son is getting "express" applications...

nan
Tue, 19 Sep 2006 06:10:33 +0000

Rellielou, I can understand your feeling of being overwhelmed by all this. My daughter was homeschooled, and fulfilling the roles of parent, gc, and registrar during the application process was a heavy load.

You said

I don’t think we qualify as low income per se, but we do have one income and a large family. We own our home (or should I say we pay a mortgage) and have three vehicles.

I think you might be surprised to find how much aid you child qualifies for. With four children, it may not be a question of how many cars you have, but rather what kind of cars you drive. They may ask the purchase price of your home as well as its current value. The financial aid forms are extremely thorough, and the private school forms are even more so. Just don’t rule out expensive schools across the board, until you find out a little more.

Much depends on which schools your son applies to. You’ll want to look for schools that offer need based aid, that promise to meet 100% of need. Then look at each school’s average student debt load upon graduation, and their average financial aid awards. Use EFC calculators (use the right method for private schools).

It will take some work to figure out where you fit in the scale, but you can get a pretty good idea, and you might be pleasantly surprised.