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Dd11 is planning to apply for the new Yunasa West and I was wondering if any of your kids have experience with the Yunasa program and how likely one is to get financial aid. I did contact them; it sounds like she is a good candidate to get in; they said to get the application in before the early deadline of early March to apply for financial aid, but that's about all I know.

Their program info says that "limited" financial aid is available for families "in need." I wouldn't expect the camp tuition to be totally covered, but does anyone have any idea of how low income one needs to be to be likely to get financial aid and how much aid they offer? We might be able to cover about $700-750 for the week, but we can't do the $1350 without feeling really bad that we're probably going to have to put the $ on a loan/credit card and work on paying that off rather than paying down our car loan, for instance.

I wouldn't even consider something this expensive except that I think dd would really benefit from a chance to be around other HG kids and see that gifted isn't all about arrogant high achievers. GT ids and programming where we live are a competitive thing and dd attends school with some kids who drive her insane with their bragging.

I would email the folks at Yunasa and see how much aid could be offered. From what I understand, they could waive the entire tuition.

Thanks, I did contact them and they suggested applying but didn't say how much they'd cover. The financial aid application apparently asked you to state how much you could afford.
How much we can afford is hard to say. We can afford half of the cost if we put the $ on a credit card or take it out of our home equity line of credit and pay it off over time. We could do the same with a higher cost, but I'd have a harder time justifying that as I said.

My mom thought that 1/2 sounded like a reasonable amount to ask for. More aid would be great, but we're not so low income that we're like free lunch eligible although there have been times when we are (dh's work is a little erratic and he's out of work at times).

She's waiting for a ltr of support from a teacher and then we'll send in the application, the financial aid form and see how it goes. Thanks for the input!

Just my opinion - but if you'd have to take out the money on credit, you can't afford it.

Good luck! If the $ amount isn't enough, ask them again to review. They really want to support HG/PG youths. Also, if you are a DYS (youg scholar), they offer financial assistance for this type of thing too.

That depends on how quickly you can pay it back.

If the credit could be paid back within a few months, it's a question of cash flow (erratic work).

If the credit is going to be living in minimum payment world for all eternity, that's different.

I would fill in the form on the assumption that "can afford" means "can pay without needing to borrow the money", personally. That's what it means in everyday English to me, anyway.

Dd isn't in the DYS program. Her WISC GAI qualifies, but her achievement scores aren't high enough. (She's 2e.)

We're going to give it a try and see what happens. One local mom did say that they got pretty substantial financial aid in years past so I'll keep my fingers crossed. Of course, getting in is the first hurdle !

I agree with ColinsMum and others who've talked about affordability. I would think twice about borrowing against my house or stalling car payments to pay for a camp that lasts for a week.

If they give you enough financial aid that you can pay for it out of pocket, great! Otherwise, I would think really carefully about how long you'll be paying for something that lasts for a week.

There is an alternative: say you apply and they give you aid, but not enough. Use that information to project forward to next year and start saving now for 2013. Does your daughter ever babysit or do little odd jobs that can earn her a bit of cash? Does she have old toys or games that she doesn't play with that you could sell on Craigslist? If not, is there something she can give up that will help put aside small amounts of cash every week?

I know nothing about the financial aid aspect, but my son absolutely loved Yunasa (he attended in MI), and we are hoping he can go again this year. If you had to stretch your contribution an extra hundred or two, IMO, it would be worth it.