Thu, May 8, 2025

Affording Private Education and How to Receive the Most from Your Investment

Your Child’s Future is Priceless…But Knowing The Price Helps!

By Jacqueline Aleandre – Director of Admissions & Financial Aid for Notre Dame School of Manhattan

Scenario – Your child comes home and says, “Mom! Dad! I absolutely LOVE this school! I want to apply here! Can we go and visit, please?!” You look at the school brochure, you see photos of smiling students, the curriculum, all the clubs and sports programs…and then you see the annual tuition. Did you lose your breath for a minute? I am here to tell you – you are not alone! As the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Notre Dame School of Manhattan, a common refrain I hear is, “My daughter loves your school…but how am I going to afford it?” Affording private education can feel overwhelming, but there are steps you can take to make the process easier so that you feel more prepared to make this important decision for your child’s future. This article will describe different tuition assistance options and strategies for determining how to make a sound financial decision when selecting a school.

The ways to receive tuition assistance at a private school are pretty straightforward – they are typically broken down into academic awards or need-based financial aid. The worst part of applying for tuition assistance is not understanding the types of aid available, but rather keeping track of the timelines and criteria associated with aid at each individual school. (It would simplify everyone’s life if there was a universal timeline for tuition assistance…but alas, that is not the case). 

I have designed a Tuition Assistance Tracker Google sheet that can help you organize this information as you go through your school search. It is very basic, but my recommendation is that you utilize this sheet, or something similar, so that you can clearly track what is required for each school as well as when required materials are due. 

• When opening the tracker, you will see it is View Only.
  • Go to File > Make a Copy, and then you will be able to make edits!
• I have included Notre Dame School in the sheet as a reference for how to list information; please feel free to cater the sheet to your child’s intended schools.

The Basics – Types of Aid

To simplify, we will look at tuition assistance in two different categories: scholarships and financial aid.

Scholarships

Also referred to as merit awards, scholarships are typically offered based on the applicant’s academic achievement. Academic achievement is most commonly measured by an applicant’s entrance exam scores as well as their report cards. If applying to high school, the school will usually review the applicant’s middle school transcript. Every school is going to have their own criteria to determine who qualifies for scholarship, and the awards offered to your child will differ accordingly. Even if your child is a strong student across the board, you could possibly see some significant fluctuations in scholarships offered depending on how each individual school evaluates for merit scholarships. 

Things to consider when researching scholarships:

• Does the school require applicants to take a separate scholarship exam? Sometimes, schools will have one exam for admissions and another for scholarship consideration. This information will be listed on the school’s admissions and/or tuition assistance website. 
• Does the school require applicants to complete a scholarship application? Certain schools and certain scholarships will require their own application process, and may include a personal statement, an interview, and/or a recommendation letter. 
• Are there deadlines for scholarship consideration? You absolutely must be mindful of when scholarship consideration begins and ends at each individual school. Again, every school is different, so please take notes!

Financial Aid

The second type of tuition assistance is financial aid, which are need-based grants. For those of you more acquainted with financial aid from a higher education standpoint, let me reassure you that this financial aid is not a loan – if you are awarded financial aid directly from a private school, this is grant money that you do not need to pay back!

In order to qualify for financial aid at a private school, the family needs to submit an application separate from the admissions application. This application is almost always submitted to a third-party financial assessment company, meaning your personal financial information is reviewed by an outside company, not by the school itself. Schools use a third-party company to do the “deep dive” into your financial situation, and then the company alerts the school’s financial aid committee of that family’s estimated financial need for the upcoming school year. The school will then use this information to determine an appropriate financial aid offer for the applicant’s family. 

The financial aid assessment process will include the application, which you complete on behalf of your household using information found on your tax return. Then, you will be asked to submit specific financial documents (such as W-2, paystubs, etc.) to verify the information you included on your application. Your application is not complete until you submit the supporting documents.

Things to consider when researching financial aid:

• What financial aid assessment company does the school use? There are quite a few assessment companies, and depending on what schools your child applies to, you could find yourself filing for financial aid a few different times…
  • Some commonly used financial aid platforms are Clarity Financial Aid, School and Student Services (SSS), FACTS Grant & Aid Assessment, and TADS.
    • If two or more schools use the same platform, then you can submit one financial aid application for those schools. For example, if Notre Dame School and one other high school both use FACTS Grant & Aid Assessment, then you can submit one application through FACTS for both schools.
      • There is a step within the initial application process where you can select the schools to which you would like to apply. Be sure to select all schools that use that particular platform. The school cannot view your financial aid assessment unless you explicitly list them on the application!
    • If your schools use different platforms, then you will need to submit to each platform separately. This can be tedious, as many of the financial aid applications ask similar questions. Think of it as practice for college 🙂
• What is the school’s deadline for financial aid applications? I cannot stress this enough – please, please, please find out when your intended schools ask their applicants to file for financial aid. These application windows can vary greatly from school to school. More often than not, your schools will ask you to file for financial aid while you are applying for admissions.
  • While this might seem like a lot of work before you even get in the door, there is a method to our madness. Here at Notre Dame, we ask our prospective families to apply for financial aid in October/November…so that when you receive your acceptance letter in January, you will also receive a letter noting any tuition assistance your child qualifies for. It is all done with the intention of allowing you and your family to have all the necessary information when choosing your next school. 

