute?</p>
<p>For you PA-C, I sympathize with your hard choices. It is not easy coming up with tuition and extras, and it takes some sacrifice for us. I think you can economize on some things by buying used books, and perhaps even some sports equipment, depending on the sport. I would not be reticent to have as many conversations as I needed with the administration to get as comfortable as possible with the school opportunity so that you can make up your mind. This year in my D’s day school, a number of newly admitted freshmen will not be returning next year for financial reasons. Not that the school did not give them enough aid, these are full pay families who decided to spend their money in another way. Personally, I think that once started I would see it through, but each family’s circumstance is unique - how many children, college costs etc. Good luck to you and your family.</p>
<p>When we spoke to financial aid departments at different prep schools, they told us the rule of thumb was if you make under $120K family income you can expect a large amount of FA. 120-199 some FA and more than 200K limited or no FA. But again just a general rule of thumb as the amount of income tax and other taxes you pay, what part of the country you live in, other children’s tuitions etc all play a role as well.</p>
<p>About the amount of FA, on the school websites, it say in 2008, Andover’s average grant was $33100 while its tuition was $39100, SPS’s average grant $33761 while its tuition $41300. Doesn’t that mean many if not most of the FA receivers received a large amount, or did I read the numbers the wrong way?</p>
<p>My understanding is the same as yours, watertester. I think these schools have a preference for the full FA, low income kid as opposed to the middle income/ upper middle income kid needing partial FA.</p>
<p>but in Andover, 42% of students are on FA, and only 12% on full scholarship. A big part on partial support. I feel like i am not reading these numbers the right way.</p>
<p>Perhaps a big portion are on close to full FA but not full. Maybe they want parents to have some commitment or “skin in the game” by paying a few thousand $?</p>
<p>Oh one more consideration: the full scholarship actually is more than tuition. It also provides for fees, books, travel, etc. That could pull the average upward .</p>
<p>Are you saying under $100k is low income? Because that income amount nets pretty close to full fa.</p>
<p>according to cdnhockeymom’s info, 120K is considered low income. </p>
<p>“the rule of thumb was if you make under $120K family income you can expect a large amount of FA”</p>