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I noticed there seems to be a growing number of families sending their kids to boarding school, where fees can reach up to $45K-50K/year. These students by and large do not come from wealthy families, but rather middle class/suburban households that sometimes even pay local public school taxes. While financial aid is sometimes possible for well-endowed schools (ex. Andover), enrollment in less endowed schools is also increasing. Does anyone have first hand knowledge on how these families can afford boarding school apart from taking in an enormous amount of debt?
Scholarships, benefactors, trusts, need-based or merit-based aid from endowments, alternate funding sources, parents simply choosing to commit a large portion of their income of savings toward schooling, or choosing to (and having the ability to) take on a large amount of debt...any number of possible factors, really.
These students by and large do not come from wealthy families, but rather middle class/suburban households
I don't know of any middle class families sending their kids to private school. They're all people who are in the top 10% income bracket. Where we live, nearly all the private (day) schools--excluding parochial schools--cost above $30,000 per year in tuition, fees and books.
Some of the prep schools around here (going rate $30,000/year) offer generous financial aide and scholarships. Where you need to be careful (catholic schools do this too) is if the kid decides to transfer to another school or just go back his local school. I've seen plenty of schools all of a sudden revoke the aide and scholarships, demand payment and not transfer academic records until payment is in full. This becomes a problem when the kid is ready to graduate high school and can't.
Most middle-class kids get through with big scholarships (from the school or and outside source), family help (beside the parents), and sometimes loans. The thing that surprises me is that there are still so many kids whose parents can foot the entire bill with no aid at all. Look at the share of kids getting scholarships from many boarding schools and typically 60% of the students are full pay.
A sister of my former coworker attended Hotchkiss (my ex-coworker went to a local private school). They are from Bergen County in NJ. One time the NY Times featured a story about a woman in City Island (middle class area in the Bronx) whose daughter was attending Peddie. Less famous schools like Oakwood, Westtown, Stony Brook & Knox do not have very large endowments and are likely not prestigious enough to attract the truly wealthy. Yet their enrollments continue to rise.
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