<p>A/E are my two top choices because of their scholarship programs(I need one for at least 20 grand). If any other school has generous and understanding programs that would be amazing. I hear portsmouth has a merit and need based aid program.</p>
<p>Well, I am going to be a sophmore. I will spend this year at a private high school, taking Pre-Calc(Junior course) and AP Statistics(Senior course). Math is my strong suit, I have poor grades in languages and that is it. Everything else was at A level by the end of the year(Two Bs in 3 trimesters).
I play lacrosse, and I plan to do crew. I have been running and doing push ups and hitting the gym regularly. I am a fairly talented athlete and I am a hard working student that is extremely extroverted. I have a rather sever case of ADHD. On the upper side of the spectrum. It does not affect my social life nor teacher relationships because of medication.</p>
<p>My question?
I am applying to Exeter and Andover and I need around 20,000$ in financial aid to go to either. I will have taken the AP Microeconomics, AP World and AP Statistics AP exams. If I get 4s on them will that help my chances significantly? I am also a very outgoing individual, I am a speaker about religion at retreats and I am a Counselor at a camp. I also am on knowledge bowl, Mute court, youth legislature and Model UN.(All during Sophmore year except I did Mute court freshman). I got a 31 on the ACT overall my freshman year.(Very high math score that brought up my other scores)
Should I take the SAT as well?</p>
<p>My family income is in the mid 400 thousands. I have a brother and our combined tuition at the moment is around 35. Plus we support both of our grandparents at about 100 a year. Will disclosing these facts to Exeter and Andover improve my chances?
I am interested in Exeter and Andover because I have heard that their financial aid programs are very generous and stable.
I am sending in applications to Exeter, Andover, Choate, Deerfield(Lacrosse power house), Kent and Portsmouth. Some other ones also... I am applying for the 2009-2010 school year. </p>
<p>SUMMATION:
Are my academics up to standard for boarding school? Is my math ability an advantage? Do I look like a good financial AID candidate? Will good scores on my 3 AP exams help? What should I focus on for the next year(Keep pushing all grades from low As to High As? 4s on AP exams or more extra curriculars?) Should I take the SAT? When should I apply to these schools?</p>
<p>I think it’d help if you got 5’s on the APs. also, get your humanities grades up. Your academics are good, but I don’t know if they’re outstanding. I think math will play to your advantage only if you show schools that you’re passionate about it; although your courses are more advanced than most people’s, there are also several people who take calculus in middle school. Basically, you have a good chance, it just depends on how you showcase yourself. Why do you want to go to boarding school? Seems like you’re already getting an excellent education at your current private school.</p>
<p>I was accused of cheating in the 8th grade and decided to argue my case and I was moved up several math classes. And my current school does not have enough in the way of course options and such(All language, english and science programs are poor). And I will finish all math classes(Except calc) this year.</p>
<p>My parents want me to get a wordly education and they believe the “seal of approval” you get from boarding school is a great way to get a free ride to college.</p>
<p>Actually, there are a lot of boarding schools which give out a good amount of financial aid. Don’t just look at the endowment, it may surprise you that smaller schools that are just as excellent can be just as or even more generous with aid. There are other people who have more experience about this then me, so I’ll let them tell you about more in depth (:</p>
<p>I think your family income will be a serious issue. Our tuition bills are over twice what yours are and our income is less than a third. We were advised (by a consultant) to forget applying for financial aid, and take out loans instead. Our kids are part of a very over represented demographic, and not applying for FA definitely helped during admissions. Our lifestyle, as a result, is exceedingly frugal, as nearly everything goes to tuition. It is a sacrifice many, many parents on this board are making, not just us.</p>
<p>Also, when applying for FA all financial info is disclosed. You do not get to choose what you would like to share with them - they will need to know about all assets and income in order to determine level of need.</p>
<p>My family is in the same situation as liddy’s. It’s definitely difficult to decide when to apply and not to apply. The common philosophy out of my friends is “why not apply for f.a.?” often when it is unnecessary. Perhaps you should talk to your parents about the likelihood of your family getting f.a., because of your income level. Unfortunately most schools will not take into account that your family takes care of your grandparents.</p>
<p>If you mean income over 400,000 a year, I would think FA would be out of the question. The new and improved FA programs at A/E are for under 60,000 (or perhaps 80,000, you can look it up.) At income of 400,000 the schools would expect (perhaps desire is a better word) contributions in excess of the tuition. </p>
<p>BTW it is “MOOT” court, unless of course there is a new silent type of competititon. (Moot: in this case, not a real issue to be debated; Mute: silent.)</p>
<p>My school program calls it by another name that is a big tell which school I go to. And yes, it was a sily mistake!</p>
<p>I have a sibling and his school is 20 grand, my grandparents recieve about 60,000 from us every year. That is all after taxes money… And the amount of income changes every year(It has been negative before).</p>
<p>Italian,
There is a link to expected FA on this board. At 400K, you will not be able to get FA. They will expect your parents to give up something in order for you to go (one friend was suggested that his parents change their escolade for a cheaper more fuel efficient and to give up their boat). Remember, you in the same pool for FA as a kid whose parents make 40K. Guess who the school will give it to?</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are some schools that give merit scholorships and sport scholorships (both set up specifically by donors).</p>
<p>I agree, Princess’Dad.<br>
A classmate of my S applied to Exeter as a day student ($26,ooo) and, appallingly, his parents asked for FA. Dad has a very high position at a hospital, mom shops all day (no job) and has a maid, they have a boat and a second house in the Lakes region. They were advised numerous times by consultants and school staff that their request was a surefire way to get their child’s application tossed. Not surprisingly, it was.
