I’m a current 7th grader who hopes to go private school for high school (specifically the Lawrenceville School) in the 2018-2019 year. My parent’s income is roughly 180k, so I highly doubt I’ll get a need/income based scholarship. There is a possibility that I could get some financial aid if I apply for it as majority of the kids attending Lawrenceville are upper middle/upper class, but there is more competition for day students (me) who need financial aid so that would decrease my chances of admission (and L’ville is hella competive, so I need all the help I can get). I realize that merit scholarships would be the way to go, but I’m struggling find some. I am excellent at writing essays and I have consistently scored higher than the 90th percentile on standardized state testing since the third grade. I scored in the 96th percentile for English and Mathematics, 93rd percentile for Reading and Writing, and 99th percentile for science on the ACT ASPIRE test this year. I understand that the statistics I have provided you with will not actually do me any good, I gave them so you could grasp a better understanding of my academic caliber. I really do hope that private school will be a better match for me. Thanks for your help!
Those are excellent test scores – congratulations on your achievements so far! Most private schools are members of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), which to my knowledge forbids schools from offering merit scholarships. I think you will be out of luck there, and your parents will just have to pay for you to attend one.
I realize your need to find academic challenge. Let me describe how my daughter found academic challenge in a public school versus a private school. She had scores like yours and was accepted to all the top private high schools in Atlanta, but the tuition was going to be very expensive. We started analyzing what the private schools offered in the way of curriculum versus the public schools. Here is what we found: the private schools typically limited students to six AP courses throughout high school, including only one AP science course. My daughter, who loves science, was horrified to discover this. She wound up attending a public magnet science high school. She took 15 AP courses, including every science and math AP course. In total, she had 8 science courses and 4 math courses in high school, plus tons of related clubs and competitions and other activities. She won international and national awards, and got lots of scholarship offers and an Ivy admission when she applied to universities (she accepted the scholarships, because money remained an issue). If she had attended one of the very expensive private high schools, she would have been so limited in her achievements and education by comparison.
Keep an open mind as to which high school can offer you the right caliber of academic challenge. Take a close look at the curriculum at each high school, and look at options among your public schools in addition to private.
Look into the Caroline Bradley scholarship.
Doubtful you will get any FA with your parents income. If you apply to Lville asking for FA it will probably decrease your chances. Andover is a school you can apply to that is need blind for FA.
Peddie offers merit scholarships. I’m not sure if they are just for boarders though. They have info on their website.
Are you male or female? If male, here is one boarding school that offers merit scholarships: https://www.mccallie.org/page/admission/affording-mccallie/honors-scholarship
Some schools are much less expensive as a day student. Do you live close enough to any to consider that option?
I wouldn’t rule out FA solely based on income. Assets and liabilities matter as much, if not even more, than income. You or your parents need to run a FA calculator to estimate your potential family contribution: https://sssbynais.org/parents. It’s free and you could do it anytime, without having to apply. Applying for FA will put you in a more competitive bracket, so you should use it only if your family truly cannot afford to pay full price.
Having used the FA calculator myself, I can tell you that it is very unlikely you will get much financial aid, unless there are other aspects of your parent’s financial situation you haven’t disclosed. Also Andover is not need blind for FA, it is need blind for admissions; they don’t look at whether you need FA when determining whether to admit you, but they do most certainly look at whether you need FA before they give you any.
There are, unfortunately, very few merit scholarships for private school. I know that Peddie has a couple. Maybe some other schools do as well.
Not sure about L’ville specifically, but a gross household income of 180K could qualify you for need based FA in a number of schools I believe. It partly depends on you family size especially if there’s one or more siblings going to tuition charging schools, geographic locations, and the savings/debt level of the family etc. I know at least in Andover and SPS you could qualify.
^ Yes. We got significant FA at all six schools where my DD was admitted, including L’ville. Household income not too far from OP.
If you look on page 27 of the SPS view book, you will see breakdown of FA by income: http://uploads.myschoolcdn.com/36/uploads/2016/Viewbook_2016-17/files/mobile/index.html#26