<p>Something perplexed me about the cited figures for St. Paul’s. It may be counter-intuitive, but it is not a good thing if the average aid recipient is receiving too high a pecentage of costs. It would mean that there are almost no middle to upper middle-class students in the class. For example, if awards average 94% of cost as stated, a student receiving a $12K partial scholarship would be offset by 10 or so full-ride students. Adding in the more than 60% of the student body that is full pay would yield a compus that is almost binary - either full-pay or full-ride with very little in between.</p>
<p>However, SPS recently posted up-to-date figures for 09-10 ([St</a>. Paul’s School ~ Facts and Figures](<a href=“http://www.sps.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=113624]St”>http://www.sps.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=113624)). The average award of $37,428 represents 87% of the $42,900 boarding tuition and 81% of the $46,295 full cost of attendance. </p>
<p>For comparison, the latest stats on the Andover website indicate the average grant to a boarding student in 09-10 is $35,200, which is 88% of tuition ($39.9K) and 84% of estimated total cost ($41.9K). </p>
<p>Make of this what you will, but the data seems to indicate that although SPS has a slightly lower level of overall socioeconomic diversity (36% on aid versus 44% at PA), within their respective FA pools both schools actually have a similar distribution of funds between students of differing economic resources.</p>