So many questions…
- Do boarding schools take cost of living into consideration? (Our income looks decent on paper, but it doesn’t go far in our very expensive city).
Based on our experience - Yes.
- Do FA packages include any $ for travel to and from school? Depends on the level of aid. They usually include stipend for computers, tablets, books, music lessons, study abroad etc..
- Are you expected to 'raid' savings accounts earmarked for other purposes (retirement, 529s, etc)? Retirement accounts did not seem to factor into aid calculations and were never mentioned by the school.
- Do they take parental age into account? (Parents in their 40s have more time to save for retirement than parents well into their 50s, no?) I don’t think this has any bearing.
- What else should we be asking that we haven't even thought of yet? Make sure to calculate total cost of attendance: travel, books, lessons, travel abroad opportunities, laundry service, yearbooks, spending money etc...
- Which schools WL strong candidates for whom they have no FA? Which ones Choate in our experience- this was referenced in our wait list letter years ago for DS1.