Additional Considerations

• Outside Scholarships – There are many nonprofit organizations that offer scholarship opportunities for students looking to attend private K-12 schools. Finding these opportunities may take some research on your part; websites like ScholarsApp provide a database for families to search for different scholarships that their child may qualify for. These opportunities usually ask the student to submit an application, report cards, a short essay, and sometimes supplemental materials specific to a particular interest area, such as the arts or STEM. 

Compare Tuition Assistance Packages

Fast forward – you have done the work of applying to schools, you applied for financial aid, applied for scholarships, and now your child has been accepted and you have received tuition assistance offers from their intended schools…what are you actually expected to pay come September?

It’s time to do some math! This is where your Tuition Assistance Tracker will come in handy – the section at the bottom will help you calculate your total aid package from each school.

• The sections in blue and green are autogenerated depending on the data you enter; do not enter anything in the blue and green sections!
• You will need to enter the basics for each school:
  • Tuition – flat rate cost to attend the school
    • If possible, try to enter the tuition for the year in which your child will attend, as private school tuition does tend to increase slightly each year.
  • Fees – annual fees associated with attending.
    • Note – Fees are usually not covered by tuition assistance.
  • Room & Board – relevant for boarding school applicants.
  • Tuition Insurance – Schools may suggest, or at times require, you to purchase tuition insurance, which is intended to protect you should your child need to unexpectedly withdraw from school. It is worth inquiring with your intended schools if this is a required cost for attendance. 
  • Total Cost will be calculated based on the data in these fields.
• Then, enter the tuition assistance your child is being offered from each school
  • Scholarship
  • Financial Aid
  • Additional Aid – either from an outside scholarship or any aid you are receiving privately to cover tuition costs.
  • Total Aid will be calculated based on the data in these fields.
• Actual Cost to Attend will be calculated by subtracting Total Aid from Total Cost.

There are a few reasons why comparing your tuition assistance packages is important. Of course, you need to know how much you are expected to pay so that you can effectively plan ahead. However, using a tracker can help illustrate what is included in the cost of attendance and ultimately what you will need to pay for moving forward. Also, every school has a different flat rate tuition, so it’s important to see not just the actual dollar amount worth of tuition assistance, but what percentage of total cost the assistance will cover. That is what the Percentage Covered section will calculate for you, so that you can easily make the comparison.

Consider ROI

We have spent a considerable amount of time talking about “the numbers,” which is absolutely valuable; at the end of the day, your family is paying for your child’s education, and both you  and your child deserve to get the absolute most for your money. However, this is a good place to shift away from the transactional benefits of tuition assistance and begin looking at the transformational benefits of a private school education. After you have calculated the total cost to attend a particular school, the next thing you should consider is your Return on Investment (ROI) – what is your child going to receive from your investment in this school? This is where you ask the intended school about outcomes:

• How will your school help my child develop (academically, socially, spiritually) over the next four years?
• How will your coursework enrich my child’s life? How will your teachers and counselors help facilitate my child’s growth so that they can become confident, responsible, empathic, and self-advocating?
• What leadership opportunities will my child have access to?
• Who are your graduates? What characteristics do they share? What colleges do they attend and what majors do they pursue? What career fields do they enter? How active are your alumni in your school community?
• When you visit the school for an open house or a building tour, ask if you can speak to an upperclassman. Ask them questions about why they chose this school, what their classes are like, what extracurriculars they enjoy, and anything else that is important to you and your child. This upperclassman is the “finished product” – they represent who your child will become by the time they graduate from this school. Make sure it is someone you want your child to be!

After you collect your data on outcomes, you can make a more educated decision on which school is the best fit for your child. You may even determine that paying more out of pocket is worth it for a greater return. At the end of the day, return on investment is a qualitative factor that you will have to “calculate” on your own; it is up to you and your child to determine where your ROI will be most evident. 

Summary

To summarize, I encourage you to keep these things in mind when exploring how to afford private schools:

• Do your research – use a Tuition Assistance Tracker or something similar to collect and organize all the relevant information for applying for tuition assistance, mainly the criteria and deadlines for both scholarships and financial aid.
• Compare your offers – calculate what the actual cost to attend each school will be after you factor in scholarships/financial aid offered, additional costs such as fees and insurance. Again, the tracker will help you do this effectively.
• Transactional vs Transformational – after you see “the numbers,” collect information on outcomes and consider which school will offer your child the greatest return on investment.

From those of us who work in private education – we understand the great honor and responsibility we have in offering your child every opportunity to become the absolute best version of themselves by the time they graduate from our school. The goal for both you and your intended school should be to provide your child with a transformative school experience that your family feels was worth the investment of your time and resources. Let’s go through this journey together, so that your child continues to thrive!

Jacqueline Aleandre is the Director of Admissions & Financial Aid for Notre Dame School of Manhattan, a private, Catholic, college preparatory high school for young women.