mauiluver

I'm sure some here must have gone through this experience. We have a child starting boarding school next month. Our oldest will be applying for colleges for September '13. How does the college look at the boarding school in relation to FA that it gives out and vice versa? How will the boarding school look at the expense of college for an older sibling? Right now the college would be full pay, but I'm hoping they take the BS into account (but I'm sort of doubtful of that).

Any help would be appreciated!

dodgersmom

Don't have any clue how a boarding school would view college expenses, but for the college FA office, any expenses for boarding school (or any private elementary or secondary school) would be considered a discretionary expense. If the college were to provide funding for a student whose sibling is in prep school, the college would essentially be funding the sibling. Not gonna fly.

mauiluver

That's what we figured, thanks for the confirmation....

baystateresident

However, when you fill out the CSS Profile for college financial aid, they do ask, in depth, about younger childrens' school expenses, how much financial aid they have for prep school, how much you actually pay...they must do something with that information, otherwise why would they ask?

Klements

Colleges are keen to tell you your expenses for private education were a "choice" (i.e., discretionary). This was our experience when applying for FA to colleges for our son while we had his younger siblings still in BS; likewise, colleges take the same view if a parent is returning to grad school (e.g., for a late in life Ph.D.). As Baystate notes, colleges do nonetheless ask for lots of details about the younger ones' school expenses.

mayhew

Yes, I am sure that colleges do see it as your choice to pay for a private secondary school - I agree with dodgersmom, in that why would the college essentially help fund the sibling? However, I have heard that the boarding school is likely take into account that you are paying college tuition for the older sibling.

NewEnglandMother

In my experience it completely depends on the college in question. D1 graduated from BS and when she applied to college her younger sister was at BS. Most colleges that D1 applied to did consider the D2's tuition at BS. These were all meet full need colleges. They did limit how much they considered the tuition and it seemed there was an allowance of about $9-10k for younger siblings tuition. This may be dependent upon your income however.

D1's BS did not consider D2's BS tuition. D2's BS did consider both D1's BS tuition and college tuition. It depends on the schools' policy.

One way to figure it out without asking FA directly is to run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) for the college in question and input the younger siblings tuition, and then run it without younger siblings tuition and see if there is a difference in FA. Williams College used to have a very transparent calculator that explained the amount allowed for younger sibling private high school tuition.

baystateresident

NewEnglandMother- I think you're right, and it varies by college or university. Both of mine are at "meets full need" schools and our EFC was a couple of thousand dollars more at one of them. I think (but can't remember exactly) that some of the more detailed questions about the younger child's prep school expenses were on a supplement to the CSS Profile, specific to one of the colleges.

lookingforward

My take is they ask about pre-college schooling expenses to get a read on just how you spend what you do have. The only official comment I ever saw (how official? don't remember) was that the costs "may be" considered if there is a medical or other condition that makes the private school or bs necessary for the sibling.

mauiluver

I just wanted to thank everyone that answered. We'll just see what happens, I'm not counting on anything at the moment... I just wanted a general consensus and it sounds like it's just really school dependent.

ExieMITAlum

It all comes down to the FAFSA form:

The PFS for boarding school does look at tuition paid for siblings in college. The FAFSA for college does not. So while the FAFSA calculated about the same parent contribution for us as PFS, it assumed 100% was available for the college child where as my experience with PFS is that they split our contributions between both children.

So the answer is likely - most colleges don't account for private school tuition in their calculations.

baystateresident

In my experience with my children and their friends, very few prep school students apply to FAFSA only schools. Most of them apply to private colleges and universities which also require the CSS Profile (a form that is somewhat similar to the PFS but has much more detailed supplements for each specific school.) From what I hear, SOME Profile (private) colleges take the younger student's tuition expenses into account. It would be interesting to make a list of which ones do and which ones don't.

wcmom1958

I appreciate experienced parents weighing in here. Baystate...( and anyone else familiar with all this) if a private college offers aid that does not acknowledge younger sib's tuition, are they willing to negotiate or are packages pretty firm?

Also, it seems as if prep schools trend towards ED or EA applications, yet this would seem counter productive if you are trying to maximize aid. Has anyone here successfully negotiated enough aid ED/EA?

Thanks in advance for thoughts...

dodgersmom

This is a question that would be better asked in the college financial aid forum. You should pose it there.

But I can tell you what they'll say: if you need financial aid, don't apply ED! What have you got to "negotiate" with? You get a take it or leave it offer . . . and if you leave it, your child has just lost the chance to attend his or her dream school!

Not only do you have no leverage, you've also got no other offers to compare this one to. To take one example: let's say your student applies only to schools that meet 100% of need. Sounds simple, right? Except that each school has its own methodology for calculating your family's financial need. So the offers your student ends up with could be all over the map! The offer from the ED dream school could be the best . . . or it could be the worst. But you'll never know unless you turn it down and wait for the RD offers.

Early Action (EA) is not the same thing because it does not require an early commitment. The offer comes early - but your student's decision isn't required until May 1.

Run the net price calculators for the schools your student is most interested in. Call the school financial aid office and ask questions. And if there's a highly competitive dream school that guarantees to meet 100% of need and that really looks like it will come through for you financially, then you might want to take the risk . . . maybe.

If the schools your student is considering, however, are schools that meet less than 100% of need, then that gamble probably isn't worth it. The offers your student ends up with could range from 0% of need to 100% of need (depending on how much they want your kid) - and there's no way you'd be able to predict that in advance.

Princess'Dad

Having two girls in college and one in boarding school, they don't consider it at all (in fact one college said it make you LESS favorable as compared to similar kid). Unless there is a bald reason such as living overseas