Private Schools 2023 (Dallas, San Diego: vacation home, safe neighborhood, calculated)

[houstontodallas]

Originally Posted by Salinas81

Thank you for your reply. Yup it is one of the schools mentioned above.

I am spending a significant portion of my income/savings sending my kids to private school. Also working some overtime for it. Hopefully end up making the right decision in the end.

Travis is a great school and it is rare for someone to be admitted after 4th grade. I would take the spot!

[arkroyal2223]

Originally Posted by houstontodallas

We do not.

Sorry to tangent but would highly recommend looking into opening one. The cost of attending college is only going to get more expensive

[Grlmomdallas]

Originally Posted by houstontodallas

I think we are saying the same thing (or at least close) - if you can't afford to cash flow tuition you need financial aid.

Using your homes equity requires going into debt. Getting loans requires going into debt. I don't think most schools expect families to go into debt to pay tuition.

I could take all of my liquid savings and pay down my mortgage and then have a better chance of qualifying for aid. That doesn’t seem fair.

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by houstontodallas

I think we are saying the same thing (or at least close) - if you can't afford to cash flow tuition you need financial aid.

Using your homes equity requires going into debt. Getting loans requires going into debt. I don't think most schools expect families to go into debt to pay tuition.

My friend worked in the admissions/aid office at an elite private college in the northeast and he dealt with parents who had inherited property in San Francisco free and clear (they lived in it). They had solidly middle class incomes but the home was worth well into the 7 figures, and this was years ago. They were arguing for full aid on the basis of cash flow and not assets. But why should they get aid to attend a school when they're sitting on an asset worth into the millions? If they sell the house the year after their kid graduates will they pay the college back now that their assets are liquid? No, of course they won't. He said there are other similar stories of families saying they don't want to sell the family beach house they inherited because of the memories and they couldn't afford it if they mortgaged it to access the equity. Those situations suck, but so does writing the tuition check from your income, and it's a slippery slope to say "we expect you to pay us with these assets but not those assets". I'm not advocating that people have to max out their house at 80% loan-to-value to cover private school, but I don't think home equity should be excluded from the conversation automatically.

[houstontodallas]

Originally Posted by arkroyal2223

Sorry to tangent but would highly recommend looking into opening one. The cost of attending college is only going to get more expensive

I appreciate the concern but unfortunately my mom died and left money for the kids in a trust that can only be used for higher education (college or trade school).

[houstontodallas]

Originally Posted by numbersguy100

My friend worked in the admissions/aid office at an elite private college in the northeast and he dealt with parents who had inherited property in San Francisco free and clear (they lived in it). They had solidly middle class incomes but the home was worth well into the 7 figures, and this was years ago. They were arguing for full aid on the basis of cash flow and not assets. But why should they get aid to attend a school when they're sitting on an asset worth into the millions? If they sell the house the year after their kid graduates will they pay the college back now that their assets are liquid? No, of course they won't. He said there are other similar stories of families saying they don't want to sell the family beach house they inherited because of the memories and they couldn't afford it if they mortgaged it to access the equity. Those situations suck, but so does writing the tuition check from your income, and it's a slippery slope to say "we expect you to pay us with these assets but not those assets". I'm not advocating that people have to max out their house at 80% loan-to-value to cover private school, but I don't think home equity should be excluded from the conversation automatically.

I agree with you in these situations and I think they are why they ask if you have secondary home(s) and what your mortgage payment is.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Grlmomdallas

I could take all of my liquid savings and pay down my mortgage and then have a better chance of qualifying for aid. That doesn’t seem fair.

Bingo.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by houstontodallas

I think we are saying the same thing (or at least close) - if you can't afford to cash flow tuition you need financial aid.

Using your homes equity requires going into debt. Getting loans requires going into debt. I don't think most schools expect families to go into debt to pay tuition.

You’re missing your own privilege in this point. It’s YOUR CHOICE to - for example - live in a $800k home that has $300k equity. You *could* sell the house, buy a $500k one with a $100k down payment and use $200k of your equity to significantly fund private school tuition.

You don’t *deserve* financial aid because you choose to live in a more expensive home. When we pivoted from looking in HPISD to considering private schools + living in city of Dallas, we slashed our home budget by about $400k to be able to cash flow tuition.

Plenty of private school families sacrifice something - a bigger house, fancier vacations, extra cars, a lake house, etc - to be able to pay for tuition. Families who can’t cash flow tuition because they have a country club membership, bigger house, multiple annual vacations, kids playing expensive travel hockey / lacrosse…..don’t deserve financial aid solely based on your cash flow argument. Schools expect you to be good stewards of your cash flow.

[houstontodallas]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Schools expect you to be good stewards of your cash flow.

Which is why they need to look at the families full financial picture and not just the SSA estimate or even the summary. Its not as simple as "just take out a HELOC for tuition" or move your entire family to a cheaper house to afford it.

[Grlmomdallas]

Originally Posted by houstontodallas

I appreciate the concern but unfortunately my mom died and left money for the kids in a trust that can only be used for higher education (college or trade school).

If you don’t have to save for your kids college you definitely don’t need financial aid for private school.