Financial aid at prep schools was recently discussed at
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....hly_gifted_vs_prodigy_ho.html#Post180390 and following. According to this article, determining financial need is subjective, and whether a school chooses to meet the need depends on how strongly it wants the applicant. I suspect this is true at the many colleges that are need-aware.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/y...n-evolving-financial-aid-philosophy.htmlFor Boarding Schools, an Evolving Financial Aid Philosophy
by Paul Sullivan
New York Times
March 14, 2014
...
Admission to the country’s top preparatory high schools has always been fiercely competitive. But today, with the price of some private boarding schools like Tabor topping $50,000 a year, affluent families are also lining up for aid — and sometimes shutting out those further down the income ladder. The reality has affected the whole philosophy behind financial aid.
“We used to be trying to open our doors to all students,” said Mr. Marshall, who has worked at independent schools for nearly four decades. “Now, it’s ‘Who can afford us?’ ”
That’s not many families. After paying $200,000 for four years of boarding school, parents are looking at another $200,000 or more for college. And that is for one child.
The magnitude of these costs mean that even parents with annual incomes of more than $300,000 are applying for financial aid and receiving it. Both Tabor and Webb said that about a third of students received aid.
If you were one of those families denied financial aid this week, or received less than you expected, there are generally complicated, if painful, reasons.
At Tabor, for example, a ranking system — generally unknown to parents — helps administrators make the hard choices. Mr. Long said Tabor had a panel that reviews all applications and assigns a number value from one to 10 to each student. That number encompasses grades, test scores, teacher evaluations and athletic prowess but also includes character traits. It not only determines whether students will be admitted but also plays a role in how much financial aid they receive.
Students who receive the top score, generally around a 9.2 or 9.3, are the brightest; they will get in and get funded, Mr. Long said.
The parents’ ability to pay, he said, starts to get factored in around 7.5. These are the solid students at the school. Below that rating, it becomes tougher for students to get the aid they need to attend. Students with sixes, he said, would “do a nice job” but they’re competing with similar sixes whose parents can pay. Those with fives will struggle at the school, but if they have a sought-after skill, like being a great hockey player, that could improve both admission and financial aid chances.
“If there’s a 6.8 who applied for financial aid, you want to give that application a good read. They’re tough to fund. If he gets bumped up to a 7.2, that saves him.”
If this comes as a surprise to parents, it shouldn’t, said admissions advisers. Schools are trying to create diverse communities of students, but they also need money to operate.
