An Investment with School Support: Making Private School Tuition Work for Your Family
Private school tuition can feel overwhelming.
Allow me to be more specific: the weight of independent school tuition can feel crushing. $60,000 for high school tuition. I remember when Stanford University first broke the $50,000 barrier for undergraduate tuition. Even as a front-line financial aid officer, I vividly recall our office leadership expressing concern about how this figure would affect accessibility to one of the best programs in the world. Now, as many independent schools in the East Bay approach that $60,000 mark for high school, I deeply appreciate the sticker shock families experience.
Certainly, this tuition figure is specific to my region. Living in California is expensive. The gas prices, insurance premiums, housing—it all adds up. The same cost-of-living pressures affecting families also impact the teachers who guide and mentor students, and the leaders who shepherd school communities. To attract and retain the best and brightest educators, schools charge tuition that allows them to stand out. Quality comes at a price.
Still, for many families, this amount isn't just significant: it's life-altering. It's an investment requiring research, partnership (perhaps with Journeys Educational Advising), and often additional financial support. In this post, I'll cover three essential topics to help orient you toward making private school affordable. Think of this as your trusty phrase book: schools, colleges, and media use many terms interchangeably, but to education professionals, these words have very specific meanings.
Financial Aid vs. Scholarships: What's the Difference?
One helpful way to understand financial aid is as a discount on the published tuition price. Schools and colleges allocate these discounts strategically to achieve specific institutional goals. For most independent schools and private colleges, financial aid ensures communities can attract and retain the most diverse student bodies possible. This diversity, of thought, perspective, and background, is crucial to creating vibrant learning environments.
Take many independent schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. They offer need-based financial aid: assistance awarded based on a family's total income, assets, and expenses. Your financial picture determines your eligibility and award amount.
Then there are schools, most notably parochial schools, that offer merit scholarships. Often simply called "scholarships," these awards recognize specific academic, artistic, athletic, or leadership achievements. Students earn these based on talent and accomplishment, not necessarily financial circumstances.
Here's where it gets confusing: you'll hear the word "scholarship" used for both types of aid. Yet how students and families receive these awards differs fundamentally. Understanding this distinction matters when researching schools.
To complicate matters further, some schools offer combinations of both. Boarding schools, for example, often blend need-based and merit-based aid to attract international students. What's crucial to understand: most K-12 independent schools fund these programs internally, without federal or state government assistance. (This is a major difference from colleges and universities, which often combine private and public funding sources.)
Some schools also offer sibling discounts for multiple children enrolled simultaneously, or flexible payment plans to manage tuition obligations. These options augment core financial aid programs.
Bottom line: As a parent, you must understand the financial aid lexicon. Don't hesitate to ask the admissions team to clarify what they mean when using terms like "scholarship" and "financial aid." These aren't dumb questions; they're essential ones.
How Financial Aid Works: Applications, Deadlines, and Systems
Both colleges and private schools typically have separate applications for financial aid. Here's my first piece of critical advice: NOTE THE APPLICATION DEADLINE.
Deadlines are part of adult life, yes. But few deadlines impact your bottom line as dramatically as financial aid deadlines, especially in college admissions. If you're applying for financial aid at independent schools, now is the time to develop the habit of meeting deadlines religiously. Consider it training wheels for college financial aid, where missing a deadline can cost you thousands of dollars. You're building crucial muscle memory.
Now that you've circled the deadline in red, research which financial aid application forms are required. In the college world, everyone knows the big one: the FAFSA (Federal Application for Federal Student Aid). Recently, the rollout of a redesigned FAFSA caused major delays as the federal government fumbled implementation of what was supposed to be an improved form. Families and colleges were left scrambling for months.
When applying to private colleges, check whether they also require additional forms like the CSS Profile or other institution-specific applications. If merit scholarships are available, separate applications often exist just for scholarship consideration.
Private schools, especially independent schools, don't have one universal application like FAFSA (remember, few receive federal or state funding). Instead, several private platforms contract with schools for families to use. The most popular are SSS (operated by VenturEd, the same organization behind the affordability calculator I referenced in my previous blog post) and Clarity.
If you're applying to multiple schools using the same system, your work condenses to one 30-minute session. If schools on your list use different systems, plan for extra time. And if one school only accepts their proprietary form? Budget even more time.
Documents You'll Need
Have these completed tax forms ready to make applications as painless as possible:
2024 Form 1040 (with all schedules and supporting forms)
2024 W-2 forms
Household budget breakdown
If you work in a cyclical industry—consulting, real estate, sales—keep your 2023 tax forms handy as backup documentation. Some schools may request your 2025 tax return by mid-February, which feels impossibly early for many families. Again, note the specific deadlines for each school on your list. Completing your 2025 federal taxes in February is a substantial ask, but with advance planning and communication, you can ensure schools understand your complete financial picture.
A Human Touch: Real People Review Your Application
Here's what many families forget: real people—financial aid experts with years of experience—review your family's application for assistance. They're not algorithms. They're not robots. They're humans who understand that financial circumstances are complicated.
Beyond reviewing numbers and figures, these professionals consider any statements you provide that contextualize your financial situation. You might feel compelled to plead your case or write an emotional appeal. My advice? Don't.
Financial aid reviewers are trained to evaluate applications fairly, without bias or judgment, to maintain equity across all applicants. Being transparent and straightforward yields smoother experiences for everyone. After all, financial aid is a process rooted in trust and partnership, not persuasion or performance.
In the spirit of efficiency, many financial aid platforms now pull tax transcripts directly from the IRS to verify entries. While I always advise families to enter figures correctly and carefully, I remember parents fretting that being off by $100 or $500 would disqualify them entirely. It won't.
Verification ensures all income sources are accounted for accurately. Small discrepancies? Most independent schools and some private colleges will follow up for clarification. Major omissions, however, risk casting doubt on your entire application. Honesty really is the best policy here.
Questions to Ask Schools About Financial Aid
Most private school communities maintain strict confidentiality about who receives financial aid. (Interestingly, some students view their aid status as part of their emerging identity and advocate more openly for increasing equity within their school communities.)
Still, if you're considering financial aid as part of your school search, you should feel comfortable researching and asking schools:
What percentage of students receive aid? Has this changed over recent years?
What is the average financial aid award? (Ask about both need-based and merit-based awards separately)
Are awards renewed automatically each year? If not, what's the renewal process?
How do tuition increases affect aid awards? Does aid scale proportionally?
As I mentioned in my previous post, you can request a brief 10-15 minute phone call with schools of interest to discuss these questions and understand how your family's specific situation might be evaluated.
Don't Fear the Exploration Process
Researching financial aid is far more common than you might realize. As an enrollment director, once virtual meetings became standard recruitment tools, I immediately converted financial aid information sessions to virtual webinar formats, protecting the identities of inquiring families. Attendance grew exponentially.
For families who still fear that exploring financial aid might hurt admission chances: please don't worry at this exploration stage. As a parent, you're investigating how, not if, you can invest in your child's education. (If you've read this far, I'm confident you're genuinely committed to making this possibility work.) The right-fit school for your child may be more within reach than you imagined.
There's No Single "Financial Aid Family" Profile
Two decades of conversations about financial aid with families considering colleges and private schools has taught me something crucial: there isn't a distinctive "financial aid family" stereotype.
Media coverage often distills financial aid stories to families needing 100% support, which exists but represents just one slice of a much more nuanced reality. Awards range dramatically: from a few thousand dollars to full tuition coverage, with infinite variations between.
If affordability is part of your investment calculation, you should explore financial aid at independent schools you're considering. Ultimately, the only definitive way to know whether your family qualifies is to apply. But asking the questions I've outlined here provides an excellent starting point.
Stay tuned for the final installment of my series on financial aid, where we'll explore what schools actually consider in their review process and debunk persistent myths about private school financial aid.
If you can't wait for the next post and would like to explore how Journeys Educational Advising can support your family's school search, including navigating the financial aid process with confidence, reach out to us. We'd love to be a trusted voice in your family's educational journey.