Even though schools say they are need blind, applying for FA ‘for the heck of it’ or ‘just to see what happens’ is a huge risk if you are not truly needy - that means anything from low income to multiple kids in BS or college already. There is communication between the FA staff and adcoms - Bs’s are not so huge that people don’t compare notes regarding the resourcefulness (or lack thereof) of current applicants. I think the thing to remember is that private school of any kind is a wonderful luxury - not a necessity. No one owes anyone a BS education.</p>
<p>Exeter will provide financial aid of 20,000 for income 200,000 and above.
And I put 400,000 as a number that we may make. Over the past 6 years it has averaged 300,000. The reason that this is a very hard figure to determine is because my dad is paid on commission. Meaning he can make 50,000 in a day or lose 50,000.</p>
<p>The way I see it
Taxes: 325,000(.65): 211,250
Tuition(Current): 211,250-40,000: 171,250
Grandparents: 171,250-60,000: 111,250
And if I went to Exeter it would be another 20 grand off the cake</p>
<p>Sorry about the bad information earlier! My parents didn’t really want to tell me, but when I mentioned that financial aid could cover half of tuition they fessed up.</p>
<p>Italien
Look at Libby’s post. It is is a luxury. You need to look at that 20,000 at Exeter (ie how many kids’s in school, etc – and Exeter has one of the largest endowments).
Get the form of sample FA calculations and do the numbers. Do you have a maid or house in the Hamptons or extra car or other “luxury items”?</p>
<p>I do not believe we have any luxury items, we have three cards… An oldschool volvo, ford explorer and a yukon… All are old and my Dad drives to work… I drive to school and my mom drives to deliver my brother to school and her jobs.</p>
<p>Italianboarder - your posts seem a bit out of touch. $325K is ten times the national average income… It is the top percentage of income earners in the US…<br>
Go to a website like finaid.com, and use a calculator to figure out what the expected family contribution might be for your family. When you enter the figures, you have to pretend you are a college student. I found this quick method pretty accurate to the numbers we eventually got from the SSS.</p>
<p>I looked at the Exeter FA calculator - " Exeter will provide financial aid for income $200,000 and above."</p>
<p>Maybe. You are $125,000 + above their highest level already - with only one sibling. They are not giving you $20,ooo in aid without a really good story illustrating why you are needy to back it up. Please take the advice of Princess’Dad and Grejuni and have a really serious talk about the feasibility of attending BS now (Fa calulators - make your parents look at these sites!) - before you get into the application process and end up disappointed. Have them talk to their financial planner and discuss loans - Sallie Mae or Home Equity loans will spread out payments and make them more managable. You only have to cover 2 years at this point - not 4.
As I stated before - I have four kids, all in private (K-8) school or BS with not even close to that income - and until we reach the magic point of more than one in BS plus at least one in college we were advised to suck it up and sacrifice for our educational choices.</p>
<p>Italian,
Several other thoughts for you. You state your dad is on commissions so his income is not the same. Almost all upper level jobs are on commissions now - also known as bonus or profit sharring. That is why they look at more than one year.</p>
<p>Several other factors for you to look at: how many times per week do you eat out? If you eat out most every night and cut back to eating at home with “non-prepared” foods, you will save close to $20,000 per year. What family vacations do you do? Changing from a cruse to camping for a family of 4 is another 10 - 20 thousand. Do you have a summer job? another couple of thousand.</p>
<p>Sorry if some of us sound “rough”, but I think you should be ashamed of even thinking of FA. However, there are some schools that have merit or sport scholorships. Go for them.</p>
<p>ps, while the schools say they are need blind, there is a higher percentage of applicants accepted who don’t need FA than those who do at the majority of schools.</p>
<p>I am realizing that FA is starting to fade away as an option, and I don’t think that I will recieve it… When I saw that Exeter gives FA at the 200,000+ level I misinterpreted it as a sign that my income was acceptable for FA.
I have a summer job. I do not work the entire summer though, only 2 months. I actually went camping last week, and I have never been on a cruise/out of the country and the like. We basically only go to my grandparents/aunts/uncles and family events(Most are driving… We fly to one uncle(once every 2 years), my grandparents(once a year) and my aunt(once a year). </p>
<p>And I don’t feel offended at all, I just posted this to gain information and you guys have been nice enough to just provide the facts. Thank you very much.</p>
<p>I was not aware that alot of people were paid on commission… Thank you though.</p>
<p>My only question… If you do apply for FA(I will not) will they just disregard your application or downgrade it somehow? Or do they just deny FA and treat your application as if you did not ask for it?</p>
<p>Exeter, at least, is need-blind, meaning they will evaluate your application and then, if you get in, they’ll look at your financial aid application and determine how much aid, if any, to give you. Most other schools don’t do this, simply because they don’t have enough money. Again, like others have said, I wouldn’t count on getting FA- you’re certainly not going to get $20,000. One thing, though, is that Exeter (I’d imagine this is true at other schools, I’m just not in a place to say for sure) will re-evaluate your FA each year; I didn’t get any aid my first two years, but my situation changed before senior year, and they gave me $7000. So if your family’s income does fluctuate a whole lot sometime down the road, you could get money then.</p>
<p>While the above post by VF08 indicates that it can happen, a review of past threads on this board that provide information from various schools is: if you do not receive financial aid in your first year, it is unlikely (barring a MAJOR change in your family’s financial status) for you to receive aid in later years. </p>
<p>However, many types of loans are available that might be useful for the original poster.</p>