?I got a lot of financial aid to go to Moorestown Friends School (New Jersey) back in the early 1980s. And that aid helped change the course of my life. Looking at today’s admission and financial aid environment, though, I wonder if I would have been given the same chance today, or if I would have been deemed too expensive to support — perhaps waitlisted or denied admission because I needed too much financial aid. A look at the data from the past five years suggests that this is the evolving reality for many students at many schools.
Wealthier Families More Likely to Receive Financial Aid
An analysis of about 35,000 financial aid awards made for each of the 2010-11 and 2015-16 school years for the forthcoming NAIS Trendbook shows that high-income families are applying for financial aid in greater numbers. Indeed, there are nearly five times more families in the top 20 percent of family incomes who received need-based aid in 2015-16 than there were families in the bottom 20 percent. And families in the bottom three quintiles combined (including the true “middle income” family) were less represented among financial aid awardees than they were just five years ago (dropping from 44 percent of all aid awards made in 2010-11 to 33 percent for 2015-16).
It’s not just the percentages that are shifting, but the actual numbers of recipients in the income quintiles. The same analysis described above has also revealed a 26.2 percent decrease in the number of families in the three lowest-income quintiles that received an award (and a 40 percent increase in the number of families awarded from the highest-earning quintile).
Crucial Questions for Families and Schools to Consider
It makes me wonder what’s happening to those highly qualified, low-income students who schools used to fund but increasingly find too costly to continue to support, especially long-term. Some key questions:
- Are schools less willing to invest the money required to give larger financial aid awards to the families with the greatest need?
- Are middle- and low-income families less likely to even begin the process, given the “sticker shock” reality and rise in alternatives such as charter schools, online schools, and home schooling?
- What would it take for our schools to reaffirm and reinvest in the value of the access imperative?
- What would it take for more low- and middle-income families to believe that the independent school option is a viable one for them, despite the cost?
What accounts for giving less to families with the greatest need? It begins with schools’ tuitions and locations. Because of the price points many independent schools charge and the communities in which many are located, admissions and financial aid directors often define middle income as being in the $120,000-$180,000 range (in places like New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, the “middle” more likely is perceived to fall between $180,000-$250,000). As the U.S. Census and NAIS Demographics Center data show, these ranges actually put families in the top 20 percent of income earners nationally (and locally as well, typically). Meanwhile, the statistical middle-income family earns in the $50,000-$80,000 range, according to 2013 U.S. Census data on family incomes.
The recession accelerated the trend of higher-income families applying for aid, and it influenced how schools used financial aid as well. As more families in the upper-income brackets apply for financial aid, schools are more likely to provide financial aid awards to them and less likely to provide aid to families in the lower income brackets. It’s difficult to argue with the school’s fiscal advantages of offering more aid to more people who need less of it (i.e., it’s financially more prudent to spend $20,000 of aid on five $4,000 awards than on one student who needs $20,000). However, it is likewise difficult to argue with the imperatives that undergird the virtues of investing to create an economically diverse campus, finding the most mission-appropriate students, and providing access to quality academic options to those who need the opportunity the most. What may be thought of as a trend to help more middle-class families (who may technically be high-income families) is actually increasingly creating a palpable low-income squeeze at the same time.
A Small Prestigious Liberal Arts College Bucks the Trend
A recent PBS NewsHour spotlight on Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, profiles how and why the school leadership boldly decided to buck a similar trend happening in higher education (and at F&M itself). They changed their approach to using aid and discounts. First, they committed to stop providing scholarships or other tuition discounts to families who didn’t demonstrate financial need, no matter how competitive they wanted to be to enroll specific types of students. The leadership recognized that too many excellent but “too-needy” students were being turned away because of a lack of funding. At the same time, precious dollars were being offered to families who were able to pay the tuition easily — in the school’s effort to lure a wealthy “star” from a competitor school. Independent schools are increasingly using this approach as well. If it’s true that what happens at the college level usually trickles down into independent schools in about 10 years’ time, here’s hoping that our schools follow the F&M example sooner rather than later.
Independent Schools Must Recommit to Key Public Purpose
What can schools do to fulfill this mission?
- It’s up to admissions and financial aid directors to reaffirm the virtues of finding the best, most mission-appropriate students, at whatever level the family can afford to pay, for building the student body that meets the mission-driven needs of the school community.
- It’s vital for admissions and financial aid directors to share stories of the unfunded students who get “left behind” and the impact on the school culture and mission.
- It’s up to school heads and trustees to guarantee that those directors’ voices and perspectives are at the table when tuition-setting and budget-making conversations are taking place so they understand how price and affordability affect the ability to enroll the best and brightest, not just the wealthiest.
- It’s up to development directors, donors, and friends of school communities to engage fund-raising and other initiatives that help support these virtues.
- Ultimately, it’s up to everyone mentioned above to stand up for one of the key public purposes of private schools — to help those who most desperately need the best opportunity to fulfill their promise and advance along the economic scale. Just like I was able to do.
Mark Mitchell is vice president of School & Student Services at NAIS